By Thangamuthu Jayasingam –

සම්මානිත මහාචාර්ය තංගමුතු ජයසිංහම්

I wrote the last year;

It was the army that woke me on the 5th September 1990 and with it unfortunately they have taken away my sleep for 33 years. 158 persons they took/arrested from the Eastern University Refugee camp at Vantharumoolai, aged between 11 and 56 are still to be seen or acknowledged.

Of the complainants of the missing 46 are no more and the others would become missing exponentially as their age catches on them. It will be the next generations that are going to tell the tale and make the cases of their missed generation to the politicos of the next generation or beyond. These are just facts but the sufferings undergone by each family is beyond description.

I know of families where the kid had not seen the father; suffered economically as the breadwinner had been lost; families who had been displaced subsequently; many who had spent large sums of money in search of their missing in any and every possible way from horoscope to visit to various sites in the country. Some had managed to slowly come above but many suffer in silence crying at nights to show a better face tomorrow. Painful compromises. The financial downfall in the country and associated issues have doubled their stress as they walk dead. It seems that they have gone missing from the screen of the government except to highlight at times that they care. The 2000+ day protest in Jaffna ignored by the state is a vivid example.

Many institutions and establishment had been formulated or assigned to look at some of the issues mainly to satisfy the larger world outside and its agencies. These include Office on Missing Persons(OMP), Office for National Unity and Reconciliation(ONUR), the proposed National Unity and Reconciliation Commission(NURC) and Office for Reparation (OR)

Nothing had changed since I wrote this last year, may be a few more of the parents /complainants are no more. May be I write this the next year too and many years ahead, with bitterness but with determination and expectation that one day these people will have their truth and thereby justice.

It is like the wave that washes ashore afresh all the time never remembering  the last BUT it never stops. The sand it washed  to the coast is never noticed, but over time it builds  mountains by the wind and later rises  as  Dunes blocking the sea itself. This is how nature and natural events operates including natural law and justice, may take time but it does become significant one day. People who had been  arrested and gone missing may have  gone off the radar but it will be received by some station one day, mater of time only.

I heard over the news calling persons to report on the missing in the north and called it the last batch of people. I have no idea of the total number at present as they seem to have lot the front line. I gave personally of all those Officers of the Army who had been at the arrest in the Campus in September 5, 1990 but to my knowledge none had been summoned by any office to date. I went for  a ‘Hebeas corpus.’  Case in High Court, Colombo filed by Mr Rasanayagam years ago but the perpetrators did not attend and the case too did not follow and was dead legally over time, as he claimed. The state that is able to look at the losses of the parliamentarians and provide relief is unable to even address those losses by public, missing people or otherwise. Though we claim in the constitution that ‘it is the power of the people that is vested in the government’ in reality it is the ‘vested power that  trickles to the people as instructions’ making democracy a ‘slogan only’. It is so sad that in a country of religious values and morals that the state is unable to console the people who had lost their families simply by the truth as they had not demanded for more. State had provided compensation by finance to some /many but no apologies or grief over it or even acceptance of the losses. Will it change after September 21, is a wish of many but may continue  a dream as always. It is a known saying that the ‘God sees the truth but waits’. I hope he/she does not wait too long to a point where there may be no ‘god’ to wait or people to await. It would not be late even today that some one files a litigation on these grounds as done  over the separation of the North and East 20 years later after the event. May be worthwhile attempt.

There were events of commemoration and queries on the missing people in Batticaloa and Trincomalee last week in relation to the  entire country. The way that these were handled by the state (police) shows the arrogance to disperse the crowds than to answer them with compassion or approach in that sense. The state that was able to look at the losses of the parliamentarians in terms of property following the Aragalaya was unable to look at the missing in the same frame of mind. The state that was unable to provide for the losses of the people during the period of conflict was able to justify claims of loss property over the Aragalaya for parliamentarians (paid or unpaid), ignored or shelved the losses of the people during the conflict especially in the north and east as of it was not part of the country.

The reference to these in Geneva, recent approval by parliament to utilize the case laws from other countries for our judiciary etc would be more positive to these being more accepted by the judicial system in our country as a trial. These in a way form a clamp on the country to close in nationally and internationally for judicial answers to  the missing people in the country and those associated with them. This may not provide relief to the ones who had lost 34 years in search of truth but prevent such in the future.

Police suggest to report all traffic accidents to them rather than settling them between parties as some of them are crimes In nature and cannot be settled by compensation alone in the view of criminal justice. Similarly it would not end the process by mere compensation to the relatives of the victims in relation to the missing people as it is a crime that we are anticipating as abduction, restraining against will etc  unless there is a reasonable case for arrest of people by the state, where it is responsible to answer of there whereabouts. A catch 22 it may be.

The exemption clause that is inserted in the almost all legislations, where it states to the effect ‘any commission of an event with good intention may not be called upon in any court or proceeding’ should not be a reason to exclude  those who commit offences as crimes of abduction, restraining of freedom of person etc. This will provide more accountability of officers to their action. The financial losses of today seems that no one is responsible, may be the same exemption clause.

It is essential that the missing peoples relatives/representatives  be allowed to raise a monument of disappearance at the site of the event at least to console them that they had done all in their power to raise to the world of their grievance. It is important that the national judicial system inquires those who had been listed for abduction and wrongful arrest and detention of persons who had gone missing. In the absence of such a Tsunami of force would rise to request the same a year or a century later as a part of the natural justice that we had seen, where countries are discussing events of the first and second world war and the offences committed  against humanity.

I wish there would be a day of September 5, xxxx when I lie in peace knowing that  justice had been done for that day in 1990.

*Thangamuthu Jayasingam, Officer in charge of the refugee camp at vathrumoolai, 1990