Return to War - Human Rights Watch

vehicle and I heard him asking the others to take pity on me and the
kids, but he [the soldier] never came back. 91
The 23-year-old also had his ID card confiscated on the morning of December 8, in
his home village of Naachchimaar. He also came to the Navindil playground to pick
up his card. His wife told Human Rights Watch that she came there some time later
and although she had to wait behind the fence, she saw her husband, who waved to
her. She said that the military checked his ID again, and returned the card, allowing
him to leave. However, as he was leaving the playground two soldiers picked him up
and put him into one of their Powell vehicles. The man’s wife said she then
immediately ran to the vehicle, and, along with the wife of the 25-year-old, started
begging the military to release the men. She said that the soldiers kept pushing the
women away, saying they would hit them if they dared to come closer.
The women said that some 15 minutes after their husbands had been put into the
Powell, the vehicles swiftly left the playground, and other personnel followed them.
The two women told Human Rights Watch that they managed to write down the
number plates of the two Powell vehicles, 40041-14 and 40032-14.
The wives of the two men immediately filed a complaint at the Point Pedro police
station located inside the Point Pedro military camp. The wife of the 23-year-old said,
We gave them the vehicle numbers we wrote down, but they said, ‘e
have hundreds of vehicles with the same numbers, so it is childish of
you to expect us to find them by these numbers.’Next day, when we
came back, we saw both vehicles leaving the camp and coming back.
We told the policeman, and also talked to a female military officer who
wrote something down. Then a commander—he had stars on his
epaulets and a red band on his arm—came. He talked to us and to the
female officer, but never returned to us. They said they did not know
anything and sent us to the Valvettiturai police station. 92
91 Human Rights Watch interview with wife of “disappeared” 25-year-old man, Jaffna, February 28, 2007.
92 Human Rights Watch interview with wife of “disappeared” 23-year-old man, Jaffna, February 28, 2007.
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Human Rights Watch August 2007