No tombs, just grief

by Quintus Colombage

S.M. Premasilee commemorates All Souls' Day but is not sure whether she should or not. That's because she doesn't know if her husband and two brothers are still alive or dead.

S.M. Premasilee is still looking for a missing husband and two brothers - Quintus Colombage

Grieving family members visit a monument with over 600 photos of Sinhalese and Tamils who disappeared, near St. Cecilia's Church, Raddoluwa - Quintus Colombage

The 61-year-old woman nonetheless travels more than 250 km to pay homage at a specially erected monument for those who have no tombs - people like her relatives, who disappeared at the hands of the security forces in the late 1980s.

The monument, erected in 2000 with about 600 photos of Sinhalese and Tamil people who disappeared, is in front of St. Cecilia's Church, on a tiny strip of land in Raddoluwa in Colombo Archdiocese. It was here in this former "no man's land" between government forces and the Liberation Tigers that two bodies were found in 1989.

Lost souls

"November is the month to remember the dead. But we have no graves, no place to light a candle and no place to lay flowers like others," said Premasilee, who hails from Hambantota.

Remember

"People remember loved ones departed but I don't know what happened to my husband and two brothers," she said.

During the three decades of civil war, which ended in 2009, it was "usual" to find bodies of unknown people everywhere, Premasilee said.

"My husband and two brothers were abducted by the army, and when we inquired about them, we were told the army had mistakenly identified them as rebels," she added.Since then, they remain among the thousands who disappeared and can only be presumed dead.

While Catholics worldwide observe All Souls' Day on November 2, people in Sri Lanka pay homage to their dead during the whole month of November. Relatives gather every year to lay flowers and conduct religious rites at this monument in case their disappeared loved ones have indeed died.

"I know many who have never recovered from their son or husband's disappearance," said Premasilee. "I was also beaten up several times by the military but still have the courage to ask for justice over every single disappearance in the country," she said.

In 1983, the Sri Lankan Government became embroiled in a brutal civil war against the LTTE, an insurgent group that fought to carve out a separate Tamil homeland in the country's North and East, until the group was defeated by government forces in 2009.

About 40,000 civilians died during the final days of that war. During the war, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front) also launched a militant Sinhalese nationalist insurrection in 1989.

The government countered with a brutal offensive and an estimated 60,000 were killed or disappeared. "The war is over and our loved ones are still missing, but we have not yet given up the search," said J. Selvarani, a mother of two.

Like Selvarani and Premasilee, other relatives of the disappeared can only place flowers and say prayers before images of their loved ones.

Antanette Theresa, a mother of three, said she doesn't know what to tell her children about their father. "How did he disappear? Government officials say they don't know anything about our loved ones," she said.

"Many like me ran to the nearest police station to lodge complaints but the police refused to accept them," she recalled.

The disappearances during the civil war hit both Tamil and Sinhalese families. Many people also took advantage of the war to settle private disputes. They hired private militia to wipe out those who opposed them.

Symbol

Britto Fernando, President of the Association for Families of the Disappeared, said the St. Cecilia's Church monument has also become an important symbol and record of a tragic part of the country's history.

According to him, disappearances were frequently used as a strategy to generate fear and insecurity.

"The government should reveal what happened to all the disappeared and where they died," he said.

"Give compensation, rehabilitation and restitution to family members. Give them a guarantee that it won't happen again," Fernando said.

Father Sherad Jayawardana, a Catholic priest, said relatives have the right to ask what happened to their loved ones. Only then can Sri Lankans hope there will be no enforced disappearances in the future, he said.

The government has promised the international community it will bring justice for the families of those who disappeared, according to Mano Ganesan, Minister for National Dialogue.

However, the families of the thousands who are missing remain skeptical, saying the pledge raises two more questions - when? and how?

- ucanews