The day that happiness died
By Hana Ibrahim
  Twenty-fourth January is remembered for many reasons. Historically, it was on this day that former Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill died (1965), that the American serial killer Ted Bundy was electrocuted (1989), that Robert Baden-Powell organized the first Boy Scout troop in England (1908).... but for Sandhya, wife of missing cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda, this is the day ‘happiness died’, forcing her on a quest for answers that has proved to be as arduous as it has been heartbreaking.
During a recent interview with The Independent, Sandhya said 24 January 2010 was the day, “happiness drained from her life”. It was the last time she saw her journalist/political cartoonist husband, Prageeth, who went missing from his workplace around 8.30 that evening.
There has been no news of Prageeth since then and he has been missing for more than 1,000 days. Sandhya believes he is alive and would return to her one day. “My absolute faith is that Prageeth is alive. He is my courage. He always worked for justice and equality. He was never a violent person. He never believed in violence, he never promoted violence. He always worked for peace and unity. Prageeth was not only my husband. He was my best friend. So it’s my responsibility to make sure justice is done,” she says.
Government response to Prageeth’s disappearance and Sandhya’s pleas for a proper inquiry have been remarkably lackadaisical, leading both Sandhya and several Rights groups to believe it to be directly responsible for Prageeth’s disappearance.
Retracted the statement
At a meeting of United Nations Convention Against Torture in Geneva, the then Attorney General (now Chief Justice), Mohan Peiris, dismissed the charges against the government and said Prageeth had sought asylum abroad. For seven months Sandhya demanded proof for such a statement. None was forthcoming. Eventually when questioned in the court later, he retracted the statement, claiming he does not remember who the source of his information was and that “only God knows” the whereabouts of the missing journalist.
Prageeth’s disappearance came a few days ahead of the 2010 Presidential Election, which had the former Army Commander contesting against the incumbent President. Like many independent journalists, he placed his lot with the Opposition candidate, perhaps hoping things would improve. But it didn’t. As the ensuing weeks and months proved, things only got worse.
Prior to his disappearance, Prageeth had been working on several issues, most of which dealt with corruption, political malpractice and alleged government atrocities in the long war.
According to Sandhya, when Prageeth left home that fateful morning, she had no inclination, it would be the last time she would be seeing him, or talking to him, or watching him walk down the narrow lane. Prageeth, who reportedly left his Rajagiriya office to meet with a friend, around 8.00 p.m., simply vanished. He was last seen getting into a three-wheeler.
Prageeth disappeared
A colleague phoned Prageeth’s mobile at 8.30 p.m., only to hear a strange noise on the line before it went dead. That was the last anybody heard of him.
“Since the day Prageeth disappeared, there has not been any happiness in this house,” says Sandhya, claiming she feels like she is walking into a mausoleum every time she enters the house she shared with Prageeth and their two sons. “I haven’t cooked milk rice in this house since then. There is nothing to be joyful about.”
She recalls his 12-hour abduction in August the previous year and says her husband had been worried and had noticed a vehicle without number plates frequently parked outside the house. He had also commented on regular clicking noises on his phone, leading him to believe it was tapped. Two weeks prior to his disappearance, he had said he believed he was on a government hit list.
On that fateful day, when her husband failed to return home, Sandhya went to the police to report his disappearance. In a travesty that was to be repeated, and continues to a certain extent even today, she was sent from pillar to post, with neither the police station closest to her home, nor the station closest to his office, willing to accept her complaint.
To date, all she has met with is repeated refusals to accept her husband’s disappearance as a bona fide case and silence from the government. Sandhya says she tried through judicial channels, Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission and even appealed, in a poignant letter to First Lady, Shiranthi Rajapaksa, seeking help as a mother and wife of a former dissident herself, all to no avail.
Last year, she spoke in Geneva on the International Day of the Disappeared, and personally handed a letter to UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
Sandhya, whose constant quest has been to keep Prageeth’s story alive in the local and international media, says if she gives up, she would be handing victory to the perpetrators and denying justice not only for Prageeth, but for all the other husbands and sons who have involuntarily disappeared over the past few years.
|
Video: World Press Freedom Day- Lecture By Rohan Edrisinha
World Press Freedom Day was organized by Free Media Movement & Sri Lanka Press Institute in the theme of Freedom of Speech and Expression and the Rule of Law on 3rd May 2013 at Hotel Janaki