Relatives of missing persons and the forcibly disappeared have begun a hunger strike in Vavuniya.
In an open letter to the Sri Lankan president, the signatories said they had exhausted all other avenues in the search for information about their missing loved ones, including countless domestic commissions and probes.
The hunger strikers in the letter said,
- Are our relatives alive or not?
- If they are alive, which secret torture camps are they being held in?
- If they are not alive, what happened to them? Who killed them? How? Where were they buried after being murdered?
- If our missing and abducted relatives are alive, arrange for them to be reunited with their families immediately, as well as releasing all political prisoners.
The hunger strikers said that if the fast unto death should harm any of them, the President, the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader should take responsibility.