Sumanthiran condemns police and ministers over assault on families of missing persons

Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) General Secretary M. A. Sumanthiran has condemned the actions of police during a recent confrontation with families of the forcibly disappeared in Jaffna, as well as the conduct of government ministers who were present during the incident.

In a post on X, Sumanthiran, said they strongly condemned the brutal ways in which police had manhandled relatives and mothers of forcibly disappeared persons at the Jaffna District Secretariat.

The confrontation took place when families of the disappeared gathered outside the Secretariat as the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) held an event marking the upcoming International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. The families, organised through the Association of the Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared in the North and East, were protesting the OMP’s record and its promotion of domestic mechanisms which they say have failed to provide answers about their missing relatives.

Tensions escalated when the protesters attempted to display a banner outside the Secretariat. Police prevented them from opening it and forcibly dragged the banner away, while access to the building was restricted and members of the public were prevented from entering.

The OMP event inside the Secretariat was attended by Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara, Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Minister and Jaffna District Coordinating Committee chairman Ramalingam Chandrasekar, Northern Province Governor Nagalingam Vedanayagan, several National People’s Power parliamentarians and OMP chairman Mahesh Katulanda.

Sumanthiran also criticised Harshana Nanayakkara, saying the justice minister was “gleefully watching” the confrontation through his mobile phone from inside the building. The minister was seen watching the protest through Facebook while the demonstration was taking place outside. However, he did not meet the protesting families.

The ITAK general secretary condemned minister Chandrasekar, accusing the minister of publicly cursing journalists who reported on the confrontation. Chandrasekar had indirectly threatened journalists covering the incident and told them not to “play with innocent people”.

The families have rejected compensation and death certificates offered through the OMP, maintaining that such measures cannot substitute for establishing what happened to their missing relatives. Many of those campaigning have spent more than a decade seeking answers about relatives who were among those handed over to Sri Lankan security forces at the end of the armed conflict in 2009.

Despite repeated engagement with Sri Lanka’s domestic mechanisms, including the OMP, the families continue to demand information on the fate of their loved ones.