20/02/2018
The Generation Taken
Protests across the north east of Sri Lanka by the families of the forcibly disappeared have been ongoing for more than a year.
The current movement predominantly led by women, is demanding the release of the lists of names of those who have surrendered to the Sri Lankan military around the time when the civil war ended in May 2009, on the promise of safety and dignity made to their families; and to release the list of the names of those taken as “political prisoners”. In the face of military intimidation, the families have continued their calls for justice and a resolution to the whereabouts of their loved ones day in and day out.
Resolution 30/1 adopted by the United nations human rights council (UNHRC) in 2015, calls for accountability for the past human rights violations by setting up an office of missing persons (OMP), a commission for truth, justice and reconciliation and a justice mechanism including commonwealth and importantly, foreign judges.
However, three years on the current Sirisena government, paraded as “progressive”, have fallen short on a placard of faux promises and a chronic state of inaction and none of these charters have been met.
Royal Holloway, University of London Tamil Society as a part of a wider diasporic community of students in the UK whole heartedly support the protestors’ rights of self-determination and reassert their calls to the International Community to apply pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to release the list of the forcibly disappeared.
A whole generation taken as another grew. The future that we were gifted with will always be intrinsically intertwined with the aspirations of those who have sacrificed.
Still the question being asked by the families remains the same “Where are you?”
Royal Holloway, University of London Tamil Society
