Tamil families of the disappeared held a protest in Jaffna yesterday calling on the Sri Lankan government to reveal the whereabouts of their loved ones who were forcibly disappeared during and at the end of the armed conflict.
Protesting outside the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Jaffna, participants chanted slogans rejecting recent government attempts to offer financial compensation in return for them giving up their protests.
“We don’t need death certificates, we don’t need compensation, we don’t need the Office of Missing Persons (OMP), give us international justice,” said the protesters.
Police and intelligence officers were seen to be deployed at the spot of the protests for surveillance.
This is the latest protest by Tamil families of the disappeared who have been campaigning for over a decade and protesting continuously since February 2017 across the North-East, demanding to know the fate of their loved ones.
The families of the disappeared outlined a series of demands when they began their protest and yet the Sri Lankan government has not addressed any of their demands. Instead, the families have been faced with intensive surveillance and harassment by Sri Lanka's security forces.
Since the beginning of their protests, 108 relatives of the disappeared have passed away whilst campaigning for justice. They will never know the fate of their loved ones.
