The Search for the Disappeared: Struggle, Recovery, Resolve | Mirak Raheem

As news of a mass grave breaks on television in a household in the North, its residents, a family of the disappeared, try to find ways of coping with this information. A little girl goes to sleep with her father’s sarong under her pillow. Her mother overcomes her reluctance and approaches a lawyer as to what steps she should take in case her husband is one of the victims in the mass grave. “How can I rest until I know where he is?” she asks rhetorically, even as she continues to believe he may be alive somewhere.
At the other end of the world, in a make-believe country in Central America, a woman is searching for her brother and is informed that his identity card was found in a mass grave in a former military camp. The ID was discovered by forensic archeologists and forensic anthropologists during the excavation of the gravesite. Staff from the forensic NGO that is conducting the investigations explain the process and what information that they need from her, which includes a sample of her DNA. “If he is dead I want to bring him home to give him a place to rest where we can bring flowers, light candles and visit him”.
An older mother in the South of Sri Lanka is still looking for her soldier son who disappeared during the war. The Army is not giving her any answers. “Even if he’s dead I have to find him. I have to know,” she says.
The three stories are featured in an animated video entitled The Search for the Disappeared: Struggle, Recovery, Resolve, conceptualized by Mirak Raheem, who has been researching enforced disappearances and mass graves in Sri Lanka and been undertaking training abroad over several years. It is intended as a tool for the public to understand why the truth is so important and to acknowledge the importance of family participation in such processes, while providing a basic explanation of the mass grave investigation process. The video is accompanied by a booklet entitled “Understanding Clandestine Gravesite Investigations: Guide for Families of the Missing and Disappeared” written by Mirak and available in English, Sinhala and Tamil, which offers a more in-depth explanation on the process.
Enforced disappearances have a long history in Sri Lanka, dating back to 1971 as a large-scale phenomenon. They became a prominent tool of warring parties during the civil war from 1983 to 2009 and during the second JVP insurrection in 1988 to 1989. Besides agencies of the State, armed groups were also involved in carrying out disappearances where people were abducted, and held in secret detention centres, without their families being informed. As a result, many families have spent years, if not decades, searching for their loved ones. Tens of thousands of families from all parts of the country and from every major ethnic community have been made victims of the crime of disappearances and there is still no truth or justice.
Mirak spoke to Groundviews on why he chose animation as a medium, the specific themes that he has highlighted and the wider issue of searching for the truth on enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka. Groundviews watched a preview of the animation prior to the public release of The Search for the Disappeared which will soon be available online in English, Sinhala and Tamil.
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