The International Truth and Justice Project and HRDAG have published a report on 500 Tamils who disappeared while in Army custody in Sri Lanka in 2009.
The report is titled “How many people disappeared on 17-19 May 2009 in Sri Lanka?” and Patrick Ball, director of research at HRDAG, is the lead author.
“They represent the largest number of disappearances in one place and time in the country’s history,” according to the report.
Yasmin Sooka, executive director of ITJP, says: “In 2011 the first report cited 20 disappearances, then we found 103 names in 2014-2015, earlier this year it rose to 280, and now our colleagues at HRDAG believe it’s as many as 500 people. This shows the importance of continuing to gather information and the need to do this both inside Sri Lanka and outside where many of the key witnesses from the war period have fled.” (Colombo Gazette)