Families of disappeared hand over UN petition

By Uditha Jayasinghe  

Families of people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s brutal three decade war presented a petition to the United Nations office here on Wednesday calling on the international community to investigate allegations into thousands of abductions, an activist said.

Mannar Citizens Committee President Father Sebamalei spearheaded the move to bring 15 people whose family members disappeared during the war but say that thousands more live in the northern province of Sri Lanka waiting for justice.

“These people are here as representatives of thousands of families that have had family members vanish without a trace during the war. Even though the war ended in 2009, there have been no attempts to investigate into these disappearances and abductions despite repeated appeals made by us. In the Vavuniya District, where I live, over 750 people have disappeared,” he said.

Hundreds of protestors attempted to travel to Colombo on 5 March to stage a protest on the disappearances but were stopped in Vavuniya and sent back by police on “security risks.” Father Sebamalei also handed over petitions to the Human Rights Commission and Police Headquarters calling for an explanation for the stoppage.

Opposition parties have blamed the Government for stopping the protest from reaching Colombo to prevent attention being drawn to human rights violations on the island.

However, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights N. Pillay in her report to the ongoing United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions has already highlighted the lack of investigations into the disappearances.

It is also a point mentioned in the draft resolution that has been presented at the UNHRC by the US on Sri Lanka.