News
Event for families of disappeared Northerners disrupted
When an unruly group of monks and men gate-crashed an event for families of the disappeared in the North, held last Monday, one of the attendees, Rani (not her real name), a mother from Mannar, was so afraid she thought the intruders might assault her.
The event was held at the Centre for Society and Religion, situated in the premises of the Fatima Church in Maradana.
Rani had come to the event hoping to tell the attendees the story of her disappeared son, a 24-year-old student of Vavuniya Technical College. He was allegedly taken, close to midnight in September 2008, by a group of masked men dressed in civilian clothes. The men had barged in, weapons drawn, while the family was sleeping, and one of them had told her in broken Tamil that they were taking her son in for ‘questioning,’ and ‘will return him’ once ‘the investigations are over.’ Her son was never returned, and is now one of the ‘disappeared.’
There had been about five other mothers from Mannar, altogether about 30 women from the North, some with small children.
The event was organised by Families of the Disappeared, an NGO run by Brito Fernando, a prominent human rights activist and lawyer. Mr. Fernando said the event was held so the relatives of the disappeared, mostly from the North, could share their stories with diplomats, NGO representatives, and other interested invitees.
According to many in attendance and a situation report publicised by the organizers, about fifteen minutes into the event, a group of angry men, including monks, had ‘forcibly stormed into the building,’ while a mother was recounting the story of her disappeared son.
Video clips of the incident, recorded by attendees and the intruders alike, and posted online, show heated exchanges between the organisers of the event and the intruders, including Ven.Angulugalle Sri Jinananda Thera, who led the intruders.
In the video clips, the intruders are told by an organiser of the event that they ‘don’t have an invitation.’ Two or three members of the group that barged in then shouted ‘our children died too,’ ‘can’t let you do things in secret,’ and ‘war crimes allegations befall on the entire country.’ Their yelling and swearing is matched by some attendees, some of whom either try to ask the group to ‘kindly leave, this is our place,’ or yell back in response.
Some men in the disrupting group resort to swearing violently at some attendees, using phrases such as ‘patta ballo’ (stray dogs), and name-calling Fr. Sathivel, who engaged in a shouting match with Ven. Jinananda Thera and another monk, a ‘kotiyek’ (a Tiger). One monk addressed the families of the disappeared sitting in the back of the room by shouting “ogollonwa vikunan kanawa, api ogollo bera ganna apu hamudawa” ((they) are selling you and making a living, we are the army that came to save you.)
Other video clips show officers from the Maradana Police, including Officer-in-Charge S.M. Perera, caught between two visibly angry parties, attempting in vain to mediate. One officer sternly tells a member of the disrupting group to ‘let them [the organisers] talk; let’s talk and find a solution.’
The organisers wanted the police to disperse the other group for illegally barging in on a private event. Ven. Jinananda Thera vehemently denies that his group ‘disrupted anything.’ Getting frustrated as the situation was out of their control, the police tell the disrupters not to ‘mess up even more.’
In another clip, an attendee claims, ‘this is our church grounds… how can a Buddhist monk enter our church grounds?’ to which a police officer replies, ‘don’t create unnecessary problems.’ Both sides begin to blame the police for ‘not doing their job properly.’
“Both sides have now lodged complaints against us,” OIC Perera said. “When we arrived, there was a huge commotion. …If we didn’t go, the situation would have been worse. We couldn’t take any action without figuring out what was going on.”
Civil society activists, however, faulted the police for alleged inaction.
“The police didn’t arrest a single person, including any of the monks, despite their disgusting behaviour,” human rights activist J.C. Weliamuna , who was present during the incident, said. “It’s shocking how the Government is failing to protect peaceful meetings and workshops, despite several attacks in recent times. In my view, no one can continue this type of interference unless they have protection from above.”
Ven. Jinananda Thera, a Bodu Bala Sena-affiliated monk who described himself as an adviser to a group called the Dead and Missing Persons’ Parents’ Collective, which he says has about 15,000 Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim parents registered with it, said his group disrupted the event because it was conducted by ‘traitors’ secretly using ‘Mahaveer families’ to ‘give evidence of war crimes.’
He added that his organisation also had evidence of disappearances, ‘so we went there as a group to participate.’ When asked why he gate-crashed the private event without first asking for an invitation, he said as a group working with parents of missing people, ‘we had a right.’
“Ven. Jinananda Thera wanted us to speak to the families he had brought, but we only saw thugs with him, who were shouting and abusing us,” Nimalka Fernando, the human rights activist and lawyer, who was in attendance, said. “We didn’t even know about the Thera’s organisation until he mentioned it at a press conference.”
While the yelling and the swearing went on, video clips show the visiting families sitting at the opposite end of the room, unable to understand the angry words being screamed in Sinhala, with some women covering their faces with their hands, trembling in fear. In the background, voices attempt o translate to attending diplomats what the commotion was about.
The incident was condemned later by attending diplomats and some civil society organisations, such as the Centre for Policy Alternatives and Lawyers’ Collective.
“The mob shouted hate-filled slogans, made unfounded accusations, and behaved threateningly towards the families of the disappeared,” a U.S. Embassy statement read. “… The strong impression was that the protesters were seeking to intimidate and silence those in attendance.”
In a joint statement, the embassies of France, Germany, Britain and Switzerland ‘strongly’ condemned ‘the disruption by an organised group, including monks.’
“We strongly urge the Government to ensure and respect freedom of assembly and expression in Sri Lanka,” the joint statement read. “We sincerely hope that the security of those having travelled from the Northern Province to share their experience will be assured upon their return.”
The External Affairs Ministry responded with its own statement claiming, “a certain section of the diplomatic corps appears to be involved in a manner lacking in objectivity, in events organised for a particular region and community.”
“I consider this autocratic high handed move by some forces working inside the state who are not respecting the democratic freedom in this country, and they (sic) are unleashing these threats using several groups, manipulating religious and ethnic differences,” Nimalka Fernando said. “This is just a ploy to shut down dialogue and movement among communities and to push us back to work as segregated communities, which helps the state to [establish] its authoritarianism.”