{"id":238416,"date":"2024-08-30T10:38:42","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T05:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=238416"},"modified":"2024-09-01T17:10:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T11:40:47","slug":"sri-lanka-families-of-disappeared-persecuted-renewal-of-unhrc-mandate-crucial-to-counter-impunity-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-families-of-disappeared-persecuted-renewal-of-unhrc-mandate-crucial-to-counter-impunity-abuse\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka: Families Of \u2018Disappeared\u2019 Persecuted: Renewal Of UNHRC Mandate Crucial To Counter Impunity, Abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sri Lankan<\/a><\/span>\u00a0government continues to persecute the families of victims of enforced disappearance who seek to enforce their rights, Human Rights Watch said today. Security forces persistently harass families through surveillance, intimidation, false allegations, violence, and arbitrary arrests.<\/p>\n

On August 29, 2024, a court in Trincomalee\u00a0granted a request by police<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to ban relatives of the disappeared from holding a procession to mark the\u00a0International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on August 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relatives of the disappeared experience the daily torment of not knowing what happened to their family members, which state agencies have cruelly compounded by trying to silence them,\u201d said\u00a0Meenakshi Ganguly<\/a><\/span>, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cHundreds of mothers, wives, and others have passed away without learning what happened to their loved ones, and many more express fear they might not live to see justice done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka has one of the world\u2019s\u00a0highest rates of enforced disappearance<\/a><\/span>, including those who disappeared during the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurgency (1987-89) and the civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (1983-2009). Sri Lankan authorities have for decades refused to reveal the fate of the disappeared or to prosecute those responsible, leading the United Nations human rights office to\u00a0call for international prosecutions<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n

In his August 22\u00a0annual report on Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council<\/a><\/span>, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker T\u00fcrk, described \u201ca persistent trend of surveillance, intimidation and harassment of journalists and civil society actors, especially those working on enforced disappearances \u2026 and reprisals against family members of the disappeared engaging with the UN or international actors, including members of the diplomatic community.\u201d The high commissioner also examined\u00a0allegations of abduction, arbitrary detention, torture, and sexual violence by Sri Lankan security forces carried out as recently as January. The victims in these cases, whom they said were primarily men,\u00a0had been involved in protests over issues such as enforced disappearances.<\/p>\n

In May, Human Rights Watch met with relatives of disappeared people throughout north and east Sri Lanka, mostly the wives or mothers of victims. They described a pattern of ongoing abuses. Several are facing court proceedings after being arrested at protests, including three who had been hospitalized as a result of police violence against protesters.<\/p>\n

One woman in the Eastern Province, campaigning to know the fate of her husband, who surrendered to the military in 2009, said she believes she is under regular surveillance by security agencies, including the police Criminal Investigation Department, Terrorism Investigation Division, Special Task Force, and the army. She said they offer to pay her neighbors for information about her, in tactics apparently designed to isolate her from her community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t raise our voices, we have no freedom to move,\u201d said a woman in the Northern Province, whose husband has not been seen since his arrest in 2008. \u201cThey [security agencies] threaten us, and even take action against our family members. We have no freedom to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The women said that police officers habitually deliver stay orders \u2013 prohibiting them from attending memorialization events or protests \u2013 in the middle of the night when they are dressed in their nightclothes and take photographs. \u201cIf my gate is locked, police climb over the wall or cut the fence to deliver a stay order,\u201d one said. Another showed a pile of eight stay orders, although she said she had received more. \u201cIf anything is happening in the Northern or Eastern Provinces I get a stay order,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Several mothers of the disappeared said the most frightening threats were directed at their other children. One said that when she attends protests the police tell her, \u201cYou have to look after your child who is still alive.\u201d Another said that days after she was arrested at a protest in 2023, her son was arrested in an allegedly fabricated drugs case and sent for custodial \u201crehabilitation.\u201d Criminal cases against both her and her son are ongoing.<\/p>\n

In December, the authorities launched an abusive anti-narcotics campaign called \u201cYukthiya,\u201d which the UN says had resulted in over 121,000 arrests five months later. Families of the disappeared said the authorities are increasingly using false drug cases to harass them. The mother of a disappeared man said that police \u2013 including anti-narcotics officers \u2013 began making inquiries about her surviving son in December, leading her to fear that they would plant drugs in her home. \u201cI have already lost a son,\u201d she said. \u201cHe is now the only one I have left. I sent him to India [for his safety].\u201d<\/p>\n

Relatives of the disappeared said they have little or no recourse to domestic avenues for redress. In 2017 the Sri Lankan government established the\u00a0Office of Missing Persons<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(OMP), which is supposed to establish the whereabouts or fate of the disappeared but has resolved almost no cases. Relatives accused the OMP of pressuring them to agree to receive compensation payments that they fear will lead to their cases being closed without further investigation.<\/p>\n

One relative said, \u201cThe OMP says \u2018take this certificate, get Rupees 200,000 [US$665], don\u2019t support this movement [for truth and justice].\u201d Another, whose daughter disappeared in 2009, said, \u201cWhen I went to the OMP I noticed that they were pressing many families like us. They said to the families, \u2018we don\u2019t want any documents, we just want the details of the [disappeared] person.\u2019 Some people took compensation, and some refused.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEarlier we trusted the OMP but after they recruited certain commissioners, we lost our faith,\u201d said the mother of a disappeared person from Mannar, in northwest Sri Lanka, referring to the\u00a0appointment of former senior security forces officials<\/a><\/span>\u00a0to the body. She said she has refused offers of compensation because \u201cI need to know what happened to my son.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many relatives of the disappeared are also skeptical of the current government\u2019s proposal for a\u00a0new domestic truth and reconciliation commission<\/a><\/span>, following numerous similar bodies that have previously failed to deliver truth or accountability. \u201cWe don\u2019t accept it. We don\u2019t have faith in it,\u201d one said. They emphasized the importance of international involvement, including in criminal investigations.<\/p>\n

The UN Human Rights Council, concerned governments, and other UN bodies should implement the recommendations in the UN high commissioner\u2019s report, including:<\/p>\n

* Investigating and prosecuting alleged perpetrators of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka under the principle of universal jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

* Imposing targeted sanctions on alleged perpetrators.<\/p>\n

* Carrying out enhanced vetting of Sri Lankan officials, including those involved in UN peacekeeping missions.<\/p>\n

* Renewing the Human Rights Council\u2019s mandate for UN monitoring, reporting, and work on accountability for human rights violations and related crimes in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccessive Sri Lankan governments have resisted any progress to address the terrible legacy of enforced disappearances, and instead compounded the anguish of victims\u2019 families,\u201d Ganguly said. \u201cWhile the Sri Lankan government commits these abuses, the Human Rights Council and governments around the world need to stand with the families of the disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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