It was almost midnight when Aarvi Radhakrishnan*, 45, saw four men carrying guns and dressed in army combats silently approach the front door of her home in a small town in the east of Sri Lanka. They began to call out for her husband, Raghunandan*.
“My husband told me not to be afraid and that they would just be taking him for inquiries, but I knew I would never see him again,” said Mrs Radhakrishnan.
“They dragged him out the house and for several kilometres through our town. I tried to follow them, screaming, and shouting for our neighbours but they were too afraid to help.”
Mrs Radhakrishnan’s fisherman husband was abducted on July 17 2008, the fifth night-time disappearance that occurred in her town that year, as Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war came to a bloody end.
In total, an estimated 20,000 people disappeared during the conflict between 1983-2009, during which forces belonging to the Sinhalese Sri Lankan Government crushed a pro-independence insurgency led by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).
Sri Lanka remains home to more unsolved disappearances than any other country in the world other than Iraq, according to the UN Group on Voluntary Disappearances.
Incumbent President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is accused of seeking to cover up the crimes allegedly carried out by soldiers under his command during the conflict.
However, there may finally be renewed hope for Mrs Radhakrishnan, after a United Kingdom-led council at the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights (OHCHR) proposed a new draft resolution which would see the collection, preservation, and analysis of the evidence of war crimes committed in Sri Lanka.
"Global Britain means standing up for human rights, a free media, tolerance of all religious beliefs, and those seeking justice. The victims from all communities of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war are a decade later still awaiting justice for loved ones murdered or missing, and dealing with the repercussions of violence and conflict," said Lord Ahmad, the Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth.
"That is why the UK is seeking a new resolution at the UN Human Rights Council to call on Sri Lanka to hold perpetrators of human rights violations to account, improve human rights and deliver justice for the war’s victims."
The United Nations has previously established a unilateral, independent judicial system to bring those who committed atrocities during the Yugoslavia War and the Rwandan Genocide to justice.
“Despite commitments made in 2015, the current government, like its predecessor, has failed to pursue genuine truth-seeking or accountability processes,” said Michelle Bachelet, the OHCHR High Commissioner.
While both sides are accused of carrying out horrific atrocities, some of the worst crimes were committed at the end of the war.
Rampaging victorious government soldiers are accused of abducting and slaughtering up to 100,000 Tamil civilians, many of whom had no link to the Tamil insurgents, as graphically documented in Channel 4’s award-winning “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields.”
Gotabaya Rajapaksa served as Defence Secretary during the last four years of the conflict — appointed by his brother Mahinda, who was then President — and he is also personally accused of abducting and murder opposition activists and journalists.
Mahinda Rajapaksa
He was then elected as President himself in 2019, as the country’s majority Sinhalese electorate prioritised security in the wake of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 269 people.
The fears of minorities were heightened when Gotabaya removed presidential term limits and power checks from the constitution and appointed his brother Mahinda as Prime Minister.
Significantly, Gotabaya also withdrew Sri Lanka from a UN Human Rights Council Resolution, agreed by the previous regime in 2015, that promised to set up a thorough domestic investigative procedure to bring those who had committed war crimes to justice.
Gotabaya described the terms of the UN agreement as a “historic betrayal” and promised to protect the nation’s “war heroes” from prosecution, even pardoning Sunil Ratnayake, a sergeant convicted of killing eight Tamil civilians, including children, during the war.
“Before this announcement, various politicians had been promising to find my husband but ever since I have been under unbearable difficulty, I had lost hope,” said Mrs Radhakrishnan.
Sri Lankan civil society, which was previously able to work alongside the families of the disappeared, suddenly found itself under intense scrutiny by the Rajapaksas and their allies.
Gotabaya appointed at least 28 former serving military or intelligence personnel to key government posts, including Shavendra Silva as Army Chief and Kamal Gunaratne as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, despite both being accused of human rights violations by the UN.
Police officers patrol the area around Dawatagaha Jumma Masjid in Colombo
In January, more than 40 NGOs reported to the UN that they were receiving harassment from Sri Lankan intelligence officials, including regular visits to their homes, anonymous threats, and having their movements tracked. Tighter restrictions were also placed around foreign funding, so NGOs had fewer resources to collect evidence related to disappearances and pay staff.
“We are seeing a lot of informants in the field, more than there ever was before. It was a lot freer before Gotabaya returned for us to go into the field and do our work but now, we have already been followed twice this year,” said one activist working in the north of Sri Lanka, on condition of anonymity.
When the Daily Telegraph spoke to a human rights lawyer assisting the family members of the disappeared in the north and east of the country, they said the judicial system was almost entirely allied to Gotabaya and so even if a case was filed, a reason would be found to delay its progress in coming to court.
“The courts only entertain cases as per their political agenda and these days, the police or intelligence officials choose the lawyers or judges,” said the human rights lawyer.
Mrs Radhakrishnan applied for a Certificate of Absence for her missing husband from her district magistrate eighteen months ago but is yet to receive any correspondence.
She fears raising the issue again could lead to a visit from Sri Lanka’s intelligence authorities and further harassment.
As a final injustice, the bank is now set to seize her husband’s remaining assets of around Rs15,000 (£55) because she cannot obtain proof of his death.
Unsurprisingly, many families of the disappeared have been scared into submission and a peaceful protest in the town of Mannar in February only attracted around 500 people.
“Now people are more afraid that the authorities are going to interfere and do them some harm. That is why the numbers have decreased, not because the families have given up,” said Father Sebamalai, the protest’s organiser.
Still, for the first time in years, Mrs Radhakrishnan says she is hopeful that her family will finally get justice: “To the Government of the United Kingdom and to the UN, please put pressure on the Sri Lankan Government. Ask them questions about our loved ones, only if they speak out will the world know what happened here.”
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