Sri Lankan families demand justice for thousands forcibly disappeared
Families accuse successive governments of failing to investigate mass disappearances, identify perpetrators and provide adequate compensation to victims
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (MNTV) — Families of thousands of people who disappeared during decades of political violence and civil war in Sri Lanka have renewed demands for justice, accusing successive governments of failing to uncover the fate of their loved ones and provide adequate compensation to survivors.
Around 500 people, including relatives of the disappeared, human rights activists and Christian religious leaders, gathered at a memorial near the capital, Colombo, to demand accountability for enforced disappearances that have haunted the island nation for decades.
According to UCA News, rights activists estimate that between 60,000 and 100,000 people disappeared during government crackdowns on left-wing insurgents and the prolonged civil war between Sri Lankan security forces and Tamil separatist rebels, which ended in 2009.
Sri Lanka has one of the world’s highest recorded numbers of enforced disappearances, according to figures cited by the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
Despite decades of demands from victims’ families, efforts to establish responsibility for the disappearances and determine the whereabouts of missing people have made limited progress.
Brito Fernando, chairman of Families of the Disappeared, criticized the government’s compensation program, saying thousands of eligible families had yet to receive financial assistance.
He said only 328 families received compensation in 2023, followed by 448 in 2024.
Although the government allocated nearly 1 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($3 million) for compensation in 2025, only 684 of the 5,000 eligible families received payments.
Fernando urged authorities to ensure that allocated funds reach affected families rather than remaining unused and returning to the government’s treasury.
He also questioned the adequacy of the compensation, noting that families of disappeared people receive just 200,000 Sri Lankan rupees ($650) for each missing relative.
By comparison, he said, the family of lawmaker Amarakeerthi Athukorala, who was killed during political unrest in 2022, received 10 million Sri Lankan rupees ($32,000).
The families are also demanding answers about suspected mass graves discovered across the country.
At least 20 mass grave sites have been identified in Sri Lanka in recent decades, raising questions about the identities of those buried and the circumstances surrounding their deaths.
Fernando called on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government to demonstrate political commitment to investigating the disappearances, identifying those responsible and ensuring such abuses are not repeated.
Dissanayake’s left-wing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, or People’s Liberation Front, emerged from a movement whose members were themselves subjected to violent state repression during an uprising in the late 1980s.
His rise to power in 2024 raised expectations among some victims’ families that the government would address longstanding demands for accountability.
For survivors, however, the struggle extends beyond financial compensation.
- M. Premasiri, 72, said three members of her family had disappeared, including her husband, who was abducted in 1989.
She described decades of hardship and poverty following his disappearance and said the compensation she received could never replace her loved ones.
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