UN committee probing enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka visits Mannar

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID), which is on a mission to Sri Lanka, has commenced a visit to Mannar in the Northern Province to probe the disappearances.

The five-member committee has met with the families of the missing and disappeared in Mannar and the surrounding area during the war.

A group of family members staged a demonstration demanding that the missing persons be found and the UN team has reportedly arrived in the area after the protest.

The family members who were questioned by the committee told BBC Sandeshaya that they were questioned on how their family members disappeared and whom they suspect to be responsible for the disappearances and whether they have any evidence against the suspected persons. The UN group has exchanged information with the relatives of the missing persons and religious leaders have handed over the several letters to the committee.

The media was not allowed in the meeting, BBC Sandeshaya reported.

The UNWGEID Committee has also inspected the mass grave at Thiruketheeswaran in Mannar where skeletal remains of 81 people were unearthed during excavation.

The committee is scheduled to tour Kilinochchi and Jaffna Districts in the next few days.