“I am with Anura Kumara” was the straightforward threat to war-affected Tamil mothers in Vavuniya searching for their loved ones who were handed over to the Sri Lanka’s military for more than 15 years now.
Tamil politicians have urged to identify and arrest the threatening man claiming to be a supporter of newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
Just a week after the president took office, the unidentified man, could be seen intimidating the mothers from the Association for the Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances (ARED) in the North and East Provinces, a war affected group searching for the tens of thousands of Tamils who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict.
The grieving mothers were observing ‘International Children’s Day’ by carrying placards with the photos of the children who were victims of enforced disappearances demanding the day be observed as a black day. The protest was held in front of the Vavuniya bus station.
Sri Lanka marks the Day of the Child on the first of October, along with El Salvador and Guatemala where the incidents of enforced disappearances are very high and victims suffer the most.
While the Tamil mothers were staging their protest, the unidentified man claiming himself to be with the newly elected President Anura Kumara threatened the protestors demanding they stop the protest.
Reacting sharply the grieving mothers retorted with, “if so, get him to deliver justice to us” in unison.
“You cannot act like a hooligan and use thuggery,” said ARED president of the Vavuniya district Sivananthan Jenita, adding “This is our country, our land, we have rights over this and we are fighting for justice to us,” to which the unidentified person defiantly replied he is with the President.
In the war of words, the elderly mothers shot back saying, “If so, get us justice from the new President” and continued with the protest, the self-claimed AKD supporter shouted back saying “Don’t shout you dogs, we will beat you black and blue,” local journalists who witnessed the clash say.
The self-styled supporter of the new President who also had the audacity to tell the mothers their bank accounts would be searched was forced to leave the place after a strong rebuttal from the unwavering mothers.
Even as the first protest under the new President was intimidated, Sivananthan Jenita demanded the President to identify the person who used his name and threatened the mothers who were searching for their children who were victims of enforced disappearance.
“An inquiry should be conducted against the person who tried to scuttle our protest seeking justice for our loved ones,” she told local media.
“Now that the 9th President is in office; we took forward our protest in a democratic way demanding our rights. However, while we were carrying out our protest, an individual unnecessarily intervened and questioned us about how we could stage a protest. Who is this person? Who sent him? The nation and the international community should question this”.
She also recalled the new President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka’s message on the occasion of International Children’s Day.
“By developing the children physically and mentally, we hope they would develop into good human beings with independent thinking abilities with softness through which they could win over the world,” the President had said in his message.
He had also outlined his plan of action to achieve his thought as said in his message.
“We would prioritize the necessary political change with dedication to ensure the necessary economic freedom and humanism, accepting and reciprocating mutual belief and respect, creating a society with such values, and protecting the environment, which has abundant natural resources. While dedicating ourselves to that goal, we all should responsibly function to achieve it”.
The President of the Vavuniya district ARED, Sivananthan Jenita further accused the past Presidents who came to power of failing to accept responsibility for the war and cheating the Tamil people and the International Community to cover up their defeat. “The Sri Lankan government is unable to answer our queries. They are unable to tell us where our children are, hundreds of them, whom the parents handed over to the military after the end of the war at the checkpoints. There has been no answer whatsoever. The past 8 Presidents never came forward to accept responsibility for the war yet they tried to cover it up by saying, they are not there, we did not abduct them, they are not in our custody and so on thereby deceiving the International Community and the Tamil people”.
Meanwhile, the members of the ARED in Jaffna and Killinochi declared the Children’s Day as a Black Day demanding accountability for their disappeared children and emphasizing justice for them.
The protests were held in front of the International Organization for Migrants in Jaffna and opposite the Kanthasamy Kovil in Killinochchi, where they carried banners and placards with the photos of their children who are victims of enforced disappearances.
Human Rights Organizations have documented details of at least 280 people who surrendered to the military, just a day before the war came to an end. Among them were an 8-month-old infant and 29 children under the age of 10.
A leading global rights organization International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) identifies it as the single day when the largest number of children went missing globally.
The grieving mothers, grandmothers, wives, and sisters are continuing their peaceful protest continuously for over 2780 days braving sun and rain on the streets of the traditional Tamil homeland in the North and East of Sri Lanka.
More than 250 protestors have lost their lives during the past 8 years without knowing the fate of their beloved ones, whom they handed over to the Sri Lankan armed forces or those who surrendered to them after announcements of guaranteeing safety and security.
None of those who were either handed over by the relatives or surrendered or made victims of enforced disappearance were ever seen again.
The Office for Missing Persons (OMP), a government body formed by an act of Parliament “to trace and find the missing persons” has not even found a single person despite thousands of petitions seeking their kith and kin were handed over to them.
Tamils have rejected the OMP right from day one calling it a sham and an eyewash.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, Mano Ganesan speaking to journalists in Colombo, has called upon the President to immediately arrest the person claiming to be his man and threaten the protest by the mothers in Vavuniya.
“Families of missing persons are protesting. They are continuing their protest in a democratic way. A thug calling himself Anura’s man has intervened and threatened the mothers. We are not saying so on a political basis. It’s not like that. He says so. So check if he is your man. See if he is using your name. Take legal action against that individual, that thug”.
Authorities including the president are yet to respond.
