Another Tamil man dies without knowing fate of war-missing son

A 65-year-old Tamil man from Vavuniya has died without knowing the fate of his son who has been missing for 16 years.

This takes to 188 the number of parents whose deaths happened during a yet unfinished struggle for nearly 2,500 days to find justice for the war-missing.

Muttiah Arumugam, died on 12 October, was one of the participants of an indefinite Satyagraha in Vavuniya, as he searched for his son who was last known to have gone to the town in 2007.

Arumugam believed that his son had been abducted by the military.

In the meantime, the Office for Missing Persons has promised special facilities for kidney transplant surgeries for families of the missing persons.

Mahesh Katulanda, who heads the OMP that has failed to find a single missing person so far, has told the media that they would be given priority in the waiting list.

Protests began in 2017 in Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Trincomalee and Ampara demanding to know the fate of those who surrendered to the military during the final stages of the war.

They are asking for an international mediation in their quest for justice.

In August, President Ranil Wickremesinghe told parliament that he wanted to reiterate the need to ensure justice for the war-affected Tamil people.

He said the OMP has completed investigations into 3,462 cases out of 21,374 complaints it has received.