A Heartbreaking Story: ‘Agape Orphanage’ Ripped Apart

By Eva Kodithuwakku -April 20, 2013 |

Eva Kodithuwakku

I am a Sri Lankan lady 72 years of age and was residing overseas for 12 years. Upon returning to Sri Lanka in 2007, I visited the Agape Children’s Home in Tissamaharama – an orphanage run by Rev. Dayaratne (Parish Priest of the Assembly of God Church) and his wife Sister Mala.

I offered to work at the Home as a volunteer, handling the administration and also to teach English to the children. During this period I was touched to see the way the children were brought up as one family. They called Sister Mala and Rev. Dayaratne ‘Amma’ (Mum) and ‘Thatha’ (Dad) who in turn showered the children with parental love they so deserved. I realized that this was not run like a normal orphanage but a loving home; they were ‘one big happy family.’

With no intention of opening an orphanage, Rev. Dayaratne and his wife Mala opened their home to receive an abused child way back in year 2001. With the increase in numbers, it was registered as an orphanage under ‘Agape Children’s Home’ in 2006. Presently it houses over a 100 children at any given time.

Agape Children pleading not to be taken away

To date it has sheltered around 200 children up to the age of 18 years which include some who are now employed and even given in marriage. These children include abused, abandoned, orphaned and destitute children sent by the Department of Child Care and Probation and the Magistrate Courts in Hambantota, Tissamaharama, Balapitiya and Angunakolapelessa of Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim backgrounds.

At Agape Home, all girls and boys only under the age of 13 are housed in 8 cottages equipped with beds, linen, toilets and other basic facilities. Each cottage accommodates 10 – 12 children along with a full-time House-Mother who works on a voluntary basis. This section has a kid’s play area, playground, auditorium, large dining hall, library, computer room, common toilets and showers. Rev. Dayaratne, Sister Mala and their 20-year old daughter live in a separate house within the premises, while their second daughter aged 14 years lives in one of the cottages with the other children.

On the opposite side of the road is a 2500 sq ft two storied building used as a dormitory to house only boys of ages 13 – 18 years. This too is equipped with toilets, kitchen and a pantry.  Rev. Dayaratne’s only son aged 15 also lives in this building along with the other boys.

The home is also blessed with a mini bus and a 3-wheeler, to meet the transportation needs of the children. The bus also picks up other children in the village on its way to school and back.

Agape has its own pre-school situated within its premises and is also attended by some of the children from the surrounding villages. The rest of the children of school going age attend two Government Schools in Tissamaharama.  All these children despite their own religion learn Buddhism as a subject up to GCE O/L.

Amongst these are 03 children aged 12, 13 and 14 who attend ‘Apey Pattaw’, a school for children with special needs located in Hambantota. It is an emotional sight to watch all these children kiss their Amma and Thatha before they leave to school in the mornings. Another 08 year old boy who obtained a full scholarship attends an International School in Colombo.

Agape Home was placed first in the Hambantota District and third in the Southern Province for quality standards awarded by the Department of Probation and Childcare Services in 2010.

The home is registered under the Child Care Probation Department and does not receive any financial assistance from the state.  However, there are many who have heard and visited the home, and they voluntarily support it in many ways. The main costs of running the home include electricity, water, food, medical, transport and education.

Due to the constraints of meeting these operational expenses and in order to become self-sufficient, a vegetable plot was started about 04 years ago behind the boys’ dormitory. Subsequently a poultry farm was set up with the intention to provide an egg a day for a child.

The farm then expanded to include a piggery, mainly to sell the animals when mature, which brought in a reasonable amount of income to run the home. Both the poultry and the piggery were handled by two men aged 54 and 21 years and not by any of the children. The home ran a small farm shop by the roadside to sell some of the produce from the farm.

On Saturday 23rd of March 2013, one of the men in charge of the piggery was preparing to slaughter one animal. During this time some of the older boys from the Home were engaged in clearing branches and undergrowth in the area where they had their vegetable plots. An interested party from the neighborhood known to the children had prompted the boys to leave the vegetable plot and run towards the piggery. These events had been discreetly filmed and was aired on a local TV Channel on 24th night, alleging that the boys from the home are used to slaughter pigs. Pastor Dayaratne was arrested the following day, based on this TV report and later released on bail.

The propaganda against the Agape Home continued with the distribution of handbills, posters and organized rallies in and around Tissamaharama. The same TV Channel on the 4^th of April also showed a child whose face was disguised, purported to be from the Agape Home, accusing the Rev. Dayaratne of sexual abuse of girls in the Home. This child was never at Agape Home and is not connected to the Home in any way.

The same evening officials of the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) arrived with a court order at the home to remove all the children. Despite screams and cries asking their ‘Amma’ and ‘Thatha’ to save them all 76 of children were reluctantly bundled into a single 42-seat bus amidst their protests and were taken away at around 9.00 pm. This painful incident will remain in the memmory these children for many years to come.

Photos of the incident taken at the time were confiscated and destroyed by some persons who came along with the NCPA officials. The children had been taken first to Tissamaharama and then to the Lunugamvehera Police Stations. The villagers living nearby told us how they heard the screams of the children up to their homes and had come running to see what was happening. The bus had then left and eventually arrived at the NCPA Head Office at Madiwela, Kotte the following morning around 7.30. All the children had been put into an empty hall in the building with only a few bed sheets on the ground to sleep on.

Up to now we have not had any contact with these children although we learnt that all of them have been scattered in various orphanages throughout the country. No Media Organization has interviewed these children. Among them are 3 girls and 3 boys sitting for the GCE (O/L) examination and 2 girls sitting for the GCE (A/L) examination this year. They plead that they be released to come back to Agape Home and continue their studies. Their school books, clothes and toys still remain in their little cottages with their House-Mothers still waiting anxiously for their return.

These children, who have never known what it is to have a home, love of a mother or father, never had peace in their lives, abused, never gone to school have got a new lease of life at the Agape Home. These scared and broken children found love, peace, joy and finally a FAMILY that each child calls his own. I know for a fact that they don’t have all the luxuries of life but they had the greatest treasure of a Mother, Father, brothers and sisters.

Sadly their lives have been ripped apart and their hearts broken by a handful of heartless selfish people with ulterior motives. My only request is that those responsible for the removal of these children which resulted in the breakup of this family will heed the voices of these broken children and allow them to return to Agape and unite once again with the only family that most of them have ever known.

One Boston Marathon bombing suspect dead, other still at large: authorities

• By FRANK ROSARIO and JENNIFER BAIN in Boston and LARRY CELONA and DAN MACLEOD in NY
• Last Updated: 9:34 AM, April 19, 2013

One of the men suspected in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings is dead, and the other remains at large this morning as authorities have surrounded a Watertown home.

The AP has reported that the two men are brothers, an uncle of the pair told the news agency.

AP

FBI photos show the men suspected in Monday's Boston Marathon bombings. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who has been called "Suspect No. 1" at left has died, officials said, while Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, known as "Suspect No. 2," (right) remains at large.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who has been referred to as "Suspect No. 1" and was seen wearing sunglasses and a black cap in video and pictures – was wounded in a shootout with police, and later died at the hospital.

His younger brother Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, who has been referred to “Suspect No. 2,” seen wearing a backwards white cap over his shaggy hair, is still on the loose, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said in an early-morning press conference. Law enforcement officials are conducting a manhunt to find him.

Officials have swarmed a Watertown home on Quimby and Willow Park. There are about 50 officers outside the home as well as a large SWAT truck with an officer manning a gun on the turret of the truck.

PHOTOS: MANHUNT FOR BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING SUSPECT

More authorities are armed with what appear to be assault rifles and shotguns.

An officer is on a megaphone saying "If you're in there, come out."

The authorities have forced a one-block perimeter around the home and everyone has been evacuated from their homes.

There appears to be at least three law enforcement helicopters circling the area.

Officials conducted a controlled explosion outside the home this morning.

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19

Google Earth

A map of the Watertown neighborhood where SWAT teams and other agencies have swarmed a home.

The suspects were identified as hailing from the Russian region near Cechnya - and they've been living legally in the US for at least one year, the AP reports.

A man who has been identified as their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, called Tamberlan "a loser."

"I have heard he has not been in school."

The father of the suspects claims that his son who is still on the loose is a smart and accomplished young man.

Anzor Tsarnaev spoke with The Associated Press by telephone from the Russian city of Makhachkala on Friday after police said one of his sons, 26-year-old Tamerlan, had been killed in a shootout and the other, Dzhokhar, was being intensely pursued.

The FBI released a new photo Friday of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

"My son is a true angel," the elder Tsarnaev said. "Dzhokhar is a second-year medical student in the U.S. He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here."

Ahidi Moros, who lives near Melendi and Nichols Ave., said he went to high school with the pair.

"I can't believe this is happening. I'm really not over it. They couldn't speak English when they first got here. I need to clear my head."

Details are rapidly coming in from various sources as new information becomes available.

TV reports show a very heavy police presence as the federal courthouse just after 7:30 a.m.

BOSTON COMMUNITIES SHOCKED BY OVERNIGHT VIOLENCE

Gov. Deval Patrick said today that a shelter in place order is underway for the entire city of Boston as well as Watertown, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, Cambridge and Allston-Brighton.

The announcements followed a bizarre and bloody series of events that started with the fatal shooting of a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology late last night and continued with a massive police confrontation with two of the shooting suspects in the nearby city of Watertown.

Sources told The Post that two men were involved in the killing of the MIT officer at 10:48 p.m. They then carjacked a Mercedes-Benz and made their getaway.

The suspects in the MIT shooting then got into a gun battle with police. There were also reports of explosive devices found in Watertown.

During the firefight, a second police officer was struck by bullets and taken to the hospital, Davis said.

Hospital officials said the deceased suspect's body featured a combination of gunshot wounds and blast-related injuries.

While one suspect was killed, the other got away. Officials are urging nearby residents to stay indoors - and not to pick up any strangers on the side of the road.

All public transportation in and around Watertown, including Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority service, was also suspended as a safety measure, Mass. Emergency Management Director Kurt Schwartz said.

Amtrak has also suspended service in the are, according to TV reports.

"We are hoping that as the hours proceed that we will be able to turn back on portions of the system," Schwartz said. "The system has been shut down now as a safety measure.we are asking people not to wait for public transportation. If you are waiting at a public bus or train station please go home."

Nearby schools such as Boston University also canceled classes, and businesses are urged to remain closed.

Davis called the suspect a "terrorist ... who came here to kill people."

Three people were killed and 176 were injured in Monday's bombings, which punctured the innocence of Boston's Patriots' Day celebrations.

The men were spotted walking down Boylston Street toward the marathon finish line shortly before the pressure-cooker blasts launched shrapnel through the helpless crowd.

The man identified as Suspect No. 1 wore a black jacket, a white shirt, a black hat, khakis and sunglasses. He had a black backpack and appeared to be wearing a Bridgestone golf cap.

Suspect No. 2 wore a backward, white, adjustable baseball cap and carried a lighter-colored backpack over his right shoulder.

“As you can see from one of the images, Suspects 1 and 2 appear to be walking together through the marathon crowd on Boylston Street in the direction of the finish line,” DesLauriers said.

Suspect No. 2 set down his backpack in front of the Forum restaurant, an upscale bar and grill where the second bomb went off, at around 2:50 p.m., feds say.

A photo obtained by The Post shows the suspect at that scene before the blast — with tragic little victim Martin Richard, 8, standing to the left on a police barrier.

Suspect No. 1 was not seen on any of the footage dropping his backpack, authorities said.

In another photo, posted online, a person who closely resembles Suspect No. 2 is seen calmly walking from the mayhem as smoke fills the air in the background. The man who took the photo told CNN last night that the FBI had seen it.

“Only one we believe to be planting the device is suspect Number 2,” said DesLauriers. “Suspect Number 2, with the white cap on, proceeded west on Boylston Street, and that’s all we know right now.”

The killers used crude bombs made from pressure cookers that were stuffed with ball bearings, nails and other metal items.

At least one of the devices was powered with a rechargeable Tenergy battery that is typically used in such children’s toys as remote-control cars.

FBI agents, in fact, went to several toy stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire to ask about the battery, employees told ABC News.

Meanwhile, it was revealed last night that a victim who lost both legs in the attack — and who was photographed being wheeled from the scene in a now-iconic photo — provided evidence while still in intensive care.

Jeff Bauman awoke in the hospital and asked for a pen and paper on which he wrote: “bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,” his brother, Chris, said.

Bauman then gave the feds a full description of the man he saw drop a bag at this feet. He said the man wore a cap and sunglasses, a description similar to the image of the FBI’ s Suspect No. 1, his brother said.

Mark Abbamonte, 26, told The Post he was in lockdown at his Watertown home and could see police evacuating people down the street and checking their home.

Abbamonte said the overnigh firefight happend just three blocks from his home and "could see all the explosions from my house."

"I woke up on the third explosion; my roommate heard three explosions. There were so many [gunshots] I couldn't even count. I heard cops yelling to someone to , 'get on you knees.'"

"It woke me up, I heard [te explosion] and panicked, I didn't know what it was. I thought it was fire crackers, but with what happened in Boston Monday I knew it could be something."

"I just hope they catch the second suspect. I'm calmer than I was a few hours ago, but I'm running on adrenaline. It's been a long night."

Additional reporting by Frank Rosario, Josh Margolin, David K. Li and Dan Good

dan.macleod@nypost.com

Treating Elderly – Two Pictures: Namal Rajapaksa And Ranil Wickremesinghe

By Colombo Telegraph -April 19, 2013 

“Elderly people are now who you will one day become. Respecting their wisdom, knowledge, grace and fortitude should come second nature to younger generations but it isn’t always the case. Sometimes we need reminding of why it is so important to respect our elders for what they have to impart to us that will help ease our journey through life. They should always be respected like you want them to respect you. Finding ways to respect and honor older people is often a pathway to better understanding and acceptance of your own concerns and ideas about aging. Learning about the ways other people have coped with growing older can give you greater insight into taking better care of yourself now and realizing that with old age often comes great new opportunities and a wiser self”. - How to Respect Older People - Wiki How

Building An Anti-Islamic Bridge To America

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -April 18, 2013 

“Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear” - Bertrand Russell (Unpopular Essays)

The malignant police response to the peaceful vigil organised by the Facebook group, ‘Buddhists QuestioningBodu Bala Sena’ proved one fact beyond doubt – the BBS is a protected species, protected by the Rajapaksas. According to video footage, the police acted as if they were the private army of the BBS, threatening and harassing the participants of the vigil. Clearly the police were under orders to display a zero-tolerance towards these non-violent protestors – just as they were under orders to employ a laissez-faire demeanour towards the mob attacking Fashion Bug.

The BBS will be above the law, so long as it does the Rajapaksas’ work.

The toxic conduct of the BBS can ignite an anti-Muslim Black July, jeopardise Colombo’s relations with the Islamic world and inflict a new war on Sri Lanka. Given these deadly potentialities, the order to protect and facilitate the BBS (and its offshoots) would have had to come from the very top. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa might be the Godfather of the BBS, but he could not have extended consistent patronage to an organisation trying to incite a Buddhist-Muslim conflict without the approval of his brother, the President.

According to video footage, the police acted as if they were the private army of the BBS

Ethnic overdetermination died with the Tiger. The Siblings need a new (ethno-religious) overdetermination to prevent their Sinhala base from focusing on socio-economic issues (such as the electricity hike which will have a punitive impact on the poor/middle classes while shielding the rich). Fear of an ‘Islamic threat’ can reduce the Sinhala masses into a state of infantile compliance and make them respond to iniquitous economic-shocks with resignation rather than anger.

What about the possible loss of Islamic support, internationally? Perhaps the question should be approached from a different angle. The Rajapaksas need Islamic support because they are having problems with the West on democracy/human rights/accountability issues. If the West discards these concerns and welcomes the Rajapaksas into its fold,Colombowould not need Islamic allies.

Then there is the Magnitsky Act.

Last week, the Obama Administration imposed a travel-cum-asset ban on 12 Russian officials accused of rights violations under the Magnitsky Act. The EU plans to enact its own Magnitsky Act. Imposing generalised sanctions on a country for the crimes of its leaders amounts to collective punishment; it is unjust and ineffective – because the costs are borne not by the leaders but by the people. Laws such as the Magnitsky Act can localise punitive measures to miscreant-leaders/officials and ensure that ordinary people do not have to pay for the sins of their rulers.

Both Gotabhaya and Basil Rajapaksa are US citizens. They cannot but have properties and bank accounts in their adopted country. When President Rajapaksa needs medical help, his preferred option is the US, not China or Russia. The mere thought of the Magnitsky Act being applied against Lankan leaders/officials would thus be a nightmare for all three Siblings. Such a development may take years, but the Rajapaksas would want to take preventive measures early on, given what is at stake for them personally.

The Rajapaksas do not want to become Asian Chavezes. If there is an international model they might want to emulate it is of those Third World despots who were/are welcome in the West, despite innumerable tyrannical deeds.

How to build bridges to the West without abandoning the despotic measures necessary to maintain familial rule – that would be the Rajapaksa Gordian Knot.

One method is image-laundering. Since the Rajapaksa diplomatic and propaganda apparatuses are not up to the task of creating an Orwellian counter-reality, the job is being outsourced to Two American lobbying firms: the Majority Group and the Thompson Advisory Group (TAG). The TAG had only one reported client in 2012; its annual reported income was a measly US$80,000[i];Sri Lanka will pay this nonentity US$ 66,600 per month! The Majority Group seems so tiny that it does not have to disclose its lobbying details (firms with an annual income less than US$ 10,000 are exempt);Sri Lanka will pay this firm US$ 50,000 per month!

The urgent Rajapaksa need to mend fences with Washington might also explain another curious development: the BBS’s sudden American visit.

The BBS’s interest in sprucing-up its image is understandable. But why commence that image-remaking effort in theUS, a country with a Christian-majority, the home base of Evangelical churches the BBS loves to hate?

The BBS in America

The Rajapaksas continue to target their opponents/critics; the Uthayan paper was attacked, again, and the Sirisa TV was threatened, again. They have no intention of implementing the democratising recommendations of their own LLRC. They seem to be intent on either postponing the Northern provincial election or winning it by force.

They want to do all this without jeopardising the Commonwealth Summit. And they must escape the Magnitsky Act.

During the Cold War decades, the adoption of neo-liberal economics and anti-left politics sufficed for anyThird Worlddespot to become the darling of the West. Currently, a country which is anti-democratic can win Western favour only if it is seen as a target of ‘Islamic terrorism’.

Immediately after the horrendous Bostonbombing, a website notorious for rightwing insanities carried an article[ii] which blamed an Iran-Al Qaeda combine and mentioned Sri Lanka as a conduit state. According to the article’s unnamed source, Iran’s Quds Forces are collaborating with “Hezbollah and elements of al-Qaida with links to individuals in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He said that under Quds Force guidance, Hezbollah recruited Sunni terrorists allied with al-Qaida factions in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh who then entered the US for terrorist activities”[iii].

Given the schisms within Islam (which cause far more murderous violence than anti-Americanism), a nexus between the Shia Iran/Hezbollah and the Sunni Al Qaeda is as impossible as Mahayanism being welcomed inSri Lankaby the BBS. But this is the sort of insane conspiracy theory which is beloved by fanatics of every religion.

And such myths are used to justify the targeting of ethnic/religious/racial ‘Other’ as the anti-Semites did with the ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ hoax.

One can easily imagine a meeting of minds between the purveyors of such delusions in the US and their saffron-robed Lankan counterparts.

The Obama administration does not subscribe to the myth of an anti-Islam civilisational conflict, but a future Republican administration (fortunately an unlikely possibility) might. Islamophobia is a powerful politico-ideological current within the Republican Party. Republican Islamophobes believe that “Islamic Sharia Law is creeping into American courts; the Department of Justice has come under the sway of the Muslim Brotherhood; and the President’s engagement ring includes secret writing that indicates Muslim loyalties…. in August delegates at the Republican National Convention voted to include a plank in their platform affirming their opposition to Sharia law” (Mother Jones – 3.1.2013). The Republican Party therefore would be far more receptive to Rajapaksa overtures, if the Siblings can portray themselves as warriors battling the ‘Islamic Threat’.

Is this the message the BBS is expected to convey to the Republican right, at the grassroots level, during its American sojourn?[iv]

---

[i] http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/firmsum.php?id=D000057582&year=2012

[ii] The author of the article is Reza Kahlili, a self proclaimed CIA spy who in 2010 claimed that Iran “will attack Israel, European capitals, and the Persian Gulf region at the same time, then they will hide in a bunker (until a religious prophesy is fulfilled)…and kill the rest of the non-believers” (Washhington Post – 7.12.2010).Iran manifestly did not.

[iii] http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/u-s-was-warned-of-terror-attacks/ The World Net Daily is an ultra-right website infamous for its promotion of such delusions as the ‘Birther story’.

[iv] The BBS monks may have been deployed at least once previously on an unofficial diplomatic mission. Sometime in 2011, Rev. Galagoda-Atte Gnanasara Thero led a delegation to Norway. According to the CEO of the BBS, a purpose of the visit was to meet some of the hardline Tamil Diaspora groups. Why should Rev. Gnanasara et al, who relentlessly attack Tamil moderates, go all the way to Norway to meet pro-Tiger Tamils?

The Politics of Disappearance: An Update from Northern Sri Lanka

By The Social Architects

Tough Ground Realities [1]

The conclusion of war has not heralded a return to peace in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. Community members are still struggling with a myriad of problems related to human rights, militarization, sexual violence, alcoholism, unemployment, displacement and a lack of media freedom, among other issues. Unfortunately, community members can’t even express themselves freely about the missing or the disappeared; state security personnel maintain a firm grip on all aspects of civilian life in the war-torn North. In some instances, their freedom of movement has also been restricted. It looks like the situation is getting worse.

March 5, Restrictions on Freedom of Movement in Vavuniya

Families from across the Northern Province came to Vavuniya in twelve buses. They had intended to participate in an event on March 6 in Colombo to mourn their disappeared family members and to protest in search of answers. 

Members of the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) and Sri Lankan military personnel stopped these people in Vavuniya and did not allow them to proceed. According to information obtained by The Social Architects (TSA), as many as 750 community members were blocked in Vavuniya because the state’s security apparatus did not allow them to travel freely. Many of them stayed in Vavuniya and then protested there the following day (on March 6).

Pervasive Military Questioning and Intimidation

Sri Lanka’s continued militarization has created obvious problems in the country’s conflict-affected areas. In Mannar, Vavuniya, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu and Jaffna, security personnel have recently gone to peoples’ homes and made inquiries regarding people’s participation in the previously mentioned March 6 Vavuniya event. Security personnel also went to the organizers’ places of residence and questioned them. State security personnel were asking a lot of questions, including the following:

Did you go to Vavuniya? Who arranged the travelling? Do you know other people who participated in the event? Who organized the event? [2]

In some areas, Grama Sevakas [Sri Lankan public officials] are questioning community members. Several of them recently called families in and asked questions about the Vavuniya event, including the following: Who disappeared from your house? When did that person disappear? Did you participate in this event? Who arranged your transportation? Who helped organize the event? 

Based on interviews conducted by TSA, in Kanagambigaikulam (Kilinochchi), army civil officers went to peoples’ homes[3] and instructed them to come to their office.[4] Some family members who went there were interrogated by army civil officers for the same matter. On other occasions, TID officers questioned people at their places of residence. 

The officers wanted to know what people were doing the day before the March 6 event. On March 8, military personnel had told some people that they should not participate in events like the one that was held on March 6 in Vavuniya.

Interrogations at Joseph Army Camp

In addition, security personnel have been questioning people who have filed cases with the UN’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID). Families who had lodged a complaint about the missing/disappeared and are living in remote villages have been asked to travel to Joseph Army Camp. When security forces make such a request, community members are expected to pay for their travel. Since economic marginalization remains a concern in Sri Lanka’s conflict-affected areas, this places additional strains on these families.

Further, instead of responding to queries made by the UN, it appears that the Rajapaksa regime has decided to interrogate those families and individuals who have made submissions to WGEID. If interrogations by security personnel come as a result of WGEID submissions, it is likely that fewer community members will file cases with that body. (Many community members have already reported that they are now afraid to give out any additional information to WGEID).

While legitimate investigations about disappearances should usually be undertaken by the police, it does not look like police officers have been very keen to investigate cases. [5] Rather, instead of investigating cases of disappearance, it looks like some CID officers are more interested in questioning people about their UN communications. Further, it is not clear why the military has been so involved in matters related to UN communications; it looks like they are undertaking many of the interrogations. 

Earlier this month, some community members (who have family members who were disappeared) were asked to show up at Vavuniya’s Joseph Army Camp. At that army camp, members of the TID collected personal information from them (as if those community members were filling out an affidavit). Community members told TSA that members of TID collected up to six pages of information from each person who was questioned. In addition, community members were asked to sign each page that they had filled out. Some community members told TID that they had now given security personnel the same information two or three times. (This information included the date their family member disappeared, relevant photos, that person’s address, the location of the disappearance, educational information and their relatives’ most recent address). 

Members of TID also asked family members who else they informed regarding this matter. Community members told TSA that they had informed a range of organizations about the disappearance of their loved one(s) including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and other NGOs. Many community members also indicated that this information was conveyed to TID during their interrogation(s).

Regrettably, government bodies like the District and Divisional Secretariat are not very interested in collecting information on disappearances because they have been told by senior officers in the Kilinochchi District Secretariat that they should not do that.

A Father’s Story [6]

A man from Northern Sri Lanka moved into army-controlled territory in May 2009. At that time, his son (a married twenty-seven-year-old LTTE cadre) was handed over to military personnel in a village in Mullaitivu. The father saw his son get on a bus with several dozen other LTTE cadres. 

In July 2009, the man filed a complaint about his son’s disappearance at Joseph Army Camp. Since that time, the father has gone to Joseph Army Camp as many as ten times. On each occasion he has provided information and pictures of his child. Yet, as of the writing of this report, he still has not received any information about his son’s whereabouts.

The father also participated in the March 6 event in Vavuniya; he returned to his home the following day. On March 9, TID officers went to his home and interrogated him about his participation in that event. 

The man was subsequently ordered by TID officers to appear at Joseph Army Camp at the end of March 2013. Consequently, he went to Joseph Army Camp and was interrogated by TID officers for approximately four hours. At that time, the investigating officers obtained information about his son, and his family members’ and relatives’ place of birth and current addresses. After asking all of their questions, TID officers prepared a lengthy report in Sinhala and requested that the father sign every page. (The report looked like an affidavit). Since the man is able to read Sinhala, he asked to read the report, which TID officers allowed. 

As he was reading, the father discovered the following sentence: “I never saw my son being taken away by the army; he just went missing during the final phase of the war.” The father became upset after reading this sentence and told TID officers that he “can’t put his signature on this document because I handed my son over to the army in a Mullaitivu village. And, to the best of my knowledge, my son was taken by the army in a bus. My wife, my son’s wife and I all witnessed this incident. So you all cannot write this in your report.”

The man returned to his home later that evening, although he believes that state security personnel will follow him and perhaps even threaten him in the future. 

Stories from a Few Grieving Mothers

Over the past few weeks, TSA spoke with a range of conflict-affected women who are still missing loved ones. A few of their stories are recounted below.

A Woman from a Village outside of Mullaitivu town

Both her two sons and husband were disappeared in April 2009. Understandably, she wanted to take part in the March 6 Colombo event and had arrived in Vavuniya on March 5. Yet, while she was eating at a restaurant in Vavuniya, two members of the state security apparatus interrogated her.[7] (The questioning took place in the restaurant). She was then threatened by those two men. During the interrogation, the men told her not to go to the Colombo event and that she should return to her home.

The woman told the men that she would not travel to Colombo, stating that she would go home instead. But she did not go home. The next day, she participated in the event in Vavuniya. During that event, she was followed by the same two men who had interrogated her. Once she realized what was happening, the woman said that she became very afraid. 

Women from Mullaitivu

A few days ago, a mother from Mullaitivu whose husband had disappeared in April 2009 was crying. She also participated in the March 6 event in Vavuniya. She shared the following information with TSA:

My husband left us on the 4th of April, 2009. He still has not returned. When he disappeared I was seven months pregnant. My daughter was born in a refugee camp in Cheddikulam [8]; she’s now almost four-years-old. She’s never met her father. She’s been with me…searching for him. A lot of people saw that Channel 4 video where many Tamils were killed. Most of my relatives and neighbors have seen it. People have told me that my husband is in that video. But I didn’t see the Channel 4 video; I don’t ever want to see it. It makes me afraid. I am 100 percent sure that my husband is alive….that he will return someday.

Another woman’s teenage daughter disappeared in May 2009, [9] following the conclusion of the war. She was living in Menik Farm. Beginning in July, this woman went to the Vavuniya police station each every Wednesday for seven weeks. Travelling from Menik Farm on each occasion, she kept asking about her daughter’s whereabouts. 

The mother had submitted her daughter’s photo during her first visit to the Vavuniya police station in July 2009. At that time, a police officer said he recognized the girl and even showed the mother a photo of her daughter that a police officer had taken with his camera phone. The mother was told that the photo was taken after her daughter had arrived in army-controlled territory in May 2009. After seven weeks, the police sent the mother to the TID at Joseph camp and told her to file a complaint with them, instead of filing one at the police station.

Conclusion

Existing state structures are not protecting the fundamental rights of community members; transgressors include the country’s political administration and the state security apparatus. State institutions should support community members, not harass them.

Nearly four years since the conclusion of the war, the regime in Colombo remains uninterested in matters related to reconciliation and human rights. Community members are not even able to conduct peaceful protests, deliver documents to the UN, or access some of country’s domestic mechanisms. The nexus between UN communications and state security personnel’s consistent interrogation of civilians has people worried.

These acts of oppression should be condemned. With another Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution hanging over its head, the autocratic Rajapaksa regime has moved ever closer to pariah status. Yet, the regime is clearly not concerned with its most recent Geneva fiasco; Minister of External Affairs GL Peiris has already come out and said that the regime plans to disregard the HRC resolution. 

The events that have recently transpired are reprehensible and detrimental to Sri Lanka’s chances for a lasting peace. Trouble’s brewing in Northern Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, there’s little which indicates the situation will improve in the near term. 

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• [1] In order to write this paper, TSA conducted field research in March and April 2013.
• [2] A few community members admitted that they had participated, while others who did participate denied it.
• [3] Evidently army civil officers only visited people who have disappeared family members.
• [4] Security personnel informed people at their places of residence on March 17. It was requested that community members come to the office of army civil officers from March 20-25. The office is located near the Iranaimadhu tank.
• [5] In Vavuniya, this list of disappeared persons was compiled by people at Joseph Camp in May of 2009 (at the conclusion of the war). This is the list that state security personnel have been using to question people. It has been reported that a longer list has been divided according to district and GN division.
• [6] TSA has provided readers with a few illustrative examples which show the difficulties that community members are facing vis-à-vis their missing/disappeared family members. Many more stories were shared with TSA as the group undertook its field research.
• [7] It remains unclear whether those who interrogated the woman were members of the TID or the CID.
• [8] Cheddikulam refers to an area in Zone 3 of Menik Farm, Vavuniya.
• [9] The daughter had been moving from Mullivaikkal to an army-controlled area; she was travelling with a priest at the time. In May 2009, policeman took a photo of girl when she surrendered in army-controlled territory; this photo was shown to the girl’s mother in July 2009.