Sri Lanka’s president visiting the war torn north heard that no reports have been issued on the forcibly disappeared even after hundreds of interviews by the Office of Missing Persons (OMP).
In the Jaffna and Kilinochchi District Coordinating Committee meeting on Wednesday (4) President Ranil Wickremesinghe announced his plan to get the issue of the forcibly disappeared ‘out of the way.’ The president speaking at the meeting said, “500 more to be interviewed – they should be finished”.
The OMP set up in 2017 and tasked with determining the status of Sri Lanka’s tens of thousands of disappeared is yet to find a single person, even as the Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappeared continue their peaceful protest for over 2500 days.
Jaffna’s Government Agent (GA) Ambalavanar Sivabalasundaram made a presentation showing that out of 1788 ‘missing persons’ in the 15 districts of Jaffna only 1298 families had been interviewed to date. Questioned by the president about whether there were any reports, ‘we have not received the reports, replied the GA.
The pressing situation of the disappeared however was given a hasty attempt by the president. “If you can find out that 500” the president said, “speak to the missing person’s office and see how fast we should be able to finish it off”. However, he had not addressed the demand of Tamil mothers who had been protesting for 2500 days. They just have one question for the past 15 years, “What happened to our relatives?”
At the end of the war, at least 20,000 Tamils either surrendered or handed over to the military and had disappeared without a trace, according to complaints lodged with the OMP.
