On February 20th, the protest by families of the disappeared in Kilinochchi passed the one year mark. Mothers, wives and fathers have sat by the side of the A9 road, inside the premises of the Kandasamy kovil, asking for answers about their loved ones. This is one of many protests by relatives of the disappeared; others are taking place in Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Maruthankerny and Trincomalee.
Over the course of this year, these families have had three meetings with the President, two United Nations Special Rapporteurs have visited Sri Lanka to assess its transitional justice process and there has been some incremental progress around the Office on Missing Persons and the Enforced Disappearances Bill. However, this progress has been marred by setbacks, particularly around the OMP. Overall, these steps have failed to answer these families’ calls for truth and for the fulfilment of the promises made to them by the Government.
This piece lays out a timeline of events around the issue of disappearances that have taken place in the one year – February 19th 2017 to February 20th 2018 -since the protest in Kilinochchi began.
View the full story, compiled using Adobe Spark, here, or scroll below.
