{"id":37709,"date":"2012-04-08T20:31:15","date_gmt":"2012-04-08T20:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=37709"},"modified":"2012-04-08T21:21:18","modified_gmt":"2012-04-08T21:21:18","slug":"australia-worried-about-gunaratnam-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/australia-worried-about-gunaratnam-bbc\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia Worried About Gunaratnam – BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"
By\u00a0By Charles Haviland –\u00a0BBC News, Colombo –\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
The Australian government says it is concerned for the welfare of a Sri Lankan-Australian man who disappeared in Sri Lanka on Friday.<\/strong><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Premkumar Gunaratnam<\/p><\/div>\n

It has asked the government in Colombo to help find the man who it says may have been abducted.<\/p>\n

The political activist and his female colleague vanished in separate places three days before they were to launch a leftist political party.<\/p>\n

Their party colleagues say the government is to blame.<\/p>\n

Premkumar Gunaratnam has had a chequered history, living for years in Australia, taking its citizenship and adopting an alias after taking part in a failed leftist insurrection in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n

Mother’s plea<\/strong><\/p>\n

But it was in the Colombo suburbs that he and his female colleague, Dimuthu Attygalle, disappeared on Friday night, days before they were to spearhead the launch of a new left-wing party.<\/p>\n

Premkumar\u2019s mother, VR Gunaratnam, told a news conference that he had been abducted by unknown people and his life was in danger.<\/p>\n

“I want to see him. I want to see him back. And I ask the public to help as a mother. A mother\u2019s voice, I think it will go all around the world \u2013 to help my son, to release my son,” an emotional mother appealed.<\/p>\n

Their party comrades say the two missing people were abducted by forces linked with the Sri Lankan government because the party campaigns on human rights issues.<\/p>\n

Australia says it is concerned. A spokesman for its Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade told the BBC it was seeking to clarify the missing man\u2019s situation with the Sri Lankan authorities.<\/p>\n

It did not name him but said its top diplomat in Sri Lanka had asked for government help in finding him.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan military spokesman described allegations against the government as \u201cwild\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not even know whether the people have disappeared,\u201d he commented.<\/p>\n

Human rights workers here say dozens of Sri Lankans have now disappeared since October.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s war ended three years ago but government figures and media outlets often describe dissenters as traitors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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