Families of the forcibly disappeared held a protest outside the Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) in Kilinochchi on 25 April, marking 2,984 consecutive days of public demonstration demanding justice and accountability for their loved ones.
The demonstrators, many of them elderly Tamil mothers and wives of those who went missing during and after Sri Lanka’s armed conflict, voiced their enduring anguish and frustration at the state's continued failure to deliver justice. The protest highlighted the emotional and physical toll that the prolonged lack of answers has taken on Tamil families across the North-East.
Families pointed to promises made by the current National People’s Power (NPP) government, which had pledged—before coming to power—to address the issue of enforced disappearances and provide closure to thousands of affected families. However, protestors said these commitments have amounted to nothing more than hollow rhetoric.
The protest is the latest in a series of actions taken by Tamil families of the disappeared, who have long accused successive Sri Lankan governments of deliberately stalling investigations into disappearances and shielding military and political leaders from accountability.
Many of the disappeared were last seen in the custody of the Sri Lankan military, particularly in the final months of the armed conflict in 2009.
Though institutions like the OMP were established under pressure from international stakeholders, Tamil families have consistently expressed a lack of confidence in their effectiveness, citing minimal progress and a lack of genuine political will.
