14 May 2011
Families of youth who disappeared from Trincomalee protested at the Trincomalee Junction pleading with the Government to release information about their whereabouts, ‘We are Sri Lankans’ Convener Udul Premaratne said yesterday.
“More than 100 youth from Trincomalee disappeared during the last phase of the war and up to now their whereabout are unknown,” Mr. Premaratne said. According to him most of the youth who disappeared were forcefully taken away from home in white vans and army trucks.
The organization had given a list of the disappeared youth to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Welikada Prison however they haven’t received a reply from them, Mr. Premaratne said.
“The biggest problem since the end of the war is finding family members and loved ones which should be more important than rebuilding. Why can’t the Government make public the list of people they arrested?” Mr. Premaratne said.
Mr. Premaratne said many families in Kilinochchi, Vavuniya, Muttur and Trincomalee are the worst affected since every family has reported a disappearance of at least one of their loved ones. Therefore yesterday in the Trincomalee town near the clock tower families of the disappeared ones will protest to mark their loss and the Governments failure to be transparent of their arrests, he added
LT