Three months have passed since four people went missing. The bishop of Mannar and their relatives fear they have been killed and are calling for proper inquiries.
Four people who "disappeared" three months ago during Navy reprisals against civilians in northern Sri Lanka remain unaccounted for. Despite pleas from the local Church, practically no headway has been made in investigations about their fate.
Sri Lankan Navy (SLN) troops went on a rampage in Pesalai, Mannar Island, on 23 December 2005, after a claymore mine allegedly planted by rebels struck one of some vehicles returning to a naval base, killing 13 sailors.
"Immediately after the blast, none of us could escape," said a resident of the housing scheme near the site of the blast, targeted in the reprisals. "The surviving Navy fellows went from house to house, rounded us up and insulted and beat us for hours."
Anthoniamma and Emmanuel Cruz, and their neighbours, Jude Suganthie Cruz and her three-year-old son, Arokiaraj, were last seen in one of the houses attacked by the Navy. Their relatives are certain they were killed by SLN troops, who later disposed of the bodies.
The Mannar police in charge of the case have not shed any light on what happened to the missing people. The house they were in was found badly burnt, with the remains of their clothes and ID cards, and allegedly, charred pieces of flesh that were sent for forensic examination.
The Bishop of Mannar Diocese, Mgr Rayappu Joseph, has called for a proper investigation into the "feared liquidation", but he is not hopeful. "I have told army, navy and police officials how easy it would be to find the culprits, but how easily the matter has been neglected by all concerned," he said.
Failure to investigate and prosecute "disappearances" perpetrated by the security forces and other armed groups in Sri Lanka is commonplace. They often take place in reprisal for attacks by the Tamil Tiger rebels on the military, in the context of the island's long-running separatist war.
According to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), Sri Lanka has the highest number of "non-clarified disappearances" in the world after Iraq. Estimates range from the government estimate of 26,000, to unofficial statistics of around 60,000, since the 80s. These figures include disappearances perpetrated in the government suppression of an uprising by the socialist JVP movement in the late 80s.
WGEID and human rights groups have often criticized the government for failing in its international obligations to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of these crimes.