Families of enforced disappeared mark international day in Mannaar, Ampaa'rai

The families of enforced disappeared, who have been staging continuous protests beyond 500 days in the North-East, marked International Day of Enforced Disappeared in Mannaar and in Ampaa'rai on Thursday. The coordinators of the five districts in North said they decided to hold the protest in Mannaar this time to draw international attention towards the mass grave excavations and said the global community should bring international investigations to establish what had happened to their kith subjected to enforced disappearances during the war and in the final days of the onslaught in Vanni in 2009. The protesters from the three districts in the East, led by Ms Selvarany Thambirasa, asked how the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, which is the offender, investigate itself and urged the international human rights community to realise the realities on the ground before it is too late. 

The protesters in Mannaar said 17 members of the families of enforced disappeared taking part in the protest from the five districts of North have died during the continuous protest exceeding 500 days.

The protesting families in Mannaar carried big banners featuring the photos of Rev Fr Jim Brown and Rev Fr Francis Joseph, who were subjected to enforced disappearance while helping the people during the times of war.

The organisers of the protest in Ampaa'rai and Mannaar said they have clearly established their rejection of the so-called Office of Missing Persons as another deception. 

Why does the international community fail to see the issue from the perspective of the victims on the ground, Selvarany Thambirasa, who led the protest at Thirukkoayil, asked. 

The families of Enforced Disappeared from the five districts of North gathered at Mannaar Common Grounds and marched towards the District Secretariat in Mannaar

The protest staged at Thirukkoayil in Ampaa'rai was attended by the families of enforced disappeared from Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Ampaa'rai in the Eastern Province