They asked me to forget him. But how can I forget ? – Perinbarasa Pereshwary

We have three daughters. It was January 8, 2007. At that time, the youngest daughter was 02 years old. After playing with her since morning, my husband (Nadarasa Perambarasa) left home at around 1 in the afternoon saying that he is going to Vavuniya. He had taken out a loan to build this house. He went with the next door neighbour on the motorcycle saying that he will pay the instalment and buy fertilizer. They were abducted in between Echankulam and Kalmadu while they were coming back home after getting their work done. At that time, check points were placed every 300 metres from Kalmaduwe. They were kidnapped in between two checkpoints. Since he didn’t come home even after three in the afternoon, we started looking for him. The villagers had seen them coming on the motorcycle up to the army camp. Everyone said that it was the army camp where they last saw them. At that time, my sister was also on the road. She had also seen my husband coming. At the same time, a white van had also come that way. 

I filed a complaint even with the name of the person who was at the checkpoint where my husband was last seen. I looked everywhere for my husband. I even went to Colombo to protest for those who disappeared. In the meantime, an army soldier told me that the abductees were kept in a forest in Kataragama. The CID repeatedly came and questioned us. They asked me to forget him. But how can I forget ?

We are not the only ones crying like this here. After the war, about 400 were committed to the Omanthe camp for rehabilitation. Those people had the intention of coming back and living a free life. But none of them returned. Someone is missing in every house here. No one tells them what happened to the disappeared. The police are against us questioning about it and struggling. Everyone would like it if we keep silent with death certificates and compensation. 

But why do we need to get death certificates for someone whom we don’t know whether they are dead or not? 

Perinbarasa Pereshwary 
Echankulam, Vavuniya