Voice for North-East Enforced Disappeared (VNEED), a recently launched organisaton by the families of persons subjected to enforced disappearance at the hands of the occupying Sinhala military on Monday travelled to Colombo and staged protests outside the embassy of USA, High Commissions of India and the UK, and the UN office in Colombo. Giving more time and space to Sri Lankan State at the Human Rights Council in Geneva will only worsen the structural genocide in the North-East, they said. The international community should realise the futile exercise of expecting results from Colombo through a co-sponsored process, which has gravely failed to de-militarise the North-East since the joint USA-Sri Lanka resolution was passed in September 2015, they said.
None of the key promises of the SL State have been fulfilled and the families of enforced disappeared have not been informed of the whereabouts of anyone of the 40,000 missing, the protesters said.
“We urge internationally guaranteed delivery of de-militarisation, real international investigations that also include investigations on protracted genocide and an internationally monitored transparent negotiation process to resolve the national conflict in the island,” the appeal handed over to the foreign missions and the UN said.
“There is no political will on the part of the Sri Lankan State on accountability for international crimes committed against the people or on genuinely reforming the State structure into resolving the national question in the island,” the appeal said.
“The so-called reforms and changes taking place only aim at addressing the need for reforms in the South while nothing have changed in the North-East.”
“The UNHRC process in Geneva, mainly managed by the USA, has completely watered down the demand for international investigations of the occupied people in the North-East. The process, aimed at a regime change in the island, was disappointing the victims in the North-East with a resolution co-sponsored by USA and Sri Lanka at the UNHRC in September 2015. The resolution did not even meet the minimum expectation of de-militarising the North and East,” the appeal further said.
More than 15 divisions of the 20 divisions (200,000) strong Sinhala military are still stationed in the North alone at one soldier per five civilian ratio. This alone is enough to expose the real nature of the military occupation in the North and East. All the showcased attempts of releasing lands to civilians have in fact been accommodating pockets of settlements within the militarised zones, it observed.
The protest was led by Ananthy Sasitharan, who has been searching for her husband, Mr Elian a former political district leader of the LTTE, who was handed over to the occupying Sinhala military at the presence of the family at the end of genocidal onslaught on Vanni on 18 May 2009.
The protesters who handed over the appeals addressed the press in the evening. Many of them were disappointed by the way they were received by the Indian High Commission. Mrs Pushpambal Thanabalasingham, who went in person inside the premises, also complained about the way they were treated by the officials at the High Commission of New Delhi.
All the 69 participants in the protest signed the appeals that were addressed to the UN General Secretary, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Heads of States of India, Japan, Norway, USA and the European Union.
The protesters were from Jaffna, Ki'linochchi, Vavuniya and Mullaiththeevu in North and from Trincomalee in the East.
