Comments on: The Disappeared in Sri Lanka’s War in the Recent Past: What is missing in those “Missing”?

By: The War Dead in Sri Lanka: Deceit and Ignorance Rule the Air Waves | Thuppahi's Blog

Tue, 21 Nov 2017 01:01:48 +0000

[…] Roberts, Michael 2012 “What is missing in those “Missing”? Issues relating to the statistics on enforced disappearances in Lanka,” 30 May 2012, https://thuppahi.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/what-is-missing-in-those-missing-issues-realting-to-the-statistics-on-enforced-disappearances-in-lanka/…. Also in GV at http://groundviews.org/2012/05/27/the-disappeared-in-sri-lankas-war-in-the-recent-past-what-is-missi… […]

By: Congestion in the “Vanni Pocket,” January-May 2009: Appendix IV for “BBC Blind” | Thuppahi's Blog

Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:31:39 +0000

[…] Roberts, Michael 2012c “The Disappeared in Sri Lanka’s War in the Recent Past: What is missing in those “Missing”? 27 May, 2012, http://groundviews.org/2012/05/27/the-disappeared-in-sri-lankas-war-in-the-recent-past-what-is-missi… […]

By: James Chance

James Chance — Wed, 30 May 2012 14:54:30 +0000

Really, Dr. Roberts. You are a scholar, known for your careful research and detailed historical and anthropological arguments. Why do you think the standards should be different when writing for Groundviews? Hurried web searches and a few emails/ calls to journalist friends aren’t enough. Your anti-rights activist hobby horse has gotten the better of you again. To write an article like this without first learning where the numbers used came from and what WGEID is and does is irresponsible. The IRIN story itself wasn’t great either, but what you both need to do is distinguIsh between different forms of disappearances. WGEID deals with “enforced” disappearances, ie abductions and murders where the missing person is never found. You know very well that Sri Lanka has suffered various waves of Politically-motivated disappearances – and in fact has had at least six separate presidential commissions to investigate them. Those appointed by Chandrika that looked into disappearances from the late 1980’s found at least 20,000 such cases. There was a resurgence of enforced disappearances starting in 2006 with the Rajapaksas return to nasty counter-insurgency. Right activists I know estimate at least a couple of thousand eliminated this way, esp in 2007-8. Then there is a a very different issue of those missing in action – traditionally soldiers, but as you rightly point out, many civilians too in the final months of war and forced displacement. What further confuses things is that hundreds of LTTE leaders and associates were taken away at the end of the war and have not been seen or accounted for. Their families have testified to this fact and are agitating for the government to explain what happened to them. They are a distinct sub-category of the disappeared, and must be distinguished from those others who are missing, but let’s hope still living, who surrendered at the end of the war and were taken away, perhaps to “rehabilitation” camps. The government’s continued refusal to release the names of those they still hold is a scandal, and suggests they don’t want people to know just how many are no longer alive.

By: Visaka Dharmadasa

Visaka Dharmadasa — Wed, 30 May 2012 04:26:46 +0000

Where the whole missing/disappearance issue is concern what one must understand is that when one decide to conceal the existence of a person they really do little to hurt the that particular person but they do a lot of damage to the next of kin who has done nothing wrong. Also we must understand that a family who has a person unaccounted for will never be the same they will never contribute to the development of the world society as they did before the incident, so for those who has an economic lens also should take this gravest crime seriously and collectively we all have to work to put an end to this gravest crime on earth

By: Armchair Expert

Armchair Expert — Mon, 28 May 2012 17:34:39 +0000

In reply to Michael Roberts.

You can access the report (2004) through the list here:

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Disappearances/Pages/Annual.aspx

(And once you do, oddly enough, Andrew’s link also starts working. Probably some magic involving browser cookies.)

By: Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:25:49 +0000

In reply to Andrew Kendle.

This is useful Andrew Kendle. Thank you for clarifying matters. As indicated I was spurred by the IRIN report. I did send email to two media friends seeking more data and also made a hurried google search; but this is the first I have heard of WGEID and it is informative to know more. Alas your web reference is a citadel that has turned down my attempts from both Uni and home with the note “There is an end-user problem. If you have reached this site from a web link,
– Through your internet options, adjust your privacy settings to allow cookies or
– Check your security settings and make sure this site has not been blocked or
– You are probably using a very slow link that may not work well with this application.
Otherwise you have reached this site through unauthorized means.”
I am sure others would like access to your site and perhaps you can send a note to GV and evens end a summary report as an item to GVso that they can post it.
PS: if your agency is chasing all disappearances from the 1980s I wish you the best of Almighty GOD’s luck!!

By: alex fernando

alex fernando — Sun, 27 May 2012 21:09:39 +0000

What is really missing is the will to stop people from going missing. Simple steps to stop the culture of impunity have been blocked despite the end of the conflict (but rather a continuation of oppression of Tamils by the state’s huge military apparatus). Further, the ‘anti-terror’ laws which protect this culture of impunity remain in place. Aside from the fact that 147,000 odd people remain unaccounted for in the district, which the author has chosen to ignore. An interesting defense of the regime though.

By: T. Aruna

T. Aruna — Sun, 27 May 2012 16:03:02 +0000

It seems to me that what is missing from this discourse are actually the names and identities of the missing. The preoccupation with contested aggregate figures distracts from and obscures the specific details of each case – whether the person who is missing is an unarmed civilian, a conscript, a militant or a member of the military. Those who search for the missing do know the names of their loved ones and relatives who are still unaccounted for, and usually have considerable information about the circumstances in which they went missing. They have often also expended considerable effort to chase down leads that might shed light on the fate of those who are missing.

No single truth will account for how people were taken/lost, whether they are alive or dead, where they are held or buried, or indeed who was responsible. The details vary from from case to case, from location to location, and across the timespan of the conflict. It is close to the ground that the realities of the losses, both in terms of their causes, circumstances and consequences, can be best apprehended. It’s worth keeping in mind that the search for truths has already been undertaken by hundreds, if not thousands, of families – using the resources at their disposal. It is imperative that we find ways of assisting them in their search, or Of creating the means by which those with information relevant to the specific cases are able to share this with those most entitled to have it.

Surely this should be where attention and effort should be directed.

By: Andrew Kendle

Andrew Kendle — Sun, 27 May 2012 16:01:40 +0000

Dear Michael,

Both you and the IRIN journalist have set up a straw man to make different points about the end of the war using figures that were there in the public record before President Rajapakse even came to power in December 2005. (NB — See page page 69 of the following Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) report from December 2004: http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G04/169/65/PDF/G0416965.pdf?OpenElement).

The figure of 5671 cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances still unaccounted for is far from a new figure, and the UN’s numbers for Sri Lanka have been more or less the same for several years now. WGEID has been working for decades on the data submitted to it about Sri Lanka and elsewhere and the numbers change as the status of the cases that it has accepted to review change based on new and past information. (NB — The total number of cases WGEID has accepted for determination for Sri Lanka number over 12,000.) It’s not the job of WGEID to determine the overall figures from the last period of the war in Sri Lanka. It only looks at individual cases from Sri Lanka or elsewhere as and when they come in.

As you will see if you read pages 147 and 148 of the WGEID report from March this year, only Iraq’s record is worse than Sri Lanka’s. All Sri Lankan government’s since the early 1980s (and to a lesser extent earlier), as well as the Tamil Tigers and the JVP (during its insurrections) have credible charges against them that members of the state security forces,cadres of the LTTE, and members of the JVP, all committed horrendous crimes. All of these allegations, need to be investigated so that slowly but surely the families of the disappeared can have some sort of idea about what happened to their loved ones.

What exactly happened during the final months of the war in Sri Lanka is a partisan mine-field at the moment, as you rightly point out. However, confusing what the WGEID actually does, as you and the IRIN reporter have done, wittingly or unwittingly, adds no clarity to that debate.

Yours Sincerely

Andrew Kendle