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Mauri’s sit-in protest highlights plight of thousands of families of missing people
Every first week of September for the past five year, Mauri Inoka comes from Anuradhapura to sit in protest in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. She has just one wish: To know what became of her husband, Madushka Haris, a fruit vendor who was abducted in 2013 along with two others by an armed group.
Mauri was heavily pregnant. The other men were later released but Madushka remains missing. Sitting with her this week was Abdul Wajith Siththi Jameena whose son, a three-wheeler driver in Colombo, and two of his passengers were taken by an unknown group in 2009. All three are still missing.
Today, the children of these men are being raised by single mothers amidst immense hardships with no knowledge of what befell their fathers. Like Mauri and Siththi Jameena, thousands of families of disappeared are waiting for answers to what happened to their missing children who were abducted or made to disappear. Last month, due to ill health, Tamil mothers in the North and East ended their yearlong protest demanding the whereabouts of their children.
“I’m tired of going to police stations, courts and various commissions to find out what happened to my husband,” Mauri told the Sunday Times while she was sitting at the Galle Face Green. “Despite complaints to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) and other authorities, little or nothing has happened so far. The court case is being dragged on for years. I don’t think this Government will give me justice but I won’t stop my struggle,” she said.
Some civil society activists sat with her in solidarity while passers-by stopped to inquire about her tragic story. Mauri said she was sceptical about the effectiveness of recently established Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and is yet to lodge a complaint with the office.
OMP Chairman Saliya Pieris told the Sunday Times that those who wanted to lodge a fresh complaint on a past enforced disappearance could do so by writing to the office directly. The OMP’s interim report outlining measures that could be taken in near future to provide relief to families of the disappeared was hand over to President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday.
President Sirisena told representatives of international donor agencies that he had appointed a cabinet sub-committee to study the report. He vowed that steps would be taken to implement its recommendations, including providing livelihoods and welfare to the families of missing persons.
“We made some specific recommendations to the Government and the Ministry of Defence for the security forces that have to be implemented through Attorney General’s Department,” Mr Pieiris noted. “The OMP will take up the other recommendations with relevant agencies for a comprehensive implementation process.”
Meanwhile, Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research, a Jaffna-based NGO, said in a paper released last week that families of disappeared and civil society activists closely working with them are subject to surveillance, harassment and intimidation in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
“No mechanism to address disappearances will be able to succeed without the important step to ensuring victim and witness protection and protect the families who still continue to search for their loved ones, in spite of all the risks,” the paper said.
| OMP’s interim report shows grave picture The Office of Missing Persons (OMP) has noted with concern the existence of “patterns of behaviour by State actors” — which enables enforced disappearances to be met with persistent impunity, the OMP said in its interim report released this week. “Some individuals suspected of having committed enforced disappearances and related offences are being permitted to remain in positions of power—especially within the armed forces and the police—where they can influence the progress of an investigation,” it observed. “There have been instances where members of the armed forces, who were willing to provide information on disappearances, were subject to harassment.” The OMP has urged the State to provide relief measures to the families of missing but stressed that, “The acceptance of relief measures cannot be regarded as a waiver of the right to adequate, prompt and effective reparation for the damage caused and the right to seek judicial remedies for accountability.” It pointed out that previous efforts at compensation have created distrust among victims and in turn have created doubt over the State’s willingness to provide truth and justice. Also recommended are scholarships for children in the form of a monthly allowance of Rs 2,000, vocational and livelihood development programmes and employment quotas. The office urges that priority be given to investigation and prosecution of cases involving enforced disappearances and the investigation of all incidents of arbitrary arrest, torture, deaths in custody. | |