Many disappearances still unaccounted for

[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 January 1999, 13:10 GMT]
Kachcheri sources in Kilinochchi said today that 164 persons of the district were reported missing in 1998. The fate of 109 of these persons is not known they said. Eight of these were arrested and killed by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) and forty seven were released by the Sri Lankan security forces.

The release of 22 persons was officially communicated to the Jaffna government agent by the Sri Lankan security forces headquarters at Palaly.

The others who were released have reported to the Kilinochchi Kachcheri said officials.

Of the 109 whose fate is not known, some, including women and children, may have perished in mid sea while trying to cross the Palk strait to Tamil Nadu they added.

The majority went missing in the environs of the large no-man's land surrounding the outer defence perimeter of the SLA base at Kilinochchi which was overrun by the Liberation Tigers in September last year.

It was believed that they were apprehended and killed by the SLA's forward patrols while they had gone to inspect the homes that they had abandoned when the army moved into Kilinochchi town in October 1996.

The Liberation Tigers who overran and captured the base last year found skeletons suspected to be those of the civilians who went missing in these parts after October 1996.