Parents of the Missing die of grief

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 18 March 1998, 23:59 GMT]
The Missing Persons Guardian's Association of Jaffna (MPGA-J) states that the number of parents who die out of grief for their children who were arrested by the SLA and are still missing is on the increase in the Jaffna peninsula.

The MPGA-J says in a press note that five of its members who had been grief stricken for months as they had been unable to find out anything about their missing children have died.

Last Saturday, according to the MPGA, Thillaiampalam Sellathurai of Ariyalai near Jaffna town, the father of a missing youth and a member of the Association, died, his health affected by grieving and melancholia.

The MPGA met the Jaffna SL security forces commander Maj. Gen. Lionel Balagalle on Sunday, March 15, to discuss the question missing persons in Jaffna.

Among other things, the MPGA took up the following matters also with the commander

1.the three Jaffna university students taken by the army and whose whereabouts are still not known.

2.The twenty three persons who were arrested at the Navatkuly SLA camp.

3. The eighteen who were arrested at the Semmani SLA camp.

4. The twenty two persons who were detained by the SLA at the Pungankulam camp in Ariyalai.

The MPGA delegation gave the commander separate lists of the persons who were arrested at each of these three camps.

Maj.Gen. Balagalle asked the MPGA delegation to provide lists of people who were arrested by other SLA camps in Jaffna as well.

Related Articles:
29.12.97   MPGA meeting with president inconclusive
28.11.97   Jaffna 'disappeared' are dead: Amnesty