The Rajapaksa government has been slammed for using the Covid pandemic to hunt down elements critical of the administration and preventing the joint commemoration of the disappeared in the North and South.
Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, Sandya Eknaligoda, wife of abducted and disappeared southern journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, told the media “Mothers and relatives in the North and South do not have the opportunity to commemorate their loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared in the past. If we go out we can fall prey to disease. Rather than the fear of disease, the government is using the health condition to hunt us down. What happened to the teachers is a good example”.
The United Nations had been involved in setting up the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) to investigate and bring to justice those who have been forcibly disappeared. However, international award winning human rights activist Sandhya Eknaligoda alleged that this office, which was established during the period of good governance, has now been inherited by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksha.
“In this month, which commemorates the disappeared, The OMP, which should have done us justice, is sending me a letter requesting copies of letters sent to the UN and the ICRC asking for information. In this way we are asked for information to get us in trouble.”
She points out that the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Political Victimization during the good governance period appointed by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has decided to acquit and release those suspected for enforced disappearances. She also questioned the effect on the independence of the judiciary by such actions.
Retired Judge Upali Abeyratne, who was the chairman of the Presidential Commission to Investigate Political Revenge during the era of good governance was later appointed by President Rajapaksa as the Chairman of the Office for the Missing Persons.
“We do not see the government doing justice, they can remove all these cases,” Sandya Eknaligoda said.
