Release abductees immediately, demands Colombo Rights Group

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 28 March 2007, 23:08 GMT]
Altogether seventy-eight persons have been abducted or gone missing in Colombo and its suburbs since August 2006. We demand they be released immediately and call upon the Sri Lanka Government to take steps to have them freed," said members of the Committee for Finding Missing Persons (CFMP), at the Satyagraha demonstration held in Hyde Park Corner in Colombo Wednesday from 10:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m, sources in Colombo said.



Wickremabahu Karunaratne, the leader of New Leftist Front (NLF) led the protest. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarians, Mavai Senathirajah, Eelaventhan, Sivagilingam, Thurairatnasingam, Ariyanenthiran, Pathmanathan, Chandra Neru, Chandrakanthan and Kanagasabai, the president of Peoples' Monitoring Committee (PMC), Srithunga Jayasuriya, Western Peoples Front (EPF) leader Mano Ganeshan and several other politicians participated in the demonstration.

"Release the abductees or at least reveal their whereabouts," was the main theme of the protesters demand at the Satyagraha demonstration.

Many children stood bearing placards and there were emotional cries calling the abductors to kill them, relieving them from the suffering of not knowing the fate of those abducted.

Hundreds of relatives and friends of those gone missing bore placards reading slogans such as:

'Where is my dear Father? Please release him!'
'What shall I tell my daughter when she asks where my father is?'
'Treat the Tamils as human beings!'
'Let people enjoy peace through Freedom!'
'Release the abductees!'