Police drag away protesting families of disappeared at OMP event in Jaffna
COLOMBO – Police forcibly dragged away Tamil families of the forcibly disappeared who were protesting outside an Office of Missing Persons (OMP) event in Jaffna on Tuesday (25), held to mark the upcoming International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
The protest, organized by the Association of the Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared in the North and East, saw families of the disappeared gather outside the Jaffna District Secretariat to protest the event, which they viewed as an attempt by the OMP to promote its work despite having failed to provide answers on the fate of their missing relatives.
The OMP’s commemoration, held inside the District Secretariat auditorium at 2:00 p.m., was attended by Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara, Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Minister and Jaffna District Coordinating Committee Chairman Ramalingam Chandrasekar, Northern Province Governor Nagalingam Vedanayagan, several NPP parliamentarians, and OMP Chairman Mahesh Katulanda.
Protesters rejected compensation and death certificates offered through the OMP, saying such measures could not substitute for answers about relatives who had been surrendered to the military. They accused the OMP of “deception” and of using the event to strengthen a domestic mechanism they do not trust.
Protesters further alleged that the OMP had sought to present the event as attended by families of the disappeared, when many of those present were elderly residents drawn in by a free medical camp, with some, they said, given spectacles as part of the outreach rather than being relatives of the disappeared.
Tensions escalated when protesters attempted to display a banner outside the Secretariat; police blocked them from opening it and dragged it away, while the Secretariat gate was closed to prevent public access.
Minister Nanayakkara was seen watching the protest via Facebook livestream during the event but did not speak with the families or address their demands. Minister Chandrasekar, addressing journalists covering the confrontation, said: “Journalists, do not play with innocent people.”
Tamil families of the disappeared have spent over a decade seeking answers about relatives handed over to Sri Lanka’s security forces at the end of the armed conflict in 2009, and say they remain without answers despite repeated engagement with domestic mechanisms such as the OMP.
The Association of the Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared in the North and East is due to hold an international conference in connection with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on August 30.
-ENCL
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