Tamil families of the disappeared held a rally today in Gandhi Park, Batticaloa, as they continue to search for answers and justice for their forcibly disappeared loved ones.
Tamil mothers and fathers clutched photographs of their children who were forcibly disappeared by Sri Lanka’s security forces or government-aligned paramilitary forces.
Despite protesting since 2017, Tamil families still do not have any answers about the fate of their loved ones. While the current Sri Lankan regime has announced that they will establish a new commission to investigate the disappearances, the president and other senior officials have failed to engage with the families.
In a statement, Batticaloa’s Association of Disappeared Persons said:
“We are fighting with the aim of getting justice for them and preventing such incidents of torture and disappearance from happening again in our society. We have been trying to get justice through internal mechanisms for many years, but we have been continuously cheated by the Sri Lankan government and threatened by the Sri Lankan army, police, and paramilitary forces.”
The association added that last week, Sri Lankan police officers went to their secretary, Suganthy’s house and interrogated her for 30 minutes.
The statement goes on to stress that Sri Lanka’s domestic mechanisms have been established to deceive the international community and if the international community put their faith in these mechanisms, then justice will be further delayed. Therefore, they have called for the international community to establish an international mechanism that will investigate the disappearances of their loved ones.
Since the roadside protests began in 2017, many parents have passed away without getting any justice for their relatives.
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