A cross party group of British parliamentarians have written to the UK Foreign Secretary, after Sri Lanka’s president claimed that the thousands of forcibly disappeared Tamils “are actually dead”.
“We note that many of the disappeared were reportedly seen surrendering to the Sri Lankan militry forces,” said the letter from the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPGT) Paul Scully. “Alternatively they were taken from the camps in which all survivors were held by men identified by eye-witnesses as being affiliated with the government. Thus many of the individual’s families are still searching for the “disappeared” in government custody”.
Scully went on to state that the British Foreign Secretary should “seek clarification” from Colombo on “how many individuals that were missing are dead” and “why the Sri Lankan state has withheld this information until now”.
See the full text of the letter here.
Sri Lanka’s president made the claim whilst meeting with the United Nations in Colombo, sparking angry backlash from Tamil families of the disappeared who have spent years searching for their loved ones.
The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) has called on the United Nations to respond to claims made by Sri Lanka’s president.
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