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| Images from Neth FM |
Issuing a statement the Asian Human Rights
Commission says; On 27 October 2014, Mayuri spoke at a public gathering in
front of the “Monument for the Disappeared” at Raddoluwa, Seeduwa, during the
annual commemoration ceremony for disappeared persons.
The persons who abducted Mayuri
identified themselves by stating, “we are from the police” They followed her
and boarded the three-wheeler in which she traveled to the city centre in
Anuradhapura, where she wanted to purchase milk powder for her 11-month-old twin
babies.
According to Mayuri’s statement,
broadcast in BBC’s Sinhala Service, a well-built man, pointing a gun at her
face boarded her three-wheeler, tied her hands behind her back, blindfolded
her, and took her in a three-wheeler. Later, she was shoved into a van. She was
driven around for about an hour and half in this van, a period when she was
continually abused and threatened by her abductors, who asked her “not to
engage in the campaign and protests to find her husband”.
She has recalled that, several times,
one of the abductors aimed a pistol at her neck and threatened to shoot her.
Mayuri says she was terrified and feared for her life. She was repeatedly told
that “she will also be taken to where her husband is”, if she continued to
search for him, which, in fact, is nothing other than an assassination threat.
Mayuri was finally thrown out of the van, onto the roadside near Nochchiyagama.
Talking to BBC Sinhala Service
following her ordeal, Mayuri says that when she was thrown out by the side of
the road, with her hands still tied behind her back, and yelling for help, no
person came to her assistance. Later, after sometime, several police officers
in civilian clothes arrived and abused her in foul language, threatened her,
and treated her as if she were a prostitute.
Every month Mayuri holds a fast (hunger
strike), in front of the Anuradhapura Police Station, demanding information
about the whereabouts of her husband. The case regarding the disappearance of
her husband is fixed for tomorrow, 4 November 2014, at the Anuradhapura
Magistrate’s Court.
She has named Senior Police
Superintendent Mahesh Senarathna and a group of other police officers as those
who are involved in the abduction of her husband. She has complained to the
police and to the courts about this disappearance and about whom she thinks is
responsible for the disappearance.
On a previous occasion, two persons
have visited her house and threatened her to keep silent or face the
consequences, and threatened her with her own death and that of her children.
It is obvious that a group of police
officers, afraid of being discovered for involvement and links to the
disappearance of Madushka Haris De Silva, are pursuing her in order to
intimidate her and to silence her.
Given previous experiences in similar
incidents, it will not be a surprise if Mayuri will be assassinated.
The Asian Human Rights Commission calls
on the Inspector General of Police and all government authorities to
immediately inquire into Mayuri Inoka’s abduction and the constant threats that
have been levelled at her and her children by persons identifying themselves as
“police officers”.
Meanwhile the AHRC also calls upon the
Inspector General of Police to provide special protection to Mayuri Inoka and
her children.
The AHRC particularly calls upon the
women’s movements in Sri Lanka to come to Mayuri Inoka’s assistance and to
prevent her possible assassination. The AHRC also calls upon all human rights
organizations to do everything they can, to provide for her protection.
The AHRC will also take steps to bring
this matter to the attention of the United Nations Human Rights agencies and
the diplomatic community in Sri Lanka.
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