A protest march has marked the entry to its ninth year of a struggle to know the fate of people of the northeast who are still unaccounted for after they either surrendered to the military or were made to disappear during the final stages of the war.
Tamil women from all eight districts in the two provinces are seeking answers from authorities about their loved ones, and it is now 2,922 days since they started their campaign on 20 February 2017.
At least 350 of the parents of the missing have died during that period without getting to know as to what had happened to their children.
With justice not coming in their way from local authorities, protestors demanded an international intervention as they marched from Kandasamy Kovil to Depot Junction in Kilinochchi yesterday (20), carrying placards and shouting slogans.
The Office of Missing Persons set up nine years ago has failed to find a single missing person so far.
At the end of the agitation, head of the relatives’ association of missing persons in Ampara Thambirasa Selvarani told journalists that they would press on with their struggle for truth and justice.
She urged the United Nations not to grant any more time to the Sri Lankan government to do justice for the missing persons.
Protestors accused the present administration of ignoring their plight, even as Sri Lankan delegates led by minister Saroja Paulraj made no mention of the missing persons when then attended the UN’s CEDAW committee that met in Geneva last week.
Successive governments have been accused of allowing top officials responsible for crimes to evade the law and granting them various privileges.
(The Leader)
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