Relatives of missing persons have claimed that individuals manning their office in Kilinochchi are being subjected to constant and unnecessary questioning by the security forces, particularly the Criminal Investigations Department (CID).
Speaking to The Morning, Kathirgamanathan Kokilavani, whose eldest son had gone missing in December 2008, said that in 2017, the families of missing persons had staged a protest in the Kilinochchi town, as their longstanding demands from successive governments for justice for the people who disappeared during the war did not receive a reasonable response. Following the protest, she said that they had established an office in Kilinochchi town for the relatives of missing persons in the Kilinochchi area.
“In the Kilinochchi District alone, more than 1,600 people disappeared during the war. This office was established for all those people. Every day, a relative of a certain missing person comes and stays at this office from morning to evening. They are here for their relatives and not for any illegal activity. All they are doing here is making flower wreaths and performing religious activities for their disappeared relatives.”
However, she claimed that those at the said office are being subjected to constant and unnecessary interrogation by the security forces, mainly the CID.
“When someone comes to meet us here, members of the security forces would arrive at this place or call us on the phone and interrogate us regarding who came and why they visited the office. Even when a vehicle is parked here, they question us as to why the vehicle was there and who arrived in it. Despite knowing that nothing illegal is happening here, they question us unnecessarily,” she said.
Meanwhile, Yogeswaram Wijayalakshmi, who is at the office in Kilinochchi for her daughter who disappeared during the war, told The Morning that she too has been questioned by the security forces on several occasions for being at the said location. She said that she had informed the security forces that she was not engaging in anything illegal in the office and that she is ready to leave the office immediately if the Government makes an official statement regarding what happened to her missing daughter.
The issue of missing persons in the Northern and Eastern provinces has long been a matter of attention both locally and internationally. Families of missing persons engage in various activities such as holding protests and filing complaints with local and foreign institutions to determine what had happened to them. Although various governments have implemented programmes such as the establishment of the Office on Missing Persons to provide justice for missing persons, their families have criticised such measures and questioned the sincerity of the same for a variety of reasons.