Parents of Jaffna missing plan another protest

[TamilNet, Sunday, 30 November 2003, 13:20 GMT]
“The Sri Lankan government has duped us for long by giving false promises and not investigating the fate of our missing children. We intend to stage a sit in protest in front of the National Human Rights Commission offices in Jaffna and Colombo on 10 December”, said the President of the Missing Persons Guardian Association of Jaffna, Mr. E. Selvarajah, addressing a press meet in the northern town Sunday.

More than 600 young men and women who were arrested by the SLA in 1996-97 are still missing. Colombo is yet to start legal proceedings to investigate the matter despite the discovery of human skeletal remains during excavations ordered by the courts in an area near Jaffna town where the missing were alleged to have been buried according to the testimony of a SLA soldier convicted of raping and murdering a school girl.

Mr. Selvarajah said that Tamil Parliamentarians and Tamil ministers in the government have forgotten the missing children of Jaffna.

"We intend to contest general elections in the future to draw the world’s attention to the fact that our sons and daughters arrested and taken away by the Sri Lanka army are still missing".

“The Tamil MPs do not care about our problem. They are only interested feathering their nests in Colombo. We cannot look up to them anymore to solve our problem. This is why we want to contest elections in the future”, he said.