The Sri Lankan armed forces must release the list it stated it had compiled of LTTE cadres who surrendered in 2009, said the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice.
One of the biggest questions that remain unanswered from the final brutal months of the armed conflict is “what happened to the many hundreds of LTTE ‘surrendees’, as well as the thousands of Tamil civilians, who were taken into the custody of the Sri Lankan army,” said the organisation, in a blog post released this week.
“For many of the families who are still searching for answers about what happened to them, it is often at this stage in the timeline that the trail runs cold.”
However, an admission by Major General Chanayaka Gunaratna (head of the Army’s 58th Division), “that the army is in possession of a list of people that surrendered during the final stages of the war is of enormous significance” it said.
“The army must disclose this information as a matter of urgency. It is now incumbent on the judiciary and political leadership in Sri Lanka – as well as the international community at the ongoing Human Rights Council session – to apply the pressure to ensure they do so.”
Major General Chanakya Gunawardena, was ordered by the Mullaitivu magistrate to submit a list of all those that had surrendered but failed to show up in court last month.
“Their response will provide one of the strongest indications yet of whether the new mechanisms for investigating the disappeared will be able to prevail over the deep culture of secrecy within the Sri Lankan security forces, and the impunity it creates,” the post concluded.
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