Parents of Missing Tamil Children demand answers from Ananthi Sasitharan

Ananthi Sasitharan TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council was in for a surprise when she arrived at the Mullaitivu Magistrates courts on 21st July 2014 for the continuation of the case filed by her. She never expected hundreds of Tamils to brave the scorching heat to arrive demanding to know what she and her husband LTTE’s Elilan had done to their children. The situation became so intense that Ananthi Sasitharan had to eventually seek solace of the security forces she and the TNA want to throw out of the North.

Over 350 Tamil families arrived on foot to demand answers from Ananthi Sasitharan.

Their questions were a continuation from those asked of her on 14th June 2014. The venue was the same. In June, Ananthi was accompanied by TNA bigwigs Suresh Premachandran, Sivajilingam, Selvarasa Gajendran, Gajendran Ponnambalam, Thurairasa Ravikaran, Antoni Gajendran. The TNA sided with their member, Ananthi whose husband has been guilty of kidnapping scores of children as LTTE child soldiers,

On 21st July Ananthi found herself minus the TNA and only accompanied by Christian priests.

Their chants were clear. The families wanted to know where their children were. No NGOs, no foreign envoys, no Navi Pillai, no UN questioned Ananthi on what the LTTE did to their kidnapped children? These families had to take solace in handing a handwritten petition to Coordinating Assistant to the President in Mullaitivu District Mr. S. Kanagaratnam.

Nevertheless, the trend is looking not too good for the TNA. The silent majority of Tamils who had been confined to the Wanni and kept separated from the rest of the world are now realizing the diabolical side of both the LTTE and TNA. The link is very visible and one that is showing cracks too. With India clear on its stand and against Eelam it is no surprise that the TNA is looking to wind up and emerge under a new name.

It is a pity that the human rights mechanism has purposely kept out of their records examples of atrocities committed by the LTTE and their link party the TNA and in so doing allowed them to speak before the UN with human rights representatives taking the side of the very people that were responsible for kidnapping children. We need not elaborate further on the hypocrisies that take place within the halls of the UNHRC where justice is one-side and where officials are paid to be one-sided and assured plum positions for their role.

It is left to ordinary Tamils themselves to brave the heat and arrive by foot to make their sorrow known and when media too choose to shun that coverage it goes to show how fair and one-sided even the media is. The media chose not to give coverage for the sorrow of Tamil families in June and they are doing the same once again – a brief mention they think suffices to officially place they have covered the story. Similarly, scores of local stooges dished out millions for campaigns and propaganda have not spent a penny to highlight the stories of these missing children or even bothered to visit their homes to cover their versions and thus none of the foreign missions, foreign statements ever carry the other version.

The case has been postponed to 25th September 2014. (Defence.lk)