Sri Lankan Catholic mother wants to know who killed her son
Roshen Shanaka was killed by police in 2011 during a protest against welfare reform. Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa set up a special commission of inquiry, but the results of its investigation have never been made public. Relatives of those wounded in police repression want justice and compensation.
Colombo (AsiaNews) – Roshen Shanaka, a young worker, was killed in a police charge in 2011 during a demonstration for the right to a pension. Five years late, “I am still fighting to find out who is the murderer of my son,” said his mother, Swarna Kanthi. “I want to see justice done," the Catholic woman told AsiaNews.
Following the tragic incident, the government of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa ordered an investigation. However, “the report has not been release,” Ms Kanthi said. “Victims are still waiting for compensation.”
On 1 June, the fifth anniversary of the death of her son, she demonstrated in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo along with the relatives of other victims.
On 30 May 2011, police attacked 18,000 workers employed in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (near Negombo, north of the capital), as they peacefully demonstrated against the new pension scheme.
During the clashes, Roshen Shanaka was killed and 13 other people were seriously injured, three of them still bedridden.
Relatives have denounced the fact that the report by the Mahanama Thilakarathne Commission into the police action has not yet been published.
"Those who took part in the protest were savagely beaten and eventually lost their jobs," said Fernando Brito, a member of the Free Trade Zone Solidarity (FTZS).
"In five years we gathered 56 times in front of the police station of Katunayake and in front of the Secretariat, asking for justice and compensation,” the activist said. “We never got any answers. We trust that this government will listen to our demands."
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