Parents of missing Jaffna youth to meet Sri Lanka’s President

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 24 December 2003, 14:13 GMT]
The parents and relatives of the young men and women who went missing after they were arrested by the Sri Lanka army in Jaffna in 1996-97 have been invited by President Chandrika Kumaratunga for a meeting with her on 31 December, a spokesperson for the Missing Persons Guardian Association (MPGA) said Wednesday. Members of the MPGA and the Jaffna Mother’s Front will travel to Colombo in a bus provided by Sri Lanka’s Minister for Hindu Affairs, Mr. T. Maheswaran.

They will first go to Kathirgamam on 28 December to worship at the Murugan Temple in the pilgrimage centre in the island’s deep south. The next day they will stage a protest in front of the Ministry of Justice in Colombo. On 30 December the MPGA and the Jaffna Mothers’ Front will protest in front of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission in the capital, the spokesperson told TamilNet.

He said one of the President’s secretaries, Ms. Pushpa Wellappili, wrote to the MPGA on 16 December, inviting them to meet President Kumaratunga regarding the fate of their missing children.

Ms. Wellappili in her letter has asked the MPGA and the Jaffna Mothers’ Front to bring details of the missing persons for the meeting.

The MPGA met the President four years ago after many agitations in Jaffna demanding justice and action by the government. Nothing came of the meeting despite the wide publicity it got at the time.