Sri Lanka: Families of “missing persons” persecuted

(Geneva) Sri Lanka Government continues to persecute victims’ families Enforced disappearance Those seeking to assert their rights face severe challenges, Human Rights Watch said today, as security forces continue to harass victims’ families through surveillance, intimidation, false accusations, violence, and arbitrary arrests.

August 29, 2024, Trincomalee Court The police approved the request Banning memorial marches for relatives of missing persons International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances August 30th.

“Relatives of the missing suffer daily not knowing what happened to their family members, compounded by cruel attempts by state institutions to silence them,” Meenakshi GangulyDeputy Director of the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. “Hundreds of mothers, wives, and others have died without knowing what happened to their loved ones, and many more have expressed fear that they may not live to see justice done.”

Sri Lanka has the world’s Highest rate of enforced disappearancesThey include people who disappeared during the left-wing People’s Liberation Front insurgency (1987-89) and the civil war between the government and the separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (1983-2009). Sri Lankan authorities have refused for decades to reveal the fate of the missing or prosecute those responsible, leading the UN Human Rights Office to investigate the disappearances. Calls for international prosecutions.

August 22 Sri Lanka’s annual report to the United Nations Human Rights CouncilUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, “The trend towards surveillance, intimidation and harassment of journalists and reporters persists. Civil Society perpetrators, particularly those working to address enforced disappearances… and reprisals against families of disappeared persons who engage with the United Nations or international actors, including members of the diplomatic community.”

The High Commissioner also reviewed Sri Lankan security forces have been accused of kidnapping, arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence as recently as January. The victims in these cases are said to be mainly men who had participated in protests against issues such as enforced disappearances.

In May, Human Rights Watch met with relatives of those who have disappeared in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, most of whom were wives or mothers of the victims. They described ongoing abuses. Some are facing court cases after being arrested during protests, and three have been hospitalized due to police violence against protesters.

An Eastern Province woman is calling for answers about the fate of her husband, who surrendered to the military in 2009. She says she believes she has been under regular surveillance by security agencies, including the police Criminal Investigation Department, the Terrorism Investigation Division, the Special Task Force and the military. She says they have offered to pay neighbours for information about her, a tactic apparently designed to isolate her from the community.

“We can’t speak out, we have no freedom of movement,” said a woman in Northern Province, whose husband has not been seen since he was arrested in 2008. “They (security agencies) threaten us and even take action against our families. We don’t have any freedom to do anything.”

The women said police often served them stay orders in the middle of the night, banning them from attending commemorations or protests while they were in their pajamas and taking photos. “If my front door is locked, the police will climb over the wall or cut down the fence to serve a stay order,” one said. Another showed a stack of eight stay orders, though she said she had received many more. “If anything happens in the northern or eastern provinces, I get a stay order,” she said.

Several mothers of the missing said the most dire threats were directed at their other children. One said police told her when she attended a protest, “You have to take care of your living children.” Another said her son was arrested on a trumped-up drug case days after being arrested at a 2023 protest and sent to prison for “rehabilitation.” The criminal case against her and her son is still pending.

In December, authorities launched an abusive anti-drug campaign called “Yukthiya,” which the United Nations says led to more than 121,000 arrests in five months. Families of the missing say authorities are increasingly using false drug cases to harass them. The mother of one of the missing men said police, including anti-drug officers, began investigating her surviving son in December, leaving her worried they were planting drugs in her home. “I’ve already lost a son,” she said. “He’s the only son I have left. I sent him to India (for his safety).”

Relatives of the missing say they have little or no opportunity to seek redress through domestic channels. Missing Persons Office The Office of the Revenue (OMP), a body that is supposed to uncover the whereabouts or fate of missing people but has solved almost no cases. Relatives accuse the OMP of pressuring them to agree to accept compensation, which they fear will lead to their cases being closed without further investigation.

One relative said: “The OMP said ‘Take this certificate, take 200,000 rupees ($665), don’t support this movement (for truth and justice).’” Another relative, whose daughter disappeared in 2009, said: “When I went to the OMP, I found that they were pressuring many families like ours. They told the families, ‘We don’t want any documents, we just want the details of the (missing) people.’ Some accepted the compensation, some refused.”

“We used to trust the OMP, but after they recruited some commissioners, we lost faith,” said the mother of a missing person in Mannar in northwestern Sri Lanka, referring to Appointment of former senior security forces official She said she refused the compensation because “I need to know what happened to my son.”

Many relatives of the missing have also raised concerns about the current government New National Truth and Reconciliation CommissionMany similar institutions have previously failed to provide truth or accountability. “We don’t accept it. We don’t believe it,” said one. They stressed the importance of international engagement, including in criminal investigations.

The UN Human Rights Council, relevant governments and other UN bodies should implement the recommendations of the UN High Commissioner’s report, including:

• Investigate and prosecute suspects of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
• Imposing targeted sanctions on those suspected of committing crimes.
• Enhanced scrutiny of Sri Lankan officials, including those serving in UN peacekeeping operations.
• Renew the Human Rights Council’s mandate for the United Nations to monitor, report on and hold accountable for human rights violations and related crimes in Sri Lanka.

“Successive Sri Lankan governments have refused to make any progress on the horrific issue of enforced disappearances, only exacerbating the suffering of the victims’ families,” Ganguly said. “The Human Rights Council and governments around the world must stand with the families of the disappeared as the Sri Lankan government commits these crimes.”