Tamil mothers threatened by “President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s rep”

“Anura’s Man” intimidate Tamil mothers searching for their beloved ones

Siva Parameswaran

“I am with Anura” was the straightforward threat to the war-affected Tamil mothers in Vavuniya searching for their loved ones who were handed over to the Sri Lanka’s military for more than 15 years now.

The said person, claiming himself to be a supporter of the newly elected President Anura Kumara Dissanayake could be seen threatening the mothers who are part of the Association for the Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances (ARED) in the North and East Provinces, a civil society group created to search for the tens of thousands of people who disappeared during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict.

The grieving mothers were observing ‘International Children’s Day’ on the first of October by carrying placards with the photos of the children who were victims of enforced disappearances demanding the day be observed as a black day. The protest was held in front of the Vavuniya bus station.

Sri Lanka along with El Salvador and Guatemala are the three countries where the incidents of enforced disappearances are very high and victims suffer the most.  

While the Tamil mothers were staging their protest seeking the whereabouts of their children, an unidentified man claiming himself to be with the newly elected President AKD threatened the protestors in an intimidating manner and demanded they stop the protest.

Reacting sharply the grieving mothers retorted back saying, “if so render justice to us” in unison.

The unidentified person claiming to be a supporter of the President accused the protesting mothers of receiving money from the diaspora and the LTTE and reminding them of the regime change and understanding that the representatives of the ARED must stop the protest apart from intimidating the elderly mothers.

“You cannot act like a hooligan and behave atrociously,” said ARED president of the Vavuniya district Sivananthan Jenita adding “This is our country, our land, we have rights over this and we are fighting for justice to us”, to which the unidentified person defiantly replied he is with Anura. 

In the war of words, the elderly mothers shot back saying, “If so, get us justice from the new President” and continued the protest, the said to be supporter of AKD shouted back saying “Don’t shout you dogs, will beat you black and blue”, local journalists who witnessed the clash say. 

Locals who witnessed the threatening of the self-styled supporter of the new President also had the audacity to tell the mothers their bank accounts would be searched and were forced to leave the place after a strong rebuttal from the unwavering mothers.

Even as the first protest under the new President was intimidated, Sivananthan Jenita demanded the President to identify the person who used his name and threatened the mothers who were searching for their children who were victims of enforced disappearance.

“An inquiry should be conducted against the person who tried to scuttle our protest seeking justice for our loved ones,” she told local media.

Sivananthan Jenitha reiterated their protest was a peaceful and democratic one.

“Now that the 9th President is in office; we took forward our protest in a democratic way demanding our rights. However, while we were carrying out our protest, an individual unnecessarily intervened and questioned us about how we could stage a protest. Who is this person? Who sent him? The nation and the international community should question this”.

She also recalled the new President Anura Kumara Dissanayaka’s message on the occasion of International Children’s Day.

“By developing the children physically and mentally, we hope they would develop into good human beings with independent thinking abilities with softness through which they could win over the world” the President had said in his message.

He had also outlined his plan of action to achieve his thought as said in his message.

“We would prioritize the necessary political change with dedication to ensure the necessary economic freedom and humanism, accepting and reciprocating mutual belief and respect, creating a society with such values, and protecting the environment, which has abundant natural resources. While dedicating ourselves to that goal, we all should responsibly function to achieve it”.

The President of the Vavuniya district ARED, Sivananthan Jenita further accused the past Presidents who came to power of failing to accept responsibility for the war and cheating the Tamil people and the International Community to cover up their defeat, Sivananthan Jenita added further.

“The Sri Lankan government is unable to answer our queries. They are unable to tell us where our children are, hundreds of them, whom the parents handed over to the military after the end of the war at the checkpoints. There has been no answer whatsoever. The past 8 Presidents never came forward to accept responsibility for the war yet they tried to cover it up by saying, they are not there, we did not abduct them, they are not in our custody and so on thereby deceiving the International Community and the Tamil people”.

Meanwhile, the members of the ARED in Jaffna and Killinochi declared the Children’s Day as a Black Day demanding accountability for their disappeared children and emphasizing justice for them, even as they undertook a protest for the same. 

The protests were held in front of the International Organization for Migrants in Jaffna and before the Kanthasamy Kovil in Killinochi, where they carried banners and placards with the photos of their children who are victims of enforced disappearances, local journalists say.

Human Rights Organizations have documented at least 280 people surrendered to the military based on their announcement, just a day before the war came to an end. Among them were an 8-month-old infant and 29 children under the age of 10.

A leading global rights organization International Truth and Justice Project- has said that was the day when most children went missing on a single day globally.

The grieving mothers, grandmothers, wives, and sisters are continuing their peaceful protest continuously for over 2780 days braving sun and rain on the streets of the traditional Tamil homeland in the North and East of Sri Lanka without proper food.

Many of the protestors have lost their lives during the past 8 years without knowing the fate of their beloved ones, whom they handed over to the Sri Lankan armed forces or those who surrendered to them after their announcement guaranteeing safety and security.

None of those who were either handed over by the relatives or surrendered or made victims of enforced disappearance were ever seen again.

The Office for Missing Persons (OMP), a government body formed by an act of Parliament “to trace and find the missing persons” has not even found a single person despite thousands of petitions seeking their kith and kin were handed over to them.

Tamils have rejected the OMP right from day one calling it a sham and an eyewash.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, Mano Ganesan has called upon the President to immediately arrest the person claiming to be his man and threaten the protest by the mothers in Vavuniya.

“Families of missing persons are protesting. They are continuing their protest in a democratic way. A thug calling himself Anura’s man has intervened and threatened the mothers. We are not saying so on a political basis. It’s not like that. He says so. So check if he is your man. See if he is using your name. Take legal action against that individual, that thug”.

Mano Ganesan made this demand along with other leaders of the opposition party the Samagi Jana Balawegaya during a press conference in Colombo.