Series of protest island wide in district level, to find the missing persons.

Monday , 20 May 2013

Protests are organized island wide to find the exact details of those disappeared. Mr. Suntharam Mahendram Secretary of the panel “finding the missing persons”, made the above statement.

He said, many were abducted and went missing during war period in north, east and Colombo regions. Many surrendered to the forces at the final phase of war, but their whereabouts are not known.

By holding a series of protest, by joining together a settlement could be sought to this crisis, by the relatives of missing persons.

Human rights societies operating in Colombo, civil society movements, associations handling the welfare of disappeared persons including 50 and more movements, assembled at Colombo Maradana, Social Religious Neutral Forum and took a final decision of conducting a series of protests.

Accordingly each month on a fixed date at a specified time,  it was decided to hold a series of protest countrywide, to find the details of the missing persons.

At the meeting it was decided to observe a day for missing persons.

“None has  got disappeared in Sri Lanka” was recently said by President’s brother and Defense Ministry Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse and after his statement, this decision was implemented was said.

Polls Monitors Fear Military Presence

21 May 2013

Election monitors are concerned about the possible strong military presence in the North if elections are held in September. Executive Director of CaFFE, Keerthi Tennakoon said that the political environment, the political freedom, the freedom of press and freedom of movement in the North needs to be addressed before the elections take place. “There are still restrictions in those areas that could hamper the movement of people engaged in election campaigning. The freedom of assembly on the other hand is always a question mark, because in Mullaitivu, Jaffna and even in Kilinochchi we see that if there are a group of people gathered, there are so many questions being asked by the security forces. The militarization is one main aspect. The North is one place that has more security personnel per square metre than any other place in the world. Therefore it is a big question mark as to when this militarization can stop and civil administration reinstated. The increasing of police personnel has to be introduced as part of the establishment of civil administration,” he said. He also said that this is the right time to ensure the freedom of expression, freedom of press, freedom of association and freedom of expressing ideas and most importantly canvassing for their parties especially the freedom to move freely and talk to the people has to be ensured for a fair election to be held. Petitioners in fear of continuous threats. Monday , 20 May 2013 Concerning the missing persons after surrendered to forces, habeas corpus petition was filed at the Vavuniya High Court, and unidentified persons are threatening to withdraw these petitions was the allegations made by the members from the finding the missing persons committee. At the final phase of war, year 2009, May 18th according to the directives given by the government forces, thousands of former rebels belonging to Tamil Eelam Liberation tiger movement surrendered to army. Former rebels surrendered in front of their relatives were transported by forces in buses. However, so far relatives are not aware about their whereabouts. In this state, concerning five persons who have gone disappeared after surrendered; their relatives have filed habeas corpus petitions on 20th of  last March month  at the Vavuniya High Court. Court ordered the chief official of the 58th battalion l