COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- Six Tamils told a Sri Lankan government war commission their sons or husbands had been abducted or detained by the army.
The commission said it would pass the accounts along to appropriate authorities in a government that has dismissed calls for an independent investigation of the missing in northern Sri Lanka, the BBC reported Saturday.
The war commission has invited public or private testimony.
Sinnasamy Nallathamby, an elderly tailor, said his son was picked up in an army roundup in late 2008, released by magistrates, then abducted by people in a white van -- the vehicle of choice in forced disappearances, the BBC reported.
Another woman said her husband was also taken in a van and hadn't been seen since.
Others said they thought the military was holding their husbands, who had worked for the Tamil Tigers, but lacked specific information.
Human rights groups demand an international investigation into possible war crimes during Sri Lanka's 37-year conflict with the Tamil Tigers, which ended last year, the report said. The United Nations said at least 7,000 Tamil civilians were killing during the last five months of the war during a government offensive in rebel territory.
