Missing-persons' families stage protest, denounce LLRC-based outlook

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 03 February 2015, 12:12 GMT]
Tamil families of forcibly disappeared persons in Ki'linochchi staged a protest on Monday in front of the District Secretariat urging the new Sri Lankan President to establish the whereabouts of their family members, whom they had handed over to the Sri Lankan military at the end of the genocidal onslaught in Vanni in 2009. The mothers of the Tamil youth, who were abducted and made disappeared by the so-called white van squads of the SL military, also joined the protest. The protesting families complained to media that they were disappointed by the inaction so far since Maithiripala Sirisena came to power in the South. In their appeal to SL president, they denounced the LLRC-based outlook in addressing the accountability of the Sri Lankan State.



The 100-day programme seems to pre-occupied with addressing the governance issues in the South while the most serious issues affecting the Tamil people in the North-East are being neglected, they said.

The protesting mothers also urged the new SL president to release all Tamil political prisoners from the Sri Lankan prisons.

Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian S. Sritharan from Ki'linochchi district, addressing media said that the Tamil people had no trust in domestic investigations regardless of the regime in Colombo.

“The Tamil people demand international investigations into these heinous crimes against humanity,” he said adding that the international community was responsible to put an effective end to the protracted genocide that started since 1960s through investigations and prosecutions at international level.



The protesting mothers expressed disappointment that there has been no change in addressing the serious issue of forcibly disappeared persons at the hands of Sri Lankan military forces.

The new regime in Colombo seems to be pre-occupied with ‘good governance’ in South. If such good governance need to be meaningful, important accountability issues should be equally addressed, the appeal urged.

The appeal addressed to SL president was handed over to the Government Agent of Ki'linochchi Ms Rupavathy Ketheeswaran and the appeal addressed to Northern Provincial Council Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran was handed over to TNA parliamentarian S. Sritharan.