The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the Inspector General of the Police to investigate and punish those responsible in the abduction, intimidation and eventual release of Mayuri Inoka, wife of a disappeared last 1 November in Anuradhapura, a district in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka.
AFAD also asks the Sri Lankan public especially those who value life, truth and justice to help secure Mayuri from further intimidations and protect her and her twins from possible danger.
Mayuri was on her way to the city to buy milk for her 11-month old twins when according to her, well-built men boarded her three wheeler vehicle. A gun was pointed on her face, and then she was blindfolded with her hands tied behind her back. Later she was shoved into a van where she was continually threatened of possible disappearance if she will not stop her campaign to find her husband. She was eventually released an hour and a half later.
It is very clear that the intention of the perpetrators was to scare her from pursuing her search for her disappeared husband, Madushka Haris De Silva who was last seen with three friends on 2 September 2013. She was then pregnant with her twins. Two of her husband’s friends managed to return but not Madushka. Since then, the family made follow-ups to the police and they were promised to act on the case but nothing happened.
With the help of Families of the Disappeared and Anuradapura Api Purawasiyo (We are Citizens), Mayuri in July started commemorating every 2nd of the month with public activities. She also made an affidavit where she pointed to Senior Superintendent of the Police, Mr. Mahesh Senaratna as someone who has knowledge of her husband’s disappearance. Leaflets containing such information were distributed in the town. On 2 October, 1100 signatures were gathered for a petition demanding an inquiry on the matter and a silent protest was held in front of the office of the Deputy Inspector General of the Police. Mayuri also spoke during the National Day of the Disappeared held in Colombo last 27 October.
Due to her relentless efforts, on six occasions prior to her abduction, Mayuri received threatening messages and “visits.” Mayuri is fortunate to be released. Another woman, a mother of a disappeared also from the North, Balendra Jeyakumari was arrested in March 2014 by virtue of the Prevention Against Terrorism Act. She remains detained until now. Like Mayuri, Balendran was also a prominent campaigner against disappearances. She has evidence that her son, who was then a minor, was taken by the Army at the end of the war in 2009. She also experienced a pattern of surveillance and harassments after she figured prominently in mobilizations during the visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron in Jaffna in November 2013.
There has been a pattern of threats and intimidation employed by the Sri Lankan government against relatives of victims of enforced disappearance, other human rights defenders and those considered as critics of the current administration.
AFAD enjoins the multi-ethnic peoples of Sri Lanka to be with the side of truth and in organized efforts, oppose attempts of the State to silence dissent. “ The courage of the Sri Lankan peoples to participate in seeking for truth and protecting human rights is important especially with the UN Human Rights Council’s ongoing investigation into the country’s human rights situation,” Mary Aileen Bacalso, AFAD Secretary-General concluded.
Signed and authenticated by:
MARY AILEEN DIEZ-BACALSO
Secretary-General