News: missing

The Sri Lankan government has said that over 2,500 people went missing during the war against Tamil rebels (LTTE) in the north of the country. An analytical report on the final three years of the war, published by Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Monday, says 2,564 people, including 676 children, were listed as missing.

Sri Lanka's government should account for all those detained at the end of the war with Tamil Tiger rebels nearly two years ago, Human Rights Watch says.

The parents and relatives of abducted and ‘missing’ youth in Jaffna were thoroughly disappointed, as the visiting European Union team could not find time to meet their representatives or receive petitions from them. They were further frustrated by the act of the team choosing to meet on Thursday the SL colonial governor in Jaffna Maj. Gen. Chandrasri, who is accused of many abductions and disappearances when he was commanding the SL military in Jaffna. The EU team that showed much keenness in its ‘aid’ related investments and in knowing the ways the SL colonial administration functions in Jaffna, by its gesture, signals assent to the SL military rule of Eezham Tamils, civil groups said. Conceding synthesis of occupying military and civil service, a high official in Jaffna told the team that the military are also ‘government servants’.

Maheswaran Amalaraj, 35, a father of five, has been reported missing since January 1, according to a complaint lodged by his sister with the Jaffna regional secretariat of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) and the Koappaay Police. Amalaraj left for home after meeting his friends in a public place around 10:00 p.m. on January 1st, but failed to reach home. Amalaraj's relatives fear that he was abducted while he was returning, according to the complaint.