They may have disappeared and killed some 15 years ago, but to their families and loved ones the memories of them will live on. "Even if I get millions of rupees, I will not forget all these dreadful memories. Until today I do not permit anyone to light fireworks and organise parties at our residence as we are still mourning the loss of our child," says M. Maria Violet, whose son was forcibly taken away from home at gunpoint.

Violet's son was later killed. Her horrible experience is documented in a new book, An Exceptional Collapse of the Rule of Law: Told through stories by families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka, which is a testimony to the sufferings shared by tens of thousands of Sri Lankans during the dark age of the country in the late 1980s. The book details the ordeals of parents, spouses and relatives who witnessed forced disappearance of their dear and near ones in 29 cases.

The victims included students, workers and ordinary people of other professions. They were among 30,000 people forcibly disappeared between 1988 and 1992 when the police and armed forces had absolute impunity for their acts of violence and brutality. 

People were abducted from homes, workplaces and on the streets, even openly and publicly. Many of them were murdered upon arrest, interrogation and torture. The perpetrators, unleashed and sanctioned by an authoritarian rule and constitutional dysfunction, acted gruesomely and casually in the excuse of an armed conflict between the then government led by the United National Party, and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front).

After all these years, the perpetrators have still yet to be brought to justice and all attempts to find legal redress to innumerable cases of the disappeared have proved futile.

In the 202-page new book published by the Hong Kong-based Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and its sister organisation Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), together with Sri Lanka's Families of the Disappeared, families of the victims indicate the legal framework that made such atrocities possible is essentially unchanged.

To order

In Hong Kong/other countries: Send a cheque or demand draft for HK$ 150 or US$ 30 for soft cover (HK$ 250 or US$ 40 for hard cover) payable to "Asian Legal Resource Centre Ltd." to the ALRC, 19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building, 998 Canton Road, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.

In Sri Lanka: Send a cheque for SLRs250 (or SLRs500 for hard cover) payable to "Right to Life", to Families of the Disappeared, 555 Colombo Road, Kurana, Katunayaka. Tel: +(94) 314 870 308. Email: <right2life@sltnet.lk>.

Books could also be purchased online through the AHRC's Web site at <www.ahrchk.net>.