Anger in Jaffna as Tamil mothers burn UN resolution

The final day of a relay hunger strike organised by the Association of Relatives of the Forcibly Disappeared in the North and East was held in Jaffna today, with campaigners demanding international justice for enforced disappearances and mass atrocities committed against Tamils.

At 1 p.m., participants lit torches and held a vigil, coinciding with International Children’s Day, where they also called for justice for Tamil children who were victims of genocide.

The protest, which began in Chemmani on 25 September and continued across the North-East, brought together relatives of the disappeared from five districts, alongside activists and members of the public. It opened with the lighting of lamps and floral tributes before campaigners reiterated their rejection of domestic mechanisms and insisted on an independent international investigation.

A letter addressed to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva was read aloud, demanding accountability for enforced disappearances, war crimes and genocide. The families highlighted the Chemmani mass graves, where hundreds of bodies have been unearthed, and urged the establishment of a special international commission of inquiry.

“More than 350 members of our association have already died in anguish while struggling for justice for their disappeared loved ones, without ever receiving answers,” the letter stated. It rejected Sri Lanka’s Office on Missing Persons and other domestic mechanisms, placing trust only in independent international structures.

The letter also urged that Sri Lankan be referred to the International Court of Justice for its genocide of the Tamil people, or failing that, that a special tribunal on Sri Lanka be established. It demanded an immediate halt to what families described as “sham investigations” into mass graves, and set out further calls, including the release of Tamil political prisoners, the withdrawal of the military from the Tamil homeland, the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and an end to land grabs, colonisation and intimidation of human rights defenders.

The families’ demands were underscored today as members of the association burnt a copy of the UN draft resolution in Jaffna. The draft is expected to be put to a vote at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week. It supports domestic mechanisms in Sri Lanka, a stance that the mothers of the disappeared have completely rejected. Instead, they have reiterated their demand for real international investigations and justice.

For 3,146 consecutive days, relatives of the disappeared have protested in the streets across the North-East demanding to know the fate of their loved ones.

The association stressed that true peace in the island requires international action to end what it described as an “ongoing, structured genocide”, recognition of the Tamil people as a nation, and their right to self-determination, including through a referendum on their political future.