'We must not lose hope': Activists, victims seek war crimes charges against ex-Sri Lankan president 

Human rights groups say now is the time to fight for accountability 

When Sandya Eknaligoda got the news that former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had fled the country in disgrace aboard a military jet in the wee hours of a Wednesday in July, she couldn't quite believe it.

A month and a half later, the human rights activist still can't fathom that the moment she had dreamed of and prayed for "had finally become a reality."

It felt like vindication but also an opportunity: Rajapaksa was no longer protected by the immunity that comes with the office of presidency, and could be prosecuted for alleged war crimes committed while he was defence secretary and head of the armed forces overseeing the end of Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war.

Months of widespread protests over Sri Lanka's economic crisis spurred Rajapaksa's abrupt resignation in July. But Eknaligoda has spent years cursing the president, whom she holds responsible for the enforced disappearance of her husband more than 12 years ago.

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Prageeth Eknaligoda, a journalist and cartoonist, vanished on Jan. 24, 2010, at the hands of a military intelligence unit, according to Sri Lanka's Criminal Investigations Department (CID), and was never seen again, leaving his wife and two teenage sons without their primary breadwinner. 

During the civil war that ended in 2009, while Rajapaksa's older brother Mahinda was president and Gotabaya was defence secretary, the younger Rajapaksa was accused of persecuting critics and overseeing what were called "white van squads" that carted away journalists, activists and civilians suspected of links to the rebels, known as the Tamil Tigers. Some were tortured and released, while thousands of others, like Prageeth Eknaligoda, simply disappeared. 

"My main struggle has been to ensure Prageeth's memory doesn't disappear, like he did, until there is justice for him," said Eknaligoda, 59, in her home in Kottawa, a suburb southeast of the capital, Colombo, earlier this month. 

"It's not going to be easy," she said, referring to the legal fight to hold Gotabaya Rajapaksa to account for alleged complicity in torture and killings. "But we still have a chance to move forward. We should not let it go."