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The Sri Lankan Civil War was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Velupillai Prabhakaran-led Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government.
An enforced disappearance is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing the victim outside the protection of the law. Often, forced disappearance implies murder whereby a victim is abducted, may be illegally detained, and is often tortured during interrogation, ultimately killed, and the body disposed of secretly. The party committing the murder has plausible deniability as there is no evidence of the victim's death.
Human rights in Sri Lanka provides for fundamental rights in the country. The Sri Lanka Constitution states that every person is entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice. And, that every person is equal before the law.
The 1990 Batticaloa massacre, also known as the Sathurukondan massacre, was a massacre of at least 184 minority Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, including infants, from three villages in the Batticaloa District by the Sri Lankan Army on September 9, 1990. Although the government instituted two investigations, no one was ever charged.
Thiruchchelvam Nihal Jim Brown was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil, Roman Catholic parish priest who disappeared during the Sri Lankan civil war. He was active helping his parishioners during the bombing of his church in northern Sri Lanka. He went missing with Wenceslaus Vinces Vimalathas on August 20, 2006, and is presumed dead.
George Jeyarajasingham was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil Human Rights activist and a Methodist missionary from the Mannar district of Sri Lanka. He and three others were shot dead on 13 December 1984 when they were traveling in his vehicle. Later their bodies were burnt along with his vehicle.
Subramaniam Ramachandran is a minority Sri Lankan Tamil journalist for the Tamil newspaper Yarl Thinakural and Valampuri. He also ran a private school. He has been missing since he was arrested in Vadamarachchi north of Jaffna. He was 37 years old. Eyewitness claimed that he was held in a Sri Lankan Army camp. Furthermore, Reporters Without Borders claimed that they are beyond any doubt that the Sri Lankan Army was involved in his disappearances. International Federation of Journalists lists his case in its campaign "Without a Trace" amongst the top 10 cases of enforced disappearances of media workers which still remains untraced in Asia Pacific.
Eugene John Hebert was an American-born Jesuit missionary in Sri Lanka. He along with his Tamil driver Betram Francis disappeared on August 15, 1990 as the Sri Lankan civil war was raging. He went missing on his way to the eastern city of Batticaloa from a nearby town of Valaichchenai. He was known for his Human Rights activity on behalf of the local civilians. The Jesuits believe that he was killed along with his driver.
Tens of thousands of people have been disappeared in Sri Lanka since the 1980s. A 1999 study by the United Nations found that Sri Lanka had the second highest number of disappearances in the world and that 12,000 Sri Lankans had disappeared after being detained by the Sri Lankan security forces. A few years earlier the Sri Lankan government had estimated that 17,000 people had disappeared. In 2003 the Red Cross stated that it had received 20,000 complaints of disappearances during the Sri Lankan Civil War of which 9,000 had been resolved but the remaining 11,000 were still being investigated. Amnesty International reported in 2017 that the disappeared persons in Sri Lanka could be between 60,000 and 100,000 since the late 1980s.
Reverend Father Mariampillai Xavier Karunaratnam was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil, Roman Catholic parish priest and a human rights activist. He was the Chairperson of the NESOHR and was killed on 20 April 2008 allegedly by a Deep Penetration Unit of the Sri Lankan Army. In a press release, NESOHR condemned, "in the strongest possible terms", the Sri Lankan state for the assassination of Rev.Fr. Karunaratnam.
The war was waged for over a quarter of a century, with an estimated 70,000 killed by 2007. Immediately following the end of war, on 20 May 2009, the UN estimated a total of 80,000–100,000 deaths. However, in 2011, referring to the final phase of the war in 2009, the Report of the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka stated, "A number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths." The large majority of these civilian deaths in the final phase of the war were said to have been caused by indiscriminate shelling by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.
Prageeth Ekneligoda born April 9, 1960, is a Sri Lankan Cartoonist, Political analyst and Journalist. He was reported missing on January 24, 2010, two days before the Presidential polls in Sri Lanka when the country was under the Presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa and has not been seen since. He actively participated in the presidential campaign of common opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka while working as a freelance journalist for a pro-opposition website Lankaenews.com. Members of his family believe he has been abducted by pro-government supporters because he was investigating the alleged use of chemical weapons, charges that were denied by the government of Sri Lanka. In 2009 Amnesty International released information regarding the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Reporters without borders has issued a statement concerning him. The investigation into his disappearance is being led by the Colombo Crimes Division. He is married to human rights activist Sandya Eknaligoda who was given an International Women of Courage Award in 2017 for her campaigns.International Federation of Journalists lists his case in its campaign "Without a Trace" amongst the top 10 cases of enforced disappearances of media workers which still remains untraced in Asia Pacific.
Reverend Father S. J. Emmanuel is a Sri Lankan Tamil Catholic priest, activist and president of the Global Tamil Forum, an umbrella organisation for Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora groups.
There are allegations that chemical weapons were used by the Sri Lankan military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the Sri Lankan Civil War. No strong evidence for indicating the consistent use of such weapons during the war have been found thus far.
Sinnavan Stephan Sunthararaj was a child rights activist in Sri Lanka. He was the Project Manager of the Centre for Human Rights and Development and Coordinator for the Child Protection Unit of World Vision. He had reported on the pro government military Eelam People's Democratic Party's child prostitution racket in Malaysia and India with the help of corrupt of Customs and Immigration officials.
Sexual violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka has occurred repeatedly during the island's long ethnic conflict. The first instances of rape of Tamil women by Sinhalese mobs were documented during the 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom. This continued in the 1960s with the deployment of the Sri Lankan Army in Jaffna, who were reported to have molested and occasionally raped Tamil women.
Vadivel Nimalarajah is a minority Sri Lankan Tamil proof reader for the newspaper Uthayan in Jaffna. He has been missing after being abducted on November 17, 2007, after working overnight in the Uthayan newspaper office. Uthayan has been specifically targeted for its independent reporting by the Sri Lankan military and the paramilitary group EPDP.International Federation of Journalists lists his case in its campaign "Without a Trace" amongst the top 10 cases of enforced disappearances of media workers which still remains untraced in Asia Pacific.
References
- ↑ "Sri Lanka's war 10 years on: Finding Father Francis". BBC News. 17 May 2019. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ "'It is a genocidal war' — Father Francis Joseph from inside the No Fire Zone". Tamil Guardian. 10 May 2009. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ Fernando, Ruki (20 August 2021). "15 Years Later, No Truth or Justice for Missing Priest and Aide". Groundviews. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ "Catholics pray for missing Tamil priest". ucanews.com. 18 May 2011. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ "TamilNet: 30.08.18 Families of enforced disappeared mark international day in Mannaar, Ampaa'rai". TamilNet. 30 August 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ "WHERE IS FATHER FRANCIS JOSEPH?". Meepura News. 9 September 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ "15 years after disappearance; No truth, No justice — Opinion". Daily Mirror. 21 August 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
- ↑ Pinto, L. (2015). Being a Christian in Sri Lanka: Historical, Political, Social, and Religious Considerations. Balboa Press AU. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-4525-2862-5 . Retrieved 13 October 2023.
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