The newly elected member of the Northern Provincial council, Ananthy Sasitharan, in an interview with Journalists for Democracy, outlined attacks on families of the disappeared when they attempted to stage demonstrations in front of the David Cameron.
Describing the attacks Ms. Sasitharan, who received the second highest number of votes in the Northern Provincial elections, said,
“When we tried to wave flags and chant slogans, the anti-riots squad police personnel unleashed waves of brutal attack on us. They beat us with batons and kicked us with boots on. Even the Catholic priests and wailing elderly mothers of the disappeared were badly assaulted as the VIPs were going past as mere onlookers.”
Ms. Sasitharan also received personnel threats, stating,
“The most senior police officer at the scene publicly warned me that he would ‘deal’ with me on a later occasion. If this can happen to innocent people in the presence of world leaders, it Is high time for the world to realise the suffering we are going through daily in the hands of the authoritarian government.”
Expressing disappointment at Cameron’s failure to meet the demonstrators, she stressed,
“Now that the Prime Minister Cameron has come to Sri Lanka and to Jaffna, we wanted him to witness the real ground situation. An election may have been held, new roads may have been laid or new building may have been erected here, but normalcy has not returned to this part of the country even four years after the war. We want him to know just that.”
“We are living here like walking corpses preparing to die at any time, but we want to secure a safe and healthy future at least for our future generations.