Asian Human Rights Commission

Since 2000, the Kwangju Human Rights Award is presented yearly in honour of the 1980 Kwangju uprising where the Kwangju people fought against the military takeover of their country and 240 Kwangju citizens were martyred for the cause. The award is presented to a person who embodies the Kwangju spirit, and this year’s 2003 recipient is Dandeniya Gamage Jayanthi. Since 1988, Jayanthi has devoted herself to fight for the cause of those who have disappeared in Sri Lanka and has become a symbol of that struggle. She is also a trade unionist and prominent woman activist.

The declaration of the award states, "The judging committee of the May 18 Memorial Foundation determines to award Dandeniya Gamage Jayanthi (Sri Lanka), who is a representative of the Family Members of the Disappeared, as a winner of the fourth Kwangju Prize for Human Rights in 2003."

More than 30,000 people disappeared in southern Sri Lanka between 1988 and 1992 in addition to the large number of disappearances in the northern and eastern part of the country due to Tamils who struggled to win their rights. While the latter is somewhat known in the outside world, the former is very little known.

Jayanthi lost both her fiancé and a brother during the disappearances in the South; neither were connected in any way with rebel activity. In fact, Jayanthi’s fiancé Ranjith was associated with the Legal Aid Centre for workers in the free trade zone (FTZ). Ranjith, who was employed at Floral Gres, intervened with the commissioner of labour to find redress for the employees who had lost their fingers during work. Needless to say, the employer was quite displeased about his interventions.

In October 1989, Ranjith faced dismissal. He was scheduled to meet the disciplinary committee at 4 o’clock in the afternoon on Oct. 27. The disciplinary officer was to be a member of the opposition party at the time and now a member of Parliament, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle. For the first time in the life of the FTZ, permission was given to invite a representative of the workers. Mr. Lionel from the Legal Aid Centre was to represent Ranjith.

On Oct. 27, Jayanthi went to work after seeing Ranjith for the last time. Ranjith and Lionel were on their way to attend the disciplinary hearing on a motorbike. Ranjith, however, did not return home that night. Their bodies, burned, were found at a road junction. The employer had allegedly conspired with a senior police officer to have them killed.

Jayanthi’s search for justice began with this incident. After having made a complaint about the disappearance of Ranjith, Jayanthi herself became a target of the police and was forced into hiding. She was hunted in the places where she was hiding, and many people feared that they would not be able to save her. However, after a strong trade unionist came to take up her case, it was possible to foil the assassination attempts. Now their labour organisation, Kalapaye Api, meaning We of the Zone, fights for the rights of workers in the FTZ in Katunayake where extreme forms of abuse of worker rights exist.

Even in the difficult days known in Sri Lanka as the Period of Terror, she gathered a small group of people to fight for the cause of the disappeared and to demand justice. In 2000, she was able to erect a public monument for the disappeared at the Raddoluwa Junction where the bodies of Ranjith and Lionel were found. This monument drew the attention of many other relatives of disappeared people, who now gather often and try to pursue justice and improvements for the conditions of the families of the disappeared. Behind the monument stands the Wall of Tears where about 400 pictures of the disappeared from the Gampaha area are exhibited. This is the location of the annual Oct. 27 ceremony, which gathers a large number of relatives and sympathisers of disappeared people to remember the disappeared. This work was done in collaboration with the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC).

Though the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearances has made many recommendations for the prosecution of perpetrators of disappearances, hardly any attempt at implementation by the Sri Lankan government has been made. In fact, state authorities have connived to suppress the issue. For instance, a large number of mass graves that exist have not been excavated. Consequently, justice has been denied by the State’s refusal to investigate the grave crime of mass disappearances. It has been established that disappearances in Sri Lanka were, in fact, killings after arrest. Most killings took place in detention centres, which were widespread in different parts of the country. Even the recommendations of the U.N. Working Group to make disappearances a crime in Sri Lanka have been ignored.

The recognition of Dandeniya Gamage Jayanthi’s work must bring to the fore that justice continues to be denied to the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared in Sri Lanka.

Jayanthi received her award on May 18 in Kwangju, South Korea, at a ceremony in which prominent citizens of Kwangju participated.