Relatives of enforced disappearances to hold mass procession in Kilinochchi today

20 February 2024 01:42 am Views - 1012

Colombo, Feb 20 (Daily Mirror) - In completion of seven years of truth-seeking agony to learn the whereabouts of their missing kith and kin during the war, the family members of the enforced disappearances are to stage a mass procession in Kilinochchi this morning.

Hundreds of members of the Association for Relatives of the Enforced Disappearances (ARED) from the five branches of the Northern and Eastern Provinces will rally around in Kilinochchi to mark their grievances.

A spokesperson from the ARED told the Daily Mirror the main procession is scheduled to commence from Kandasamy Kovil in Kilinochchi around 9.30 am and to proceed up to the special monument at Depot Junction, within a stretch of four kilometres.

Relatives, especially widowed mothers of the victims of the enforced disappearances ARED from Jaffna, Mullaitivu, Mannar and Vavuniya are also expected to flock to Kilinochchi for the seventh anniversary.

Tamil political party leaders from all districts in the Northern Province have pledged support to the remembrance, which has been carried out since its inception on February 20, 2017.

Over 200,000 persons had reportedly gone missing during the later stages of the war in 2009, according to ARED sources.