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| Wednesday, 31 December 2003 |
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| President to meet parents of missing Jaffna youth by Ranga Jayasuriya President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will today meet the parents of youth who disappeared in Jaffna during 1996 and 97, an official at the President's House said. Head of the Policy Research and Information Unit, President House Erik Fernando said the President will meet the representatives of Jaffna Mothers' Front and Missing Persons Guardian Association (MPGA) today morning to discuss remedies for their grievances. "The President will listen to them and discuss possible remedies," Fernando said. "Obviously the missing sons and daughters are their main grievance. But there are many more issues like high security zones, body checks etc," he said. "They have been asked to bring documents relating their missing ones and any details which will help locating their whereabouts". Six hundred youth have disappeared in 1996-97, after the Security Forces recaptured the Jaffna Peninsula in the Operation Riviresa, according to the Jaffna Mothers Front and MPGA which demand on the information about their whereabout. The MPGA and the Mothers' Front on Monday demonstrated in front of the Justice Ministry demanding to know the whereabouts of their missing children and urging the Minister to act to address their grievances. The demonstrators submitted a memorandum to Justice Minister W.J.M. Lokubandara. In the memorandum, the two associations charged that the disappearances were part of a "well planned plot" by the security forces and supported by a Tamil paramilitary group. In the memorandum, the two NGOs lamented that though they have met the secretaries to the Prime Minister and the Rehabilitation Minister in March 2002, no actions have been taken to address their cause despite the promises by the two officials. The Mothers' Front and the MPGA also accuse the Human Rights Commission of its lethargy in acting to locate their missing youth while claiming that a report made by a committee appointed by the Human Rights Commission to look into disappearance was unjust and false. |
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