Another Tamil woman who has been searching for her disappeared son for 15 years has passed away in Vavuniya due to an illness.
Karuppaiya Ramai, 78, from Poompuhar, Vavuniya, was engaged in a series of protests requesting to know the whereabouts of her forcibly disappeared son, Indrapalan, who was abducted in a white van in 2007.
Tamil families of the disappeared have been campaigning across the North-East since March 2017 in search of their loved ones who were either abducted or handed over to the Sri Lankan military at the end of the armed conflict in 2009, on the premise that they would be returned.
The families have been calling on the international community for support and demanding action on investigating enforced disappearances and accountability for human rights abuses committed by the state as Sri Lanka has repeatedly failed to meaningfully address the plight of the families.
Over 100 parents have died without knowing the truth about their disappeared children. Although many of the relatives are elderly and vulnerable and face routine harassment from the Sri Lankan authorities, they continue their struggle for justice and accountability.
