A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Wednesday, June 14, 2017
President Sirisena promises families of the disappeared that lists of forcibly disappeared will be released
12 Jun 2017
On Monday, in a meeting in Jaffna, President Maithripala Sirisena
promised families of the disappeared that he would issue directives to
the National Security Council the following day to release lists of
surrendees, detainees, and political prisoners that families were
demanding. The meeting between representatives of families of the
disappeared from across all eight districts of the North-East and
President Sirisena was arranged as a result of demands by the families
at demonstrations on the 100th day of their Kilinochchi protest on May 30.
Also in attendance at the meeting representing the government were:
Minister of Prison Reforms, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, D.M.
Swaminathan, Minister of Health, Rajitha Seniratne, Northern Province
Minister of Health Sathyalingam, Inspector General of Police Pujith
Jayasundara, and the SLFP General Secretary, Duminda Dissanayake.
The representatives of the families of the disappeared were accompanied by a few Tamil civil society activists.
During the meeting, families started by setting out their objectives and
the history of their struggle, and then raised the issue of releasing
the lists of those surrendered and detained during and after the war, as
well as lists of political prisoners and secret detention centres.
Families handed over a memo (click here) laying
out 5 key demands which included: (1) releasing a list of all those who
surrendered or were detained by the Sri Lankan armed forces during and
after the war, particularly during the last phase; (2) releasing a list
of all secret detention centres, their status and list of detainees; (3)
releasing a list of all detainees held under the PTA and detainees held
in detention centres; (4) releasing these lists to representatives from
the families of the disappeared; and (5) releasing in public all
reports by commissions appointed over the years to address the issue of
disappearances and the Government’s response to those reports.
President Sirisena told families that he could deliver on all of the
demands in the petition, and specifically told families that he would
issue directives to the National Security Council at a meeting on
Tuesday June 13 to release all the lists the families demanded. The
President noted that parliament was going to debate the Office of
Missing Persons (OMP) on June 22 but told families he wouldn’t wait for
the OMP to act.
On the point about secret detention centres though the President
insisted that none existed, and told families that if they believed they
did he would take them in his presidential vehicle to show them they
did not exist.
Families of the disappeared told Tamil Guardian that they will watch
closely to see what happens at the National Security Council meeting on
Tuesday, and that they will not give up their protests until they get
actual answers.
Families of the disappeared across the North-East have now been protesting roadside across the North-East for over 4 months.
Below are testimonies from families that have been rallying in Killinochchi.
Name(s): Jegatharaparathavan, Yuvaneswaran, Kuganesan
Date of Disappearance: 2008, 2007, 2009
“My son dropped me at the check point and was returning back to
Vavuniya… they captured him somewhere at that point. He never made it
back to where he was staying… He was good, didn’t cause any troubles, he
took care of the home, his wife and kids… he bought things for his
wife’s pregnancy and told me to give it to her and take care of her...
Not just one or two but three of my children are missing.”
Name(s): Sujeepan Kandasamy
Date of Disappearance: 2009
“He was taken by the LTTE when he was 17… then he was taken by the army
in 2009. He kept to himself, kept out of trouble…often when he’s home
you couldn’t even tell he was there. When I saw him last, he ate the
food I took and he said take everyone and you all get out... I will
somehow come out too.”
Name(s): Ratheeswaran Thevendran
Date of Disappearance: 2008
“He was injured and the army took him to the hospital… the man that was
beside him in the hospital said that he doesn’t know where my son was
taken after. Then someone we knew inside Magazine Prison said that my
son’s name and information was registered there. By the time my
son-in-law reached Magazine, they said he was no longer there… Then when
they were releasing some of the cadres after rehabilitation one of them
said that my son was kept with them but would not tell us where because
he was afraid.”