Jaffna has been gradually encircled since 1980 with large military installations using the land that have been taken over after evicting the people in it. People evicted from these areas almost 30 years ago are still living as IDPs or refugees in other countries without receiving any compensation. From 2006, the military and its allied paramilitaries unleashed a terror campaign on the people of Jaffna thus encircled by large military installations.
In this period, all residents at every home in Jaffna were ordered to take a group photo and have it ready when the military comes “checking”. If there is a person in the home who is not on the group photo, that person immediately becomes a suspect and is arrested. The effect of this on the social life of a community is far reaching. Deaths and disappearances became a daily occurrence. In the name of “checking” military would enter private homes at midnight and shoot on the spot or abduct residents in a “white van”. NESOHR had collected data on nearly 800 extrajudicial killing by shooting and other face to face killings and nearly 600 disappearances mostly by “white van” abductions between 2006 and 2008. These statistics for Jaffna makes up half of the total toll due to these two types of violations for the entire island for this period. During this period a unique phrase, “voluntary remand”, became part of the terror culture in Jaffna. Civilians who are threatened would seek protection with the Jaffna branch office of the Human Rights Commission who would in turn place them in prison to save their life. Prisons became overcrowded with such persons whom at times included entire families including children. Victims and their families refused to speak about the terror they faced even in anonymity. Court cases were initiated on these incidents and the court records were impressive for its lack of facts. Witnesses for the cases described in courts how the victim was dragged out from their homes, shops, and the roads and shot dead in the full view of many. Yet in no cases did the witnesses identify the killer except by the phrase “unidentified gunmen”.