Dandeniya Gamage Jayanthi is a
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
n political activist who focuses on the issue of
forced disappearances
An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a State (polity), state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the i ...
in the 1980s and 1990s.
Background
Jayanthi was one of ten children. Her father worked as a carpenter, and she and her siblings had to work throughout their childhood to earn money for their schooling and books.
After graduating, Jayanthi went to work in
Katunayake
Katunayake (, ), is a suburb of Negombo in Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is the site of Bandaranaike International Airport, the primary international air gateway to Sri Lanka. With the change of government in 1977 and the introduction of the op ...
, a Free Trade Zone surrounding
Colombo
Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...
's primary airport,
Bandaranaike International. There she became engaged to Ranjith Herath, a worker in another factory who had repeatedly petitioned the government over allegedly abuse labor conditions in his plant.
Jayanthi later described herself as very unpolitical at this time in her life, wishing only to earn a basic wage and start a family, and she repeatedly scolded Herath for his activism.
In 1989, Herath and his friend M. Lonel disappeared on their way to an inquiry with the management of his factory.
The pair were found dead on 27 October in Raddoluwa junction,
Seeduwa; they had been shot and then their bodies burned.
One of Jayanthi's brothers was taken by police and shot later that year, and another brother
disappeared in August 1990.
When Jayanthi made persistent inquiries with police officials, she began to receive death threats and be followed by strangers.
She finally chose to go into hiding, where she remained until 1992.
Activism
Jayanthi went on to organize other relatives of disappeared persons into the group Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared.
The group seeks to maintain interest in pursuing justice for these cases, as well as creating a public space where
urvivorscan remember the dead", allowing families to speak openly of their experiences.
In 2001, it erected a privately financed "Monument to the Disappeared", one of several planned.
The group also seeks to provide financial support, scholarships, and other educational opportunities for the survivors of the disappeared.
Over 1,000 disappeared people have now been registered with the group's database.
The group holds an annual ceremony for the disappeared on 27 October, the date that Herath and Lionel were found, in the junction in Seeduwa where their bodies were discovered.
In 2003, Jayanthi was awarded the
Gwangju Prize for Human Rights of the
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
-based
May 18
Events Pre-1600
* 332 – Emperor Constantine the Great announces free distributions of food to the citizens in Constantinople.
* 872 – Louis II of Italy is crowned for the second time as Holy Roman Emperor at Rome, at the age of 47 ...
Foundation, an annual award recognizing "individuals, groups or institutions in Korea and abroad that have contributed in promoting and advancing human rights, democracy and peace through their work".
References
External links
Photo galleryof a Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared ceremony organized by Jayanthi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jayanthi, Dandeniya Gamage
Living people
Sri Lankan human rights activists
Year of birth missing (living people)