Looming doom of disappearances

Aren’t we all collectively responsible for this trail of deaths and abductions left behind by a so-called faceless monster, asks Kumudini Hettiarachchi

Sometimes it’s a knock on the door at the crack of dawn. Other times it’s a white van that comes along, with someone calling out a name.

Both are stark red danger signals indicating that the people so targeted are doomed. Doomed to disappear without a trace or doomed to be found as dead bodies stripped not only of all personal belongings but also of human dignity.

Abducted and disappeared. Abducted and killed.

“Please release my father”: This is the plea of a young boy who participated at the demonstration against disappearances held opposite the Fort Railway Station last week. Pic by M.A. Pushpa Kumara

In a few rare instances, abducted, a ransom demanded – paid by the distraught relatives – and then released, but never to point an accusing finger at anyone, most probably for fear of getting killed.

Is Sri Lanka slithering and sliding back into an era of terror, where not only should men, women and children be fearful to get around the country but also where they are unsafe in their very homes? Who is responsible for these Dark Ages, when the rule of law seems to be observed more in the breach with regard to basic human rights?

Jayawardenage Jeyarajah, 46, left home for work as usual on the morning of October 19. He and his wife, Ganegodage Swarnalatha, parents of three sons aged 8, 14 and 17, are the owners of Rajah Traders on Borupana Road, Ratmalana, where the couple buy and sell old newspapers, cardboard and also scrap iron.

“Mata enna parakku wei,” (I will get late to come), Jeyarajah told his wife that fateful morning, when he called her on her mobile, while she was on her way to Colombo. The time was around 11.40 a.m.

As the line got cut off, she tried to ring him back, but to no avail. His mobile rang. There was no answer, says Swarnalatha in tears explaining that as soon as she returned from Colombo she began a search for Jeyarajah. “When our son called Jeyarajah’s mobile, most probably after his abduction, someone pretending to be Jeyarajah had said, ‘I am in Colombo son’.”

“I asked his business colleagues, but there was no news. Later in the night, our cashier Velu Shankar, after having lodged a complaint with the Mount Lavinia Police, along with some friends, went in search of my husband and found his motorcycle near the Soysapura Housing Scheme in Moratuwa,” she recalls sadly.

Tracing the movements of her missing husband, Swarnalatha says that he had stopped for breakfast at a restaurant near the housing scheme and was about to leave when two men had spoken to him, after which he had gone off with them along Galle Road. “The day before the abduction, two men in civvies claiming to be policemen from Mount Lavinia questioned Jeyarajah closely about the Tamil workers in the shop,” said Swarnalatha. “Satisfied with the information provided by my husband, they left the premises saying they would come back if the necessity arises.”

Even at the time this section went to press, Jeyarajah was missing, missing since October 19……..from the bustling area of the Soysapura Housing Scheme, leaving behind only his motorcycle.

It was also on October 19 that husband and wife duo, David Vigneshwaran, 35, and Thirukeshwary, 30, were abducted from their home at the Mattegoda Housing Scheme reportedly in the early hours of the morning. Their bodies with gunshot injuries were found the same morning around 6 near a culvert by the roadside in Piliyandala.

When a team from The Sunday Times went to Mattegoda the week after the couple’s murders, there was palpable fear among the neighbours, who shut their doors quickly and refused to speak about the couple. Their house, of course, was shuttered, and seemed abandoned.

“Don’t write, don’t write…….you all also may get killed,” was the warning of several trishaw drivers from whom The Sunday Times asked for directions earlier. With reluctance they pointed out how to go to the couple’s home, but The Sunday Times found that the directions were bogus and the journalists had been sent the wrong way.

Away from Mattegoda, in a different direction on Aluthmawatha Road, Colombo 15, also on October 19, but around 10 p.m. men in a white van picked up Regie Balananthan Bonaventhoor from near his home. His body, also with gunshot wounds, was found near a rodside culvert in Walpola, Ragama.

Much earlier, on September 1, for another family in Colombo 15, the search ended no sooner it began. The tears flow and the question, “Why our son?” clamours for an answer. When The Sunday Times team visited the Jesudasan family home where the pall of death still lingered, the questions as to why, how, when and where their beloved son, “who was like a girl”, was killed, still remained unanswered. Even two months later it is difficult for the family of Edward Reginold Jesudasan, 31, an executive of Union Assurance, to accept the cruel blow that has been dealt to them. “September 1 was a Friday and our son usually goes to the Infant Jesus Church for Mass. Every single day, he comes home straight after work and is here by 8.30 the latest. But that day, when he was getting late we thought he had gone to church. However, by 9 p.m. we knew something was wrong because he had not returned home and all the calls to his mobile were unanswered,” says S. Jesudasan, a retired Police Inspector.

Reginold’s mother is hardly able to contain the body-wracking sobs as she says, “My son calls me many times during the day and plays the fool, especially around 3 p.m., not letting us sleep in the afternoon. But that day he didn’t call us. I had dinner ready but he didn’t come home.”

That day, Reginold who always takes his home-cooked lunch lovingly packed by his mother wanted her to make a polos curry, so that he could share it with his office colleagues, as he usually did. As evening became night, there was a feeling of unease in the home and Mr. Jesudasan set off in their vehicle to trace his beloved son. He drove up to the Union Assurance office in the high security zone of Colombo 3, and also checked out the Accident Service, to no avail.

In desperation, he came back to the Grandpass Police Station around 2 the next morning (September 2) and lodged a complaint. Around 6 a.m. the phone rang, the police informing them that a body had been found on Ferguson Road, Colombo 14. Would the fathersee whether it was Reginold?

Fears that had never crossed their minds gripped them. It was the saddest thing Reginold’s father and sister had done – on Ferguson Road lay a body, stripped of all clothing except the underwear. “There was no injury to the head, only a tiny trickle of blood from his left ear. But his body was covered with assault marks I have never before seen in my life,” says Mr. Jesudasan seeing in his mind’s eye the tortured body of his son.

They have attempted to put together the last hours of their son’s life. “He had left office at 6.45 p.m. and even though we assumed he had gone to church in the evening he had done so in the morning,” says Mr. Jesudasan adding that at the postmortem the doctor had said that death may have occurred between 8 and 10 p.m.

Strangely, just after 8 p.m. Rs. 2,000 and a few minutes later another Rs. 18,000, the maximum withdrawals for any account, had been made at his bank branch in the city through his ATM card.

However, his clothes, his wallet with whatever money he had and the ATM card and his bag with mobile phone and office papers were gone.

“I cannot sleep. I cannot eat,” says Mrs. Jesudasan, with her face crumpling up into tears, leaving a crushing, vice-like grip even in the hearts of journalists who have done many stories on death.

Who is responsible?

Who knows, asks a senior police officer talking to The Sunday Times on the assurance of anonymity. It could be the Karuna faction, it could be the LTTE, it could be the underworld, it could be army deserters or it could be para-military groups.

While in some homes across the country, parents weep for their children, wives for their husbands, husbands for their wives and children for their parents, Sri Lankan society as a whole must hang its head in shame. We are all collectively responsible for this horrendous state of affairs. The authorities, for not acting rapidly to stem, nay halt and halt right now, this trail of deaths and disappearances left behind by a so-called faceless monster. The people, you and I, for keeping quiet in the face of such happenings, right under our noses, without a murmur or a whimper of protest, as long as it is not one of us.

If those who have been killed or have disappeared have committed a crime, they should have been arrested, charged and brought before the courts of law of this country, which claims it is the dharmadveepa where all four major religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam – thrive. How true the Amnesty claim that the only thing necessary for the persistence of evil is for enough good people to do nothing.

As terror sweeps Sri Lanka and the might of the gun and summary justice take precedence over the law, what comes to mind is the simple but effective saying by a victim of the Nazis, Pastor Niemoeler, which seems relevant even today right here among us: “First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me."
For, Sri Lanka it is the worst of times.

Many questions but no answers says Civil Monitoring Committee

Innocent people are being abducted and killed, a concerned Sirithunga Jayasooriya, Chairman of the recently-formed Civil Monitoring Committee said, claiming that the motive could be one of many.

“Some groups are collecting money for their organization through ransoms, while I feel that some racist groups are on a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Colombo,” stressed Mr. Jayasooriya giving the list of all those who have complained to them about abductions and killings.
Who is responsible? “The Karuna faction, army deserters, the underworld and some extremist groups may be responsible,” he said questioning how blatant abductions could take place in the middle of a high security zone.

Mr. Jayasooriya said the Civil Monitoring Committee on Extra-Judicial Killings, Abductions and Disappearances met IGP Victor Perera on October 31 and lodged a “strong protest against the wave of never-ending abductions”.

Detailing the procedure the Committee follows when taking in complaints, he said, “We don’t take complaints over the phone because some can give wrong information. People have to give us an affidavit,” he said giving The Sunday Times a long list of the shocking statistics. (See table – with figures only for September and October being given for lack of space)

Abductions – 54 in Colombo city alone.
Killed – 9
Missing – 36
Released – 9 (after alleged payment of ransom)

According to him all information collected by the Committee has been forwarded to human rights organizations, while the Committee for Workers’ International (CWI) based in Europe, together with trade unions and civil societies, has organized picketing campaigns on this issue abroad opposite the Sri Lankan embassies. “Already three pickets have been held in Sweden, London and Berlin, while more will be organized in Australia, Netherlands and Canada,” he said adding that the treatment meted out to protestors in Germany by the Lankan officials was deplorable.

Mr. Jayasooriya, who contested the last Presidential Elections and came in third, urged the government to give a clear statement regarding the killings and disappearances. “These are innocent people who are being abducted and killed – most Tamils come to Colombo because they cannot live in the areas where there is war.

We are not defending the LTTE or trying to gain any political mileage. What we are categorically saying is that if there are any LTTE suspects, bring them to courts. So many stories of this sort came out, but nothing is being done.”

Citing an incident in September, Mr. Jayasooriya said Egambaram Palaniraja, 60, the owner of a jewellery shop on Sea Street, Colombo 11; his son Balasaravanan Palaniraja; 23, and an employee Ganesan Muhundan, 21, were abducted at around 9 p.m. on Inner Flower Road on September 12. “Their abductors were allegedly in police uniform who also took their vehicle which was a Nissan Sunny. After being blindfolded they were taken on a long journey which ended in Polonnaruwa.

“Two days later, Palaniraja was released on instructions that he bring a large sum of money. Only when the money came that his son and also his employee were released on September 23. However, their expensive car was kept by the abductors,” he said, questioning how such abductions could take place in Colombo some areas of which are considered a high security zone.

With regard to another incident, he said a suspect was caught in the very act of accepting a ransom in Kotahena. “What we like to know is what has happened to this suspect? Has he been produced in court? What are his links,” asked Mr. Jayasooriya, adding that no answers have been forthcoming.

Role of Presidential Commission of Inquiry

Fifty-five killings, 35 disappearances and 125 abductions have been reported from all over the island to the recently established Presidential Commission of Inquiry headed by retired High Court Judge Mahanama Tilakaratne, with the highest numbers being recorded from Jaffna, Colombo and Batticaloa districts. Bandula Kulatunga Explaining the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry into Incidents of Abductions, Disappearances and Attacks on Civilians Resulting in Deaths Throughout the Island, its Secretary Bandula Kulatunga said, though established on September 13, they were accepting complaints from January 1, 2006. “People either come here or send their complaints by post or fax. Sometimes even though there may not be a complaint, if it is reported in the media, the Commission calls for all information from the relevant police station,” he said citing the example of the Mattegoda couple’s bodies found in Piliyandala. The Commission is due to set its deadline for complaints for November 7 and the report is expected by end December. “However, with the heavy workload the report may be issued after that,” he said. Complaints can be sent to the Secretary of the Presidential Commission, Room no- 2-131, BMICH, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7. Phone & Fax: 011-2669132. Of the complaints sorted out here are the figures: Complaints received 215 Abducted – 125 Killed – 55 Missing – 35 District-wise Jaffna – 80 complaints Colombo – 40 complaints Batticaloa – 38 complaints Ampara – 26 complaints Puttalam – 10 Gampaha – 8 Other districts – the balance complaints However, on the day The Sunday Times called at the Commission office, another lot of complaints had been faxed from Jaffna and been partly sorted out. Ethnic-wise statistics Tamils – 195 Sinhalese – 31 Muslims – 2 Burgher – 1 Gender-wise Males – 219 Females – 10