In the final stages of the conflict, thousands of young Tamils who had surrendered to the government were forcibly taken away and are still missing – after 13 years, their whereabouts are still unknown. On the occasion of the International Day of Missing Persons, the demonstrations demand that the government put in place a credible investigation mechanism.
Colombo () – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Tamil families in northeastern Sri Lanka are fighting for the creation of a mechanism to provide answers about the fate of people who disappeared during the civil war, which began in 1983. and ended in 2009. In these 13 years, there are already 138 parents who have died without knowing what became of their children.
Thousands of young people disappeared during the last phases of the conflict between the Tamil population of the northeast of the country and the government of Sri Lanka, dominated by the Sinhalese ethnic group. According to Amnesty International, Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of disappearances in the world, with the number of unresolved complaints ranging between 60,000 and 100,000.
For years, Tamil women have been the main protagonists in the struggle to find out the whereabouts of young Tamils who surrendered at the end of the war (when former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was Defense Minister).
“The suffering of so many people who do not know what happened to their loved ones remains one of the least visible humanitarian problems,” the Red Cross said on the occasion of the International Day of Missing Persons, which is observed on August 30. The authorities, communities and society in general must recognize the plight of these families, support their needs and stand by them to remember their missing loved ones, the ICRC added.
Sandya Eknaligoda, a well-known human rights activist whose husband disappeared, commented that international organizations are losing faith in the mechanism that is supposed to investigate missing persons: “Although the Office of Disappeared Persons was created during the Yahapalana government, its Credibility vanished when President Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power and appointed his associates to head the Office,” Eknaligoda said. “I ask President Wickremesinghe to accept this challenge and establish a credible mechanism to investigate and bring justice to families affected by enforced disappearances, especially those in the Northeast. Women cannot forever carry a photograph of their missing husband or son, in search of justice.”
In recent days, Tamil families have organized protest demonstrations with the support of local businessmen, who have stopped their activities as a sign of solidarity.
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