‘They care about the economic crisis but not the lives of our relatives’ – Tamil families of the disappeared

 

06 June 2022

Tamil families of the disappeared criticised the international community’s response to their struggle to find justice for their loved ones, noting how rapidly governments around the world mobilised to tackle Sri Lanka’s economic crisis but still continued to ignore their plight.

“So far as the people of the North are concerned, the lives of the people are much more precious than the importance of economy,” Mariyasuresh Eswary, head of the Association of Relatives of Disappeared Persons in Mullaitivu, told reporters at a protest in town last week.

“We have already been economically oppressed before and after 2009. We have faced a worse economic situation than the present. We were given essential commodities like rice and sugar, nor medical services. Many lives were lost in the absence of medical doctors while many people went missing and forcibly disappeared.” 

Eswary went on to state that “countries around the world that helped Sri Lanka during the war in 2009 are now closely watching the developing situation with a special focus and are coming up solutions to mitigate [the economic crisis]”.

“If these countries had acted consciously at that time we would not have been pushed into this situation and lost our children and husbands,” she added. “The deadly war would not have taken place and the current economic crisis would not have emerged.”

“What is most deplorable and worrying is the importance being given to the economic crisis is not being given to the lives of our relatives.”

In particular, Eswary highlighted the arrival of aid from India.

“We had asked assistance from India at that time too,” she added referring to the height of the Mullivaikkal massacres in 2009, highlighting the lack of medical services amidst the Sri Lankan military bombardment.

“We waited desperately carrying white flags on the beaches for the arrival of Indian rescuers,” she said. ”Instead, much to our disappointment and against our expectations, they joined hands with the Sri Lankan government.”

Eswary did however praise the Canadian government for its recent recognition of May 18th as Tamil Genocide Remembrance Day, stating the move “is a definite impetus for our struggle”.

She also spoke about Sri Lanka’s new prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who also holds the finance portfolio. “What is he going to do to us?” she questioned.

“In 2009 he was also complicit,” she added. “So far as we are concerned all these people are untrustworthy... As long as these people are in government our problems will only increase further.”

“No regime in Sri Lanka past, present or future can provide us a convincing and durable solution to us. Whoever comes to power, there will be no solution for the Tamils. The real solution therefore lies with none other the international community.”

Yogarasa Kanakaranjini, President of the Association of Forcefully Missing Persons in the North East, also noted that the families of the disappeared “can never receive justice… from the government of Sri Lanka.”

“We expect justice from the international community,” she added. “What we want from the international community now is to bring these murderous families (the Rajapaksas) to justice before the International Criminal Court.”

“We will not give up this fight,” she added.

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