Posts Tagged ‘disappearance’


Enforced Disappearances of Tamils – “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds”

By Editor - February 21st, 2015

Enforced Disappearances of Tamils - “They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds”

An enforced disappearance is defined as: “the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State”iii. Sri Lanka has the second highest number of enforced disappearances in the world – the first being Iraq.

The Sri Lankan state uses a policy of enforced disappearances against those who are critical of its genocide on the Eelam Tamil population. Sri Lankan state agents, such as the police and army, use a broad network of white vans and secret detention centres to abduct Tamils from their homes, on the street, in hospitals or checkpoints. Tamil journalists, activists and students are often targeted. Enforced disappearances are used as a way to send a message to the wider Tamil community, a warning to anyone who may have been considering speaking out against the state’s oppression.