Sri Lanka –  When will I get justice? – Melani Manel Perera

Colombo  “Despite clear information and evidence, should I and my two children search for my kidnapped husband for the rest of our life? No justice has been done to me and my two children by the any of government that has ruled the country till today. Today, for the second time, I visited the office of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Sri Lanka, asking for justice for the injustice that has happened to us.” Told media, a Mother with two children in front of the United Nations Sri Lanka Office on the 07th of September. And her little daughter too is addressing the President of Sri Lanka and requested an opportunity to meet him saying “I need to hear about my beloved Father.”

Mauri Jayasena a young mother of two children (Twins) who are still 09 years old, who have come from a faraway district – Anuradhapura said that she is deeply shocked that the courts, the government, and the police in Sri Lanka have not acted for justice despite presenting very clear information regarding the disappearance of her husband and that she has lost faith in these institutions.

She, Mauri Jayasena along with her children, to mark the 9th year since the disappearance of her husband, Madushka Harish de Silva, handed over a letter to the UN on the 07th, noon, calling for justice and accountability for her husband.

Madushka was a victim of a white van abduction in Anuradhapura town, along with two others, on the 2nd of September in 2013.

The other two men were released the next day, but there was no news about Madushka. Mauri was pregnant when her husband was abducted, and gave birth to a twin boy and girl, 2 months after the abduction. They are now 9 years old and have never seen their father.

“When our two children, who are now 09 years old and were not even born then, asked where our father is, Mauri was crying and said I have no answer. If not only me, but the children also have to walk around looking for their father for the rest of their lives?”

Mauri herself was abducted on the 01st of November, 2014, by men in civies who identified themselves as being from the Police. They had threatened her not to engage in any activities calling for the whereabouts of her husband and then released her.

Also, many days at midnight, they came to Mauri’s house, knocked on the windows and doors, walked around on the roof and put pieces of paper inside the house asking her to stop trying to find Madushka, and threatened to kill Mauri if she didn’t give up the effort of searching her husband through protests, press briefing etc.,

Mauri, who is living with financial difficulties with her two newborn children, faced very cruel mental torture in the past, she said.

Despite such threats, Mauri continued her long struggle to seek justice and accountability for her husband. Over the last 9 years, she has carried out sit-ins/vigils on the scorching streets, and gone from pillar to post with her children, all to no avail.  All this she has done, whilst also struggling to make ends meet, raise her children on her own, and see to their schooling etc.,

Sister Deepa Fernando, an activist working for social justice, who was in the process of searching for her husband from the beginning with Mauri Jayasena,  said that Mauri, as a wife, and mother, especially a woman, has been subjected to the great injustice of the  State.

The two children who were not even born when Madushka was abducted are now 09-year-old school-going children and questioned how they will build up their lives without their father.

She stated that like Mauri, there are many mothers who are facing the cruel act of disappearance in Sri Lanka and who are struggling for life and said that justice should be done for all of them.

The nun asked, “why do the rulers of this country oppress so much of our women.”

“Mauri was searching for her husband for the last 09 years trying to find an answer to what happened to her husband who was abducted by law enforcement’s State Forces in 2013 in Anuradhapura. But to date, the State has not given her any kind of answer and she has not been approached for any compensation. She is struggling with two children. And this is not the only incident, we have unofficial records on more than 25,000 persons missing in this country.  But the state has not given an answer to any one of them despite the fact that enforcing disappearance is a crime in Sri Lanka.” told Swasthika Arulingam an Attorney-at-Law and a Human Rights Activist in Sri Lanka.

” Therefore, I hope accountability is taken seriously, and women like Mauri would be given an answer as to what happened to their loved ones who have been abducted and disappeared by state forces,” she added.

And Mauri’s daughter Hansali De Silva is addressing the media, calling the President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, and requesting an opportunity to meet him saying “I need to hear about my beloved Father. So that listening to my small voice, please give me an opportunity to talk with you.”