Families of war-disappeared send strong message braving SL restrictions on International Day

[TamilNet, Monday, 31 August 2020, 16:36 GMT]
The district organisations of the families of Eezham Tamils subjected to enforced disappearances at the hands of the occupying SL military and its paramilitary groups courageously staged protests in the North and East passing a strong message to the unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 30th August. Tamil protesters who mobilised in Batticaloa passed a strong message to the Rajapaksa establishment as they refused to adhere to the restrictions placed on them by the SL judiciary and the police. District coordinator, Amalanayaki Amalraj, received an interim order from Batticaloa Magistrate, AC Rizwan, following SL Police OIC, Samantha Bandara’s accusation that she was trying to convene more than one thousand people violating the pandemic restrictions.

The interim order also referred to another police accusation that such a rally could pave the way for ‘regrouping the LTTE’.

Irked by the SL police and judicial harassment, Tamil politicians accompanied by men and youth braved the restrictions passing a strong message to the Rajapaksa establishment.



TNA Parliamentarian R Shanakiyan, who led the mobilisation in Batticaloa rejected the police claim of protesters disregarding the measures imposed to restrict the spread of the pandemic.

The SL Police had recently allowed SL State Minister S. Viyalendran, a Tamil politician aligned with Rajapaksa’s SLPP, to stage a mass rally in Batticaloa. “How come they only restrict the protest of the mothers,” Mr Shanakiyan asked and led the protestors breaking the police barrier. A group of Tamil youth and men accompanied the mothers warning the SL Police to keep away.

In the meantime, Ms Amalanayaki convened a press conference later in the day and said the families were seeking international justice.

If the SL State had assassinated those whom the families had handed over to the SL military during the final hours of the war, it was nothing else than a brutal crime of genocide, she said.

“Why is Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the current president of the SL State who was the defence secretary in 2009, still unable to reveal the truth,” Amalanayaki asked.

The mothers were only demanding international justice, Ms Amalanayaki reiterated. Tamils were very well aware of the systemic inability of the SL State and its judiciary to deliver justice.

Since 2009, at least 72 mothers have perished while searching for their loved ones, she said and added that the international community must listen to the voices of the protesting mothers.

Vigorous protests were also held in the North, and the Tamil newspapers gave prominence to the news of these protests in their coverage on Monday.



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