President Gotabaya\u2019s statement has had a devastating impact on the families of those who remain missing after surrendering to the Sri Lankan Army<\/p>\r\n
NEW YORK, USA, January 28, 2020 \/EINPresswire.com\/ — On 20 January 2020, the BBC reported that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa told the UN representative in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer that the Tamils who were forcibly disappeared in the final days of the conflict are now all dead. Gotabaya, formerly the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defense oversaw the military operations during which Sri Lankan soldiers perpetrated atrocity crimes at the end of the conflict in 2009.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cPresident Gotabaya\u2019s statement has had a devastating impact on the families of those who remain missing after surrendering to the Sri Lankan Army,\u201d said TGTE Prime Minister Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran. \u201cGotabaya\u2019s later statement that the government would investigate the circumstances of the missing Tamils\u2019 deaths corroborates UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet\u2019s finding in February 2019 that \u2018[s]ince 2015, virtually no progress has been made in investigating\u2019 the many crimes including enforced disappearances.\u201d (see, A\/HRC\/40\/23). The Presidential Secretariat, in an effort to contain the damaging implications of Gotabaya\u2019s admission has tried to \u201cwalk-back\u201d his statements, making the incredulous claim that they were taken out of context.<\/p>\r\n
But sadly, Gotabaya did not say anything the international community did not already know. Three comprehensive UN investigations have found \u201ccredible allegations of violations of international humanitarian law\u2026some of which amount to crimes against humanity\u201d. (Panel of Experts Report, 31 March 2011, p.ii)<\/p>\r\n
The 2015 OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), found reasonable grounds to conclude that the Sri Lanka Army committed the following acts that constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity: unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, shelling of hospitals and civilian areas, rape and sexual assault, torture, and denying civilians (nearly all Tamils) humanitarian aid, causing mass fatalities. The report cited abundant video, photographic and documentary evidence (link) of these crimes and identified the specific units responsible.<\/p>\r\n
The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), in its most recent report from September 2019 (A\/HRC\/42\/40\/Add.1), found that \u201cthere remains a climate of impunity in Sri Lanka and a lack of actions envisaged to address this.\u201d (para. 10) The report further notes:<\/p>\r\n
[W]orrying information received according to which some individuals suspected of having been involved in the commission of enforced disappearances and related offences are being permitted to remain in positions of power including within the armed forces and the police. In this regard, it expresses serious concern at the appointment of Lieutenant-General Shavendra Silva as Commander of the Sri Lankan Army in August 2019, despite there being serious allegations of gross violations of international human rights and humanitarian law against him and soldiers under his command, including enforced disappearances.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cGotabaya\u2019s January 20th admission makes it clear that the promise of an effective Office of Missing Persons is nothing more than a farce designed to deceive the international community,\u201d TGTE Prime Minister Rudrakumaran added.<\/p>\r\n
In light of Gotabaya\u2019s admissions, TGTE makes the following seven demands:<\/p>\r\n\r\n
| 1.<\/td>\r\n | The Government of Sri Lanka must immediately return the remains of those killed to their families for burial or reveal the location where the Sri Lanka Army buried their bodies.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n
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