War-affected Tamils who are desperately searching for their beloved ones who surrendered to the Sri Lankan military during the final phase of the brutal civil war continue to live under fear and intimidation even as they are snooped upon in courts.
In one such recent incident, the relatives of forcibly disappeared have been questioned by Sri Lanka’s intelligence agencies when they came to the Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court, where cases related to the war came up for hearing on Monday (12).
Thousands of Tamils were handed over to the Sri Lankan Military and other agencies as the civil war came to a bloody end in May 2009.
Mullaitivu Magistrate’s Court was hearing a case filed by the mother of an LTTE cadre who was handed over by her to the Sri Lankan state security forces, seeking the whereabouts of her son and finding him. Local journalists say the court was also hearing another case about the Kokkuthoduvai mass grave.
Heavy intelligence presence was seen in and around the court complex openly intimidating the war-affected Tamil mothers, said a Tamil MP and a mother who was affected due to the war.
“When I came to the court, they asked, Akka do you have a case hearing today,” Mariasuresh Easwary, President of the Association for the Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED) told local journalists in front of the court complex in Mullaitivu District on 08 August.
Adding further, she said since the state intelligence sleuths move in and around the court complex, Tamil mothers feel very unsafe while visiting there. "They know very well we are coming for the hearing. Such threats for us continue. When they are all around here we feel terrified to come out with the truth. We don’t have proper protection."
Mariasuresh Easwary also expressed fears, their children’s lives could be in danger if they speak to the media. “We don’t have the freedom to speak. We have a lot to say here at this place. But we don’t know whether we would be alive if we spoke that to the media. Since we are afraid our children could be abducted, we are self-censoring speaking to the media”.
Confirming the fears of the ARED, Selvarajah Kajendran, a senior Tamil MP from Jaffna said the scenario at the court very much reflected the reality experienced by the war-affected Tamil mothers who are searching for their Kith and Kin. He too was in the court on that day for the hearing and added the ARED group left the court fearing for their lives.
“Wherever we look there are military intelligence divisions and those who could be said as TID (Counter Terrorism Investigation Division) members all over. Large numbers of them can be seen outside today, most of the relatives of the enforced disappeared persons who came here have returned because they were afraid that even standing here could endanger them. Due to this fear, we could see most of them going back”.
Habeas corpus petition
Evidence was also presented at the Magistrate’s Court in Mullaitivu by a mother whose son went missing after he surrendered to the Sri Lankan Army. Senior Attorney for the mother K.S Ratnavel told local reports after the hearing that the mother told the court her son was taken in a bus after surrendering to the military.
“She told the court her son surrendered to the Sri Lankan Army at the Mullaitivu military camp during the final phase of the war in 2009 and he was taken away in a bus from the military-controlled area and was never seen again and no information was provided despite taking all efforts with the government officials, government institutions, commissions of inquiry and was left with no alternative to filing a habeas corpus petition in the court”.
The attorney added that further hearing of the case will be held on 27 November this year.
Despite the former commander of the 58th division of the Sri Lankan Army and the Mullaitivu Military Camp Major General Kavinda Chanakya Gunawardena telling the court in 2018 that a list of those former LTTE cadres surrendered to the army at the Mullaitivu army camp, he did not produce the same in the court.
But, subsequently, he changed his account to say he only had the document the Rehabilitation Commissioner gave.
The Sri Lankan Military on various occasions has emphasized no one surrendered to them during the final war.
In a landmark judgment in Sri Lankan judicial history, the Vavuniya High Court on December 16, 2022, acknowledged at least one former LTTE cadre who either surrendered or was arrested at the Mullaitivu Military Camp had been made to disappear by the army.
Arguments have been made in the courts in Vanni emphasizing that the Sri Lankan Army is responsible for the fate of those LTTE cadres who surrendered to the government security forces during the final phase of the war.
