'Our children are the ones who suffer most as their father is missing'

Prageeth Ekneligoda is missing since he left the office on 26 January 2009 of LankaeNews website, for which he worked as a columnist.

Sandhya Ekneligoda, wife of disappeared cartoonist and columnist Prageeth, said she would not stop her mission until she meets her husband.

“I am doing this for our children and I am doing this to prevent similar disappearances in the future,” Mrs Ekneligoda told the journalists after handing over her petition to United Nations permanent representative in Colombo.

Galle Festival

“Our children are the ones who suffer most as their father is missing,” she added.

I will not stop until I meet my husband. I am doing this for our children and I am doing this to prevent similar disappearances in the future Sandhya Ekneligoda

In her letter, she has requested UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to exert pressure on Sri Lanka government to investigate her husband’s disappearance.

The journalist who was previously abducted and kept for a few hours has supported main opposition candidate, Gen Sarath Fonseka's campaign, his colleagues told BBC Sandeshaya.

The internationally renowned writers, Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy, have lent their voices to a call for equally famous authors including Turkey’s Orhan Pamuk to boycott a festival of writing that takes place in Sri Lanka next week.

They say that by attending the Galle Literary Festival, the writers will legitimise what they say is Colombo’s squashing of free expression.