** These include babies and children, handed over Ten years Ago. ** UN ranked Sri Lanka as having the second highest number of the Disappeared in the world.

OMANTHAI, JAFFNA, August 29, 2019 /EINPresswire.com/ --

Thousands of Tamil Families of the Disappeared are gathering on August 30 (Friday) at 10:00 am, at a place called Omanthi in Vanni District, where they handed over their loved ones to the Sri Lankan Security Forces led by Shevendra Silva who is the current chief of the Sri Lankan Military.

Thousands, including babies and children, were handed over to the security forces as the war ended and all of them have disappeared ever since. The babies must be ten years old by now.

The UN ranked Sri Lanka as having the second highest number of the Disappeared in the world.

This remembrance event will also submit a memo to the UN and will release a booklet consisting of over fifty family members who were actively participating in the struggle and died.

Sri Lankan Government not only ignored the calls about the disappeared, recently it appointed the commander of the Military who oversaw the surrender and disappearance as Sri Lanka’s Army Chief. This effectively closed any hope of getting justice inside Sri Lanka and need the importance of international investigation or to refer Sri Lanka to International Criminal Court (ICC).

To find their loved ones Tamil Mothers of the Disappeared started a Campaign and regularly held rallies, demonstrations and hunger strikes to highlight their plight. Sri Lankan Security forces and Military Intelligence have repeatedly attacked and intimidated them to stop. But families continued their protest.

When these Mothers went to UN Human Rights Council to complain about disappearances, Military Intelligence followed them and harassed them, resulting in one mother fainting at the UN and admitted to the Genova General Hospital.

Several mass graves were also found in Tamil areas, raising fears that these mass graves may be that of the disappeared Tamils.

Due to international pressure the Sri Lankan Government established an Office of the Missing Persons (OMP), but OMP itself became meaningless, when it mentions that the findings of the OMP could not be used in any civil or criminal cases for seeking justice.

Repeated requests to include UN and other international experts to be included as Commissioners of the OMP were also rejected by the Government. Adding insult to the injury, Sri Lankan Government included a former senior Security Force Officer as one of the Commissioners of the OMP.

It should be noted that Sri Lankan President have repeatedly said that he will never allow any Sri Lankan soldiers to be punished for mass killings, rape and disappearance.

Tamil Mothers of the Disappeared
Tamil Mothers of the Disappeared
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