Enforced Disappearances In Sri Lanka
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Tens of thousands of people have been disappeared in
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, ...
since the 1980s. A 1999 study by the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
found that Sri Lanka had the second highest number of disappearances in the world and that 12,000 Sri Lankans had disappeared after being detained by the Sri Lankan security forces. A few years earlier the Sri Lankan government had estimated that 17,000 people had disappeared. In 2003 the
Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
stated that it had received 20,000 complaints of disappearances during the Sri Lankan Civil War of which 9,000 had been resolved but the remaining 11,000 were still being investigated. Amnesty International reported in 2017 that the disappeared persons in Sri Lanka could be between 60,000 and 100,000 since the late 1980s. Human rights groups such as
Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...
,
Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
and
Asian Human Rights Commission The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is an independent, Non-governmental organization, non-governmental body that promotes human rights in Asia and mobilizes Asian and international public opinion to obtain relief and redress for the victims ...
have documented many of the disappearances and attributed them to the Sri Lankan security forces, pro-government
paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...
groups and
Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups rose to prominence in the 1970s to fight the state of Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. ...
. In 2016, the government under president
Maithripala Sirisena Maithripala Yapa Sirisena (; ; born 3 September 1951) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the seventh president of Sri Lanka from 9 January 2015 to 18 November 2019. Sirisena is Sri Lanka's first president from the North Central Province, S ...
agreed to issue a certificate of absence to relatives of over 65,000 that went missing during the civil war and the marxist uprising allowing them to temporarily manage the property and assets of missing people, to obtain provisional guardianship of their children and apply for government welfare schemes. Further the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) a proposal by Prime Minister
Ranil Wickremesinghe Ranil Wickremesinghe (; ; born 24 March 1949) is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the ninth president of Sri Lanka from 2022 to 2024. He has also served as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 1993–1994, 2001–2004, 2015–2018, 2018-2019 a ...
was created in the same year In 2020, president Gotabaya Rajapaksa confirmed that the missing people from the civil war are actually dead.


Background

Sri Lanka has a history of disappearances, both during the Sri Lankan Civil War and the 1980s JVP insurrection. Commissions have documented how thousands of people have been kidnapped by armed men and disappeared without a trace. The victims largely belong to the minority Sri Lankan Tamil community and thousands of Sinhalese youths from the Sinhalese community during the JVP insurgency.


White van abductions

Many Tamil nationalists claim there was a resurgence of abductions in 2005 after the failure of Norwegian mediated peace process. The victims of the abductions were predominantly Sri Lankan Tamils living in
Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...
and
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 ...
. A notable feature in the abductions is the use of white vans without number plates. White van abductions were a part of life in Jaffna and the abductions were carried with impunity even during curfew hours in this period. Several youth were also abducted in Colombo by white vans in 2008. The families of the victims accused the then navy commander and Gotabhaya Rajapaksa of the abductions. Then president Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother and then defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is accused of being the "architect of white van abductions" and is accused of silencing critics and dissidents. However Gotabhaya replied saying that White vans only abduct "criminals"


See also

* Allegations of State terrorism by Sri Lanka * Human rights in Sri Lanka * War crimes in Sri Lanka


References


External links

*
Lanka News
White Van Death Squad exposed {{DEFAULTSORT:Enforced Disappearances In Sri Lanka Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Military of Sri Lanka People of the Sri Lankan civil war Sri Lanka Police Causes of the Aragalaya