Mothers of ‘Disappeared’ youths in Jaffna demonstrate in front of Legal assistance office
Hundreds of mothers of youths reported ‘disappeared’ in Jaffna after being arrested by the Sri Lankan military during 1996-97, sat in demonstration against the careless attitude adopted by the legal assistance office in countering the state attorney’s arguments that the Sri Lankan military personnel did not arrest the youths said to be missing since 1996.
Speaking to the media during the demonstration, the mothers said that the invading military during operation ‘Riviresa’ which made hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians flee the Jaffna peninsula and becoming refugees overnight, was on a youth hunt during and after the invasion and subsequent discovery of mass graves in Chemmani, few kilometres from Jaffna was evidence of what really happened. They also pointed out that already a Sri Lankan military corporal is under trial for murder of a school girl Chrisanthi, whose body and that of her mother who went to the military camp to enquire about the missing daughter, were found buried in the precincts of the mass graves where, it is suspected that more than 600 Tamils were buried after being killed by the military. They added that the military has, under the cover of curfew, removed the bodies buried and burnt them when things came to light after Chrishanthi’s murder. The mothers carried placards with the following slogans: - Why is the Legal assistance body silent on those disappeared during 1996-97?
- Where are the innocent Tamils arrested by the military?
- Is the Legal assistance body of any use to the Tamil people?
25 December 2004
|
Europe which has a total population of 800 million is made up of 45 language based nation states. South Asia which has a total population of one billion, (1000 million) is comprised of four states. Who is preventing and therefore benefiting by limiting new nation-states in South Asia?
Print this
Email this
more
