Photo by Ama Koralage
None of the three leading presidential candidates have directly addressed the issue of enforced disappearances despite the fact that Sri Lanka has the second highest number of disappeared people reported to the UN. Successive governments have shown no political will to bring about truth, justice, accountability and guarantees of non-recurrence fearing to displease military leaders who are still in powerful positions, many of whom have been accused by international and national human rights organisations as well as the UN of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Tamil mothers representing victims of enforced disappearances have rejected any association with the presidential election, saying that none of the Sinhala candidates could be trusted to deliver justice.
In their manifestos, two of the leading candidates have made addressed accountability with Sajith Premadasa pledging to strengthen the Office of National Unity and Reconciliation, the Office on Missing Persons and the Office for Reparations while Anura Dissanayake says he will expand the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate acts of violence caused by racism and religious extremism.
Despite some positive formal steps by successive governments such as the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) and the Office for Reparations, tangible progress on the ground towards comprehensively resolving individual cases has remained limited, according to a report UN Human Rights Office report released in May this year.
“This report is yet another reminder that all Sri Lankans who have been subjected to enforced disappearance must never be forgotten,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “Their families and those who care about them have been waiting for so long. They are entitled to know the truth.”
“The Government owes it to all those who have been forcibly disappeared. It is critical for these crimes to be investigated fully. These crimes haunt not only their loved ones, but entire communities and Sri Lankan society as a whole.”
Groundviews spoke to founder of the Families of the Disappeared, Britto Fernando, on why enforced disappearances remain an unaddressed issue and how to build public opinion for the cause.
Successive leaders have not found solutions to the issue of enforced disappearances. Can you expect anything different from the next president?
Political leaders change their attitudes. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the person who campaigned with us and was strong in the fight against disappearances in 1989 but after he became president he took no notice of the problem. Ranil was accused of collaboration in the Batalanda torture camp in 1989 but in 2015 he was behind the co-sponsoring of UNHRC resolution 30/1. That was a change. Gotabaya withdrew the co-sponsorship but when Ranil came to power in 2015, he didn’t speak a word about the resolution because he didn’t have support. So political leaders have changed their attitudes but not a single one has the political will to do anything about this. When they are in opposition they say they will do something but when they come into power they bow down to the Sinhala nationalist majority racists. The JVP says that when they come to power they will give priority to tackling enforced disappearances because so many people suffered during 1989 to 1990. Many political leaders have been killed and those killings are still mysterious; their wives and family members became big shots in governments so they never tried to reveal truth about their husbands. That is why we respect the poor women from families who are still fighting for truth and justice.
Will the families keep on fighting no matter what?
We want to know the truth but until the political leaders have the political will we are not going to solve this. But political leaders realise that the third generation of the families are not getting involved. Parents don’t want their children and grandchildren to take up the issue because they feel that if there is another uprising, the younger people will be harassed. They saw how their husbands and children were taken away and beaten and killed so that trauma is there. They feel that if a conflict happens again their children will be affected. They say they will die for this but not to involve the third generation because they don’t have faith that we are going to solve this. So people who come to power know that within two or three generations this issue will disappear. They are waiting for a natural death.
As a human rights activist of many decades, what have you achieved?
We human rights activists are happy because after 30 years we have managed to make some progress. However, the victims don’t feel that there have been any results. The OMP is there to reveal the truth but not a single case has been solved. There is no accountability because the political leaders are afraid to touch the war heroes. That is why Tamil mothers say they don’t want a local investigation but need an international one but the problem is until the government supports it, we are not going to get an international investigation. Governments won’t support it because all the political leaders have blood on their hands. The international community will not interfere in Sri Lankan politics until the security council approves such a move and that will never happen. As a result, we will not get an international inquiry so we are trying our best to push for a local investigation as much as possible. The Tamil mothers say they won’t accept Rs. 200,000 interim relief but since it has no conditions, we should take that money. When the government is willing to pay compensation, that means that they are admitting that something wrong has happened. They cannot pay us back with the body so that’s the only way they can compensate. Sri Lanka is still on the agenda at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Although we have done a lot of work, spent a lot of money and been supported by foreign agencies, we are far behind the goal. We haven’t been able to erase the racism in the south. NGOs working on human rights have failed compared to the objective. We have raised awareness but not enough to get public opinion to stand for the correct thing.
How can further bloodshed be prevented?
In Sri Lanka every 20 to 30 years some uprising has come up and thousands and thousands of people are destroyed. To stop that from happening we have to get accountability for the past cases then only will the perpetrators will be discouraged. Otherwise they will do anything for political gains as they feel that is the only way to get promotions and benefits is by obeying even illegal orders. If there is accountability they will not obey illegal orders.
The main perpetrators are members of the armed forces. Their leaders are in powerful positions so how can you get round this?
We have to build up some sort of public opinion. We don’t have that public opinion. In the South when disappearances happened, people rejected it by voting against the Premadasa government. Unfortunately when the Tamils were killed and disappeared, the South approved it; that is why they voted in Gotabaya Rajapaksa who stoked up racism. Sinhala racism is one of the main factors to deal with otherwise we are not going to win. We know that the Sinhala mothers are the main forces to defeat or minimise the racism in the south. They may say Tamil mothers are LTTE but when the Sinhala mothers come out, they can’t take same position because they have undergone the same fate. That is why we are focussing on organising the southern people to demand justice but we say that until you stand for the rights of Tamils you can’t get it. That is our main aim – focusing on southern districts. If there is unity between the Tamil and Sinhala mothers, it will be a big force. We have to make them feel that if the system is breaking down for someone else, they must fight back because it will have the same effect on them one day. We have to think of how to create public opinion.
What is your hope for this election?
Sajith never speaks about disappearances because his father was one of the culprits. Sajith should speak the truth. While he is not responsible for his father’s actions he should come out and say it was wrong but he never says anything. For Ranil, if it is of benefit to him he will do something; he may want to but it depends on his power in the parliament and in the country. The JVP says it will give priority to solving the issue of disappearances because their people have suffered. I feel the NPP is the better choice for this purpose but even they are accused of killing so I don’t know if they have the guts to say sorry for what they have done wrong. The southern mothers are supporting the NPP because they say that if the NPP comes into power, they will never give up pushing the leaders since their children were killed because of what the JVP did so they have more responsibility than the others.