The Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances (ARED) marked 3,000 continuous days of protest in Vavuniya today, demanding justice and accountability for their forcibly disappeared loved ones.
The protest, first launched in 2017, has remained steadfast despite repeated neglect by the Sri Lankan state and continued failures by international actors to deliver meaningful accountability. Gathering near the Vavuniya Post Office the families demonstrated once more this week.
Now entering its 3,000th day, the campaign stands as one of the longest-running continuous protests on the island, underscoring the scale of enforced disappearances and the resilience of those still seeking justice.
Demonstrators carried flags of several European and American nations, appealing directly to the international community to take up their cause and to deliver justice through international legal mechanisms.
Their core demands have remained consistent throughout the years: they seek to know the fate of their disappeared family members, the truth behind their detention or abduction, and the prosecution of those responsible for these crimes.
Despite persistent suppression and surveillance, these families have refused to be silenced.
The majority of those who disappeared were Tamil civilians, often last seen in the custody of the Sri Lankan military or security forces. Thousands surrendered during the final months of the 2009 genocide, with government assurances of safety, only to be disappeared. To this day, successive Sri Lankan administrations have failed to disclose the fate of the disappeared or to prosecute those credibly accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Previous domestic mechanisms, including the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), have been widely condemned by families and rights groups as ineffective and lacking credibility. Protesters have repeatedly rejected these institutions, insisting that only international oversight can guarantee an impartial investigation and meaningful justice.
