95 persons disappeared in Batticaloa district after SLA occupation

[TamilNet, Friday, 20 August 2010, 09:07 GMT]
Ninety-five persons including two women have disappeared without trace in Batticaloa district since Sri Lanka Army (SLA) occupation of the district, according to Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, P. Selvarasa. The youths who had left the Liberation Tigers and married leading a normal life and persons who had been supporters of the LTTE had been arrested or abducted by SLA Intelligence Wing with the assistance of Tamil paramilitary group of Pillayan and Karuna. These persons are among those gone missing. The abductors arriving in white vans during nights had taken away the persons who had disappeared since then, the MP said.

Sri Lanka government had announced on 19 July 2007 that it had brought Batticaloa district under its total control.

27 persons had disappeared just before this announcement and 15 after. In 2008, 35 persons had gone missing while 45 had disappeared in 2009, according to complaints made by the relatives of the missing persons to MP Selvarasa.

Though the police authorities in Batticaloa district knew who the abductors were they did not take action to arrest the abductors despite complaints lodged with them, the MP said.

The TNA request to discuss the issue of disappeared persons in the meeting of the Batticaloa Development and Coordination Committee presided by Sri Lank minister Basil Rajapaksa had been rejected.

TNA had then appealed to President Mahinda Rajapaksa to appoint a commission to inquire into the issue of persons gone missing after arrest by Sri Lanka armed forces but so far the commission had not been appointed or any inquiry made into the matter, Sevlarasa said.

The relatives of the persons gone missing have registered complaints with the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission and ICRC in Batticaloa district.