Disappeared Eelam Tamils and Allegations of Transnational Organ Trafficking: An Urgent Call for Independent International Inquiry

By Small Drops | Balananthini Balasubramaniam

Published 20 April 2025 | Updated 10 July 2025

Abstract

This article interrogates the enduring and distressing concerns voiced by Eelam Tamil communities regarding the fate of thousands forcibly disappeared during and following the Sri Lankan civil war. It foregrounds allegations that organs from these disappeared individuals may have been trafficked internationally, particularly to China and Pakistan—two states historically intertwined with Sri Lanka through military and economic ties, and both implicated in systemic organ trafficking. While definitive empirical evidence remains elusive, the convergence of circumstantial patterns necessitates rigorous, independent international investigation.

1. Introduction: The Enigma of Enforced Disappearances Among Eelam Tamils

Since the late stages of Sri Lanka’s protracted civil conflict, independent bodies and United Nations mechanisms have documented the forced disappearance of over 60,000 individuals, predominantly of Tamil ethnicity. These disappearances are accompanied by corroborated allegations of torture, extrajudicial killings, and unmarked mass graves. Despite repeated international calls for accountability, the Sri Lankan government has persistently obstructed transparent investigations.

This article critically analyses these enforced disappearances in the context of documented transnational organ trafficking networks involving China and Pakistan. While based on credible reports, testimonies, and circumstantial evidence, it does not assert definitive proof of organ trafficking linked to disappeared persons but instead raises urgent questions warranting transparent and independent investigation. The language herein respects the presumption of innocence and is intended to contribute responsibly to human rights discourse, without intending to defame any individual or state actor.

Within affected Tamil communities, a particularly grave question persists:

Have the organs of forcibly disappeared persons been illicitly harvested and trafficked beyond Sri Lanka’s borders?

2. China’s Systematic Organ Harvesting: Established Patterns and International Findings

China occupies a pivotal position in global discourse concerning state-sponsored organ harvesting. The landmark 2019 China Tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice KC, concluded with high confidence that:

 “Forced organ harvesting has been perpetrated in China on a significant scale over a protracted period.”

Documented victims predominantly comprise Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan political detainees, and other marginalized groups. Key hallmarks of this system include:

Organ extraction conducted within military-run medical institutions

Rapid scheduling of transplants, often within days, implying premeditated ‘on-demand’ organ availability

A profound discrepancy between officially reported voluntary donor rates and the actual volume of transplants performed

Given the extensive military and infrastructural cooperation between China and Sri Lanka, particularly during and post-conflict periods, it is imperative to consider the plausibility of these organ harvesting practices extending into transnational networks involving disappeared Eelam Tamils.

3. Pakistan’s Illicit Organ Trade and Alleged Links to Sri Lanka

Pakistan’s involvement in illicit organ trafficking has been extensively documented. Investigative journalism and whistleblower testimonies reveal entrenched networks facilitating the illegal procurement and sale of human organs, primarily kidneys, often exploiting socioeconomically vulnerable populations. Crucially:

Medical professionals and intermediaries have been implicated in collusion with enforcement authorities.

A Pakistani physician’s claim, reported in diaspora media and Urdu press during the early 2020s, alluded to organs sourced from Sri Lankan individuals, though comprehensive evidence remains outstanding.

This contextualises Sri Lanka’s enforced disappearances within a broader regional nexus of organ trafficking rather than an isolated domestic phenomenon.

4. Sri Lanka’s Internal Organ Trafficking Dynamics and Temporal Discrepancies

Sri Lanka’s official ban on foreign kidney transplants in 2016, enacted seven years after the civil war’s conclusion in 2009, presents a significant temporal incongruity when analysed alongside the pattern of enforced disappearances predominantly affecting young Tamil individuals during the late conflict and immediate post-war period (circa 2007–2009). This discrepancy is critical for understanding the potential scale and opacity of illicit organ trafficking related to the disappeared.

While the 2016 regulatory intervention ostensibly curtailed transplant tourism and illegal kidney sales involving foreign recipients, it did not address, nor retroactively investigate, organ trade practices during the war years when state oversight was minimal or non-existent. Consequently, any organ harvesting or trafficking activities conducted amid the conflict’s chaos and post-war instability escaped regulatory scrutiny and possible prosecution.

Furthermore, although the ban specifically targeted kidney transplants, the paucity of transparent data regarding other organs—such as liver, heart, or lungs—compounds the uncertainty. The demographic profile of the disappeared, overwhelmingly composed of young men forcibly abducted or detained by military and paramilitary actors, amplifies suspicion that these individuals may have been subjected to organ harvesting beyond kidneys, possibly facilitated through clandestine networks leveraging both domestic healthcare institutions and international trafficking routes.

This temporal gap between the peak of disappearances and regulatory response underscores a systemic failure to monitor, investigate, and prevent the illicit exploitation of vulnerable populations during and immediately after the war. It illuminates the urgent necessity for retrospective, independent inquiries that examine transplant records, forensic evidence, and witness testimonies from the conflict period rather than restricting investigations solely to post-ban years.

Without addressing this critical historical window, any attempt at truth recovery and justice remains fundamentally incomplete, perpetuating impunity and denying affected communities the closure and reparations they urgently seek.

5. Contextualising Eelam Tamil Suspicions of Chinese and Pakistani Involvement in Organ Trafficking

The suspicion among Eelam Tamil communities that China and Pakistan may be implicated in the organ trafficking of forcibly disappeared Tamils is founded upon a confluence of geopolitical, historical, and structural factors. Both China and Pakistan have maintained substantial military and diplomatic engagements with Sri Lanka, particularly during and after the civil war, supplying arms, intelligence support, and infrastructural development. These strategic partnerships have fostered not only close state-to-state ties but also facilitated complex networks of cooperation that extend beyond conventional military assistance.

Critically, both nations are independently documented to have systemic organ trafficking practices, albeit differing in scale and modality. China’s internationally condemned, state-sanctioned organ harvesting program targets prisoners of conscience and marginalized ethnic groups within its borders, characterised by rapid, on-demand transplantation facilitated by military medical institutions. Pakistan, conversely, hosts a robust black-market organ trade operating with the collusion of medical professionals, intermediaries, and law enforcement officials, which reportedly exploits socioeconomically vulnerable populations and is known to engage in cross-border organ procurement activities. Notably, there have been unverified but persistent claims from whistleblowers and investigative sources suggesting that organs sourced from Sri Lankan individuals have entered Pakistani illicit networks.

Within this geopolitical and illicit trafficking framework, the absence of transparent and comprehensive audits of transplant records in Sri Lanka, coupled with an enduring culture of impunity and obfuscation, exacerbates Tamil anxieties and fuels credible fears regarding the fate of the disappeared. The young demographic profile of the majority of forcibly disappeared Tamils—predominantly men in their prime reproductive and productive years—aligns disturbingly with the typical profile of organ trafficking victims elsewhere, reinforcing the plausibility of such exploitation.

Hence, the suspicions of Eelam Tamil communities cannot be dismissed as mere conjecture or anecdotal grievance but must be understood as rooted in a sophisticated awareness of regional power dynamics, documented trafficking methodologies, and Sri Lanka’s own documented internal transplant malpractices. This complex matrix of evidence and suspicion mandates an impartial and rigorous international investigation to either substantiate or dispel these claims with forensic and documentary precision.

6. The Imperative for an Independent International Investigation

Given the gravity of these allegations implicating potential crimes against humanity, human trafficking, and illicit organ trade, a concerted international response is warranted. Such an inquiry should encompass:

Exhaustive examination of hospital transplant records spanning conflict and post-conflict periods (circa 2007–2012)

Forensic analysis of identified and suspected mass grave sites

Testimonies from families of the disappeared, defected military personnel, and medical insiders

Engagement of United Nations Special Rapporteurs on enforced disappearances, torture, and organ trafficking

Refusal by Sri Lankan authorities to permit impartial scrutiny would exacerbate perceptions of complicity and perpetuate intergenerational trauma within the Tamil population.

7. Conclusion

The nexus between Sri Lanka’s forcibly disappeared Eelam Tamils and international organ trafficking networks allegedly involving China and Pakistan remains an unresolved and critical human rights concern. Although direct evidence linking Tamil disappearances to transnational organ trade is yet to be established conclusively, the alignment of circumstantial evidence, documented trafficking infrastructures, and a culture of post-war impunity mandates urgent and independent international examination.

Truth is a prerequisite for justice, and justice is indispensable for healing. Without transparent inquiry, the silence surrounding these disappearances will continue to erode the fabric of Tamil communities.

References

1. China Tribunal Final Judgment (2019). China Tribunal. Accessed July 10, 2025. https://chinatribunal.com/.

2. Matas, David, and David Kilgour. Bloody Harvest: Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China. 2007.

3. “Organ trafficking: doctors, police and middlemen.” Dawn News, November 21, 2016. https://www.dawn.com/news/1308746/organ-trafficking-doctors-police-and-middlemen.

4. “Sri Lanka bans foreigner kidney transplants after organ racket tip.” NDTV, June 24, 2016. https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sri-lanka-bans-foreigner-kidney-transplants-after-organ-racket-tip-1268565.

5. “The Kidney Mafia in Sri Lanka.” LankaWeb, June 30, 2025. https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2025/06/30/the-kidney-mafia-in-sri-lanka/.

6. United Nations OHCHR. Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL). 2015.

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