COMMEMORATING THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE ENFORCED DISAPPEARED PERSONS IN NORTH AND EAST SRI-LANKA
Who can stop a bereaving heart that expresses its deep agony…,
Who can stop a bereaving heart that longing to see back alive its loved missing ones…,
A hen that pecks grains in the kitchen waste in the back yard quickly protects its chicks under its wings when it sees a crow… the hen, just a one kilogram weighed small bird how it does aggressively express its bond with its kids …
If it is so how about the human beings…
who can erase the loving memories about their loved ones from their minds…,
who can prevent them from remembering their loved ones by passing draconian laws, using threats and violence…,
NO ONE or NOTHING Can stop a loving human heart that stands to seek justice for its loved once who are enforcedly subjected to disappeared.
Island wide quarantine curfew has been imposed in Sri-Lanka since last week. If people come out of their houses they are arrested, and cases are filed against them. Ceylon Teachers Union secretary Joseph Stalin and some other members of the union were arrested and kept at the Keppapulavu Air Force camp quarantine center for demonstrating against the Kotalawela National Defence University Bill.
They were kept there under the name of quarantine for 14 days. Further, as the military camps are converted as quarantine centers mainly in the Northern Province and operated by the military, people are generally scarred to undergo militarized quarantine. In such situation families of the disappeared persons are unable to come out and openly voice for their long-standing demands and rights to the Sri-Lankan government and as well as to the international community.
Nevertheless, the families of the disappeared persons in North and East Sri-Lanka,
commemorated the day at their homes. They lit the oil lamps/ candles and prayed that their loved once must be alive and safely come back to their homes. Some of them gave media statements too.
Through these the families sent their messages to the world.
They all demanded in one voice that the government must give their children back to them.
They stated that they do not believe in the internal mechanisms and need an international
justice mechanism with the mediation of the United Nations.