Clarifying the Past and Commemorating Sri Lanka's Disappeared

ochure was jointly developed by Families of the Disappeared,
Benetech’s Human Rights Data Analysis Group
(HRDAG) and the International Center for Transitional
Justice.
Historical Background of Disappearances
in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has a deep and complex history of political violence.
Communal riots, political assassinations and internal
conflict have been an element of the socio-political
landscape for more than a century. Since independence in
1948, national communal riots have occurred in 1956, 1958
and 1983, with many more localized outbreaks of violence.
Two heads of state, half a dozen national political leaders,
and numerous regional and local politicians have been
assassinated by groups representing virtually every shade
of the political spectrum. The government brutally suppressed
two armed insurrections in the South, in 1971-72
and 1987-89, led by the Peoples Liberation Front (JVP).
And since the late 1970s, the government has been guilty
of widespread human rights abuses in the North and East
as it has confronted an armed Tamil separatist movement
in the North and East of the island, lead since the late
10