Confronting the Complexity of Loss

The Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Disappearances Commission paid particular
attention to incidents that took place during the JVP insurrection. Despite an estimate that
approximately 27,200 persons ‘disappeared’ during the period between 1988 and 1990, 87
only a fraction of these cases were ever brought before a court of law. 88
2.3 Post-war human rights violations
Following the end of the war, the human rights situation in the country began to
deteriorate due to a proliferation of extrajudicial killings and enforced or involuntary
disappearances. The violations were often perpetrated against individuals who were
critical of the state, thereby raising suspicions of state involvement. It is important to note
that such violations were commonplace during the war. Several notable killings had
already taken place in 2008 and during the early part of 2009. On 1 January 2008, T.
Maheswaran, a Tamil Member of Parliament and critic of the government, was
assassinated. 89 In May 2008, 22 people were killed and 26 abducted during and after
Provincial Council elections in the Eastern Province. 90 The editor of the Sunday Leader,
Lasantha Wickramatunga—described as a ‘virulent critic of the Mahinda Rajapaksa
government’—was then assassinated in January 2009. 91 This trend continued well into
the post-war period, which also witnessed a marked increase in enforced or involuntary
disappearances.
According to a U.S. State Department Report on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka,
‘estimates [on enforced disappearances]…ranged from 300 to 400 for the year 2009, with
the majority occurring in the north and east’. 92 The crisis prompted the UN Working
Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to express grave concern over the
number of reported cases of disappearances in the country. 93 In 2010, 2011 and 2012,
several more egregious human rights violations, including at least a dozen high profile
killings took place. 94 Scores of abductions also took place, including that of journalist and
government critic, Prageeth Eknaligoda on 24 January 2010. In fact, over 50 enforced
87 UN Human Rights Committee, Fourth Periodic Report of Sri Lanka, CCPR/C/LKA/2002/4, 18 October
2002, at para.161.
88 International Commission of Jurists, op. cit. at 137.
89 Human Rights Watch, World Report 2009 (2009), at 309.
90 Ibid.
91 See ‘Editor of Sri Lankan daily assassinated’, The Hindu, 9 January 2009, at http://www.thehindu.com/
todays-paper/tp-international/editor-of-sri-lankan-daily-assassinated/article371316.ece.
92 U.S. Department of State, 2009 Human Rights Report: Sri Lanka (2010), at http://www.state.gov/j/drl/
rls/hrrpt/2009/sca/136093.htm.
93 Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, A/HRC/13/31, 21 December
2009, at 107.
94 See International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), Enforced and
involuntary disappearance in Sri Lanka, Written statement submitted at the 19 th Session of the UN Human
Rights Council, 28 February 2012, A/HRC/19/NGO/123. IMADR documents several cases of persons
being abducted and later found dead, including: Dinesh Buddhika Charitananda found dead on 3 January
2012; Mohamed Niyas, a Muslim astrologer, abducted in a white van on 27 October 2011 and found dead
three weeks later; Hewage Chandana Rohan Lilantha Dabare who disappeared and was found dead on 1
January 2012; Mohomed Nisthar who disappeared and was found dead on 2 January 2012; and Rajgopal of
Trincomalee, abducted and found dead on 3 January 2012.
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