A very big thank you to Mrs Clinton received
hysterical responses from the diehards
~ Rajasingham Jayadevan ~
A very big thank you Mrs Hillary Clinton published in the Sri Lankan Guardian,
Tamilaffairs.
Unfortunately, the malevolent comments came from the ultra extreme eccentrics of
the Sinhala community that cannot consider issues objectively and contribute
positively to develop a healthy debate.
Spiteful state of their thinking is such that they struggle to understand the
issues raised in my article and have gone on the spree to discharge their hatred
and venom in a rabid way.
Unfortunately, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton received the brunt of the
attack from these inconsiderate and insinuating eccentric campaigners, who
terrorise the websites with their well-known rabid hate campaigns.
My article also received some objective comments. Interestingly some valuable
and healthy highlights were provided in the comment section of Lankanewspapers.
Thivya's comments were:
Report of Special Rapporteur on violence against women- Yakiu Ellurk, UN
Commission on Human Roghts 60th Session 2 March 2004.
On 24 September 2003, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint communication with the
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of
opinion and expression and the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture
regarding the case of S.R. (f), aged 22, held in detention in Batticaloa since
23 July 2002. She was arrested on 24 November 2001 by four male police officers
from the Methirigirya police station on the basis of being a member of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and was reportedly taken to the office
of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Polonaruwa. At about midnight,
she was put alone in a cell, where it is alleged that officers from the
Methirigirya police station and the Polonaruva CID threatened to shoot her with
a gun, put chili powder all over her body, suspended her from the ceiling,
slapped her repeatedly, kicked her back, beat her with a rope, and burnt her all
over with cigarettes. She was then allegedly raped by 12 police officers while
in custody of CID...'
Amnesty Reports on Rapes in Custody, January 2002 Thambipillai Thanalakshmi :
'...Thambipillai Thanalakshmi, 42-year-old Tamil woman from Meesalai, Jaffna
district was reportedly dragged from her home at around 8.30pm on 7 July 2001 by
soldiers allegedly attached to the Kachchai army camp. They took her to a nearby
rice field where she was raped by at least three of them. Thambipillai
Thanalakshmi�����
The known Tamil rape victims of Sinhala Army.
... Ambalavanar Punithavathy, Thanuskodi Premini, Ilaiyathamby Tharshini,
Thambipillai Thanalakshmi, Velu Arshadevi Mahendiran, Nageswari -
Vijayaratnam Subashini, Thangiah Vijayalalitha, Sinnathamby Sivamany, Yogalingam
Vijitha - Ehamparam Wijikala, Sathasivam Rathykala, Sarathambal, Ida Carmelitta,
Koneswary, Velan Rasamma, Velan Vasantha, Rajani Velauthapillai, Selvarajah
Renuka, Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, Lakshmi Pillai & hundreds of others...
Sexual violence against Tamil women - D. B. S. Jeyaraj, 7 July 2001
'...A 28 year old Tamil woman of Indian origin from Badulla was working as
cashier at a hotel in Fort. The mother of two was staying at a lodge in
Maradana. After work she walked home passing through the checkpoint manned by
Police and Army personnel.. Her address and name was noted by the cops and
allowed to pass. Later the Policemen went to her residence in the night and
forced her under threat of arrest, to come to the checkpoint. Since the current
security situation enables Security Personnel to wield unlimited power over any
Tamil suspect, the woman reluctantly agreed. She was gang raped by the cops and
soldiers. She was warned under threat of death to keep quiet...'
Sri Lanka Security forces getting away with rape says Amnesty, April 2001
'Amnesty International today wrote to the President of Sri Lanka urging her to
take action to stop rape by security forces and bring perpetrators to justice.
Following several recent reports of rape by security forces in Mannar,
Batticaloa, Negombo and Jaffna, the organization reminded President Chandrika
Kumaratunga that safeguards to protect women in custody (as contained in
presidential directives for the welfare of detainees issued in July 1997) were
being ignored....'
Statement by NGO, Women Against Rape, at United Nations Commission on Human
Rights, March 2001
TCHR has gathered detailed and specific documentation on the widespread
violations of the human rights of women rape victims.
* On average, a Tamil woman is raped by members of the Sri Lankan security
forces every two weeks. The real number is inevitably higher since many cases
are unreported.
* Every two months a Tamil woman is gang-raped and murdered by the Sri Lankan
security forces.
Personnel from the Special Task Force, the Sri Lankan Navy, Army and Police and
Home guards operating with the Sri Lankan army, have raped Tamil women. Senior
personnel such as captains are known to have been involved in gang-rape and
murders, and have been named by victims and witnesses, but none has ever been
convicted nor punished.
The climate under which the Tamils are held in captivity in internment camps to
keep their lips tight and the overall control of the security forces and the
state aided Tamil paramilitary groups in the north and east of the country with
the tight fist policy of preventing people following the due process without
fear and intimidation cannot be considered as triumph card for the government
and its cohorts to claim rape is not practiced as a tool of war.
The Sri Lankan Guardian, Tamilaffairs.
In my previous article, I only raised two cases of rapes. I said there are
hundreds of rapes by the security forces in Sri Lanka and that very few come to
the public due the social stigma attached to their experience��. My article
prompted many phone calls. There were calls to open up debate on this subject
and unravel the extent of rape practiced as a tool in the war in Sri Lanka.
I was alerted about the brutal rape and murder of a young mother in the Eastern
Province. This case is adequately reported in the Wikapedia free encyclopaedia
and it states:
Mrs.(Murugesapillai
According to her neighbours, she had history of problems with the Central Camp
police in the Kalmunai district in eastern Sri Lanka. During that time she had
been subjected to alleged persistent harassment at the Central camp checkpoint.
Two months before she was killed, some police officers had allegedly cut and
took away a Margosa tree from her yard. Although she is reported to have filed a
complaint with the officer in charge at Central Camp immediately, nothing was
done. Subsequently Ms. Koneswary complained to a deputy inspector general in
Ampara, who intervened on her behalf, and instructed the local police to return
the timber to the family. It was after this incident that the alleged verbal
abuse and sexual harassment of Ms. Koneswary began.
On May 17, around 11 p.m., as described by her four-year-old daughter, some
"uncles with guns" had entered the hut carried the little girl outside and left
her near a neighbour's fence. According to villagers, Ms. Koneswary had that
night sent her three other children to her relatives who were living nearby. The
little girl is the only witness to the ensuing crime.
In a letter to President Kumaratunga, Mothers' Front of Jaffna wrote,
"reprisals by the security forces against civilians and their property have now
become a common feature. Tamil women in the north and east are no longer able to
live with self-respect and dignity. Normal life in these parts of the country is
severely hampered, as law-abiding citizens are prevented from going about their
day-to-day life".
The Centre for Women's Research in Sri Lanka (CENWOR) also protested the rape.
It asked the Sri Lankan president
"how can national and international credibility be acquired when this type of
grave crime is committed by members of the armed forces against defenseless
women."
The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam reportedly retaliated for the rape
and murder by attacking a Sri Lankan military camp resulting in the death of 23
people. Furthermore, LTTE's female unit attacked the police station, where
Koneswary was allegedly raped, killing 15 police dead and more than 20 injured.
After the attack a female LTTE cadre claimed "We wanted to avenge the rape of
Koneswary Murugesupillai. We are proud that we were able to destroy the police
station where she was raped and killed,"
The then president Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered an inquiry into the crime by
the local the Criminal Investigation Department; According to UNHCHR no one has
been convicted for the crime.�����
Residents of Jaffna close to the Palay Army camp complain that soldiers at
regular intervals are knocking at doors of families in the nights where young
girls are present. One resident had told his relative in London, �����young
soldiers come and knock at the door and widows in the nights and we run for our
lives through the back door�����. In an incident in 1998, residents of
Suthumalai had beaten and driven away the two soldiers who sneaked out of the
camp in the night in search of young girls in the area.
RAPE OF THAMIL WOMEN BY SINHALA ARMED FORCES
1) The victims of the Vankalai massacre were members of one such family that
returned from India. The husband was 38 year old Sinnaiah Moorthy Martin. The
wife was 27 year old Anthony Mary Madeleine. The daughter was 9 year old Anne
Lakshika. The son was 7 year old Anne Dilakshan. The family had re - settled in
Vankalai about a year and a half ago. SLA soldiers armed with bayonets and
knives entered the house of a family of four and slaughtered 35-year-old father,
27-year-old mother, 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son Thursday midnight in
Vankalai, 12 km southeast of Mannar. Eyewitnesses in the area, Thomaspuri Ward
No 10 in Vankalai, have told Mannar Additional Magistrate that they could
identify the soldiers involved in the massacre. Villagers alleged the mother was
raped before the massacre. Tension prevails in Vankalai. Religious leaders
including the Bishop of Mannar, parliamentarians and civil society members in
Mannar have rushed to site. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials have visited
the massacre site. (Read more
http://nakkeran.
(2) Rajani Velayuthapillai, aged 23 years was detained by the Sri Lankan army
personnel at Kondavil military check-post on her way back from Maanippai on
October 03, 1996. She was returning after saying adieu to some of her close
relatives prior to flying to Canada to join her fianc����e. The soldiers on duty
gang raped her and dumped her body in a pit of an abandoned lavatory near the
Kondavil military check-post.
(3) Thenuka Selvarajah, a 5th grade student at Atchuvely Mahavidyalayam, was
abducted and gang raped by army personnel attached to Puttur army camp on
November 2, 1996. Luckily the sexually abused and psychologically tormented
child escaped her abductors to tell her story to the school principal.
(4) Mrs. Murugesapillai Koneswary, mother of 4 children, of Central Camp,
Amparai District, was passing though the check point at Central Camp on 17 May,
1997 when she was verbally assaulted and sexually harassed by four police
officers on duty at that time. Reportedly, Mrs. Koneswary was not one to quietly
take the harassment and thus defended herself, shouting at the officers and
demanding that they leave her alone. At approximately 11.00 p.m. the same night,
an unknown number of armed men in uniform entered Mrs. Koneswary's home. By
11.30 she was dead. She died instantly when a hand grenade was exploded on her
private part. This was apparently done to destroy all evidence of gang rape.
Mrs. Koneswary's home, a thatched hut with a concrete floor, bore the marks of
the explosion.
(5) Velan Rasammah (38) a widow and her sister Nalliah Dharshini (28) were raped
by four army soldiers at Thannamunai, a village 6 km north of Batticaloa. The
incident took place on March 17, 1997 at 11.00 p.m. At an identification parade
the victims identified only one soldier among a total of 150.
(6) Sarathambal ( 29), daughter of the local Brahmin priest and mother of a
three years old child, was forcibly dragged out from her home in Punkudutivu by
gunmen in black uniform. The incident happened at 8.30 p.m. on December 28
(Tuesday),1999 when a curfew was in force. They then gang-raped and murdered her
in cold blood. (Read more
http://nakkeran.
(7) Krishanti Kumaraswamy (18) and her mother Rasamma Kumaraswmy (59) were raped
and murdered on , September 6, 1996 by the Sri Lankan army soldiers and
policemen at duty at Navatkuly, Jaffna. On the same day Krishanti's brother
Pranavan (16) and a neighbour who went in search of Krishanti were were
murdered. Although crimes like rape and murder committed against unarmed
defenseless Tamil civilians have become common place in the North and East, the
naked barbarism displayed by the rapists and killers in this instance surpassed
all previous crime records. During the course of the trial two policemen who
turned crown witnesses gave graphic account of the last dying hours of
Krishanti. According to their evidence, the army and police personnel pounced on
their prey like hungry animals to satisfy their carnal passions. Krishanti
fainted and collapsed unconscious when these sex maniacs in khaki uniform raped
her in a row. On gaining consciousness the poor girl asked for some water to
drink. Thereafter when the sixth rapist was about to take his turn Krishanti
pleaded with him. She unsuccessfully begged and pleaded with her tormentor
saying, "Let me rest for five minutes." Finally she was strangled to death and
buried. (Read more
http://nakkeran.
(8) On 12th June, 1991 at 11.00 a.m., the Sri Lankan army stationed in the
Kokaddichcholai camp situated in the adjoining village, entered these two
villages, terrorised and assaulted all the Tamil people, raped the women ,
including teachers and students who had taken refuge in the village school. 17
families who had taken refuge in the school were shot and killed. In one
incident, a young girl who took protection with an old lady teacher was dragged
by these sex hungry soldiers and raped in spite of the old lady offering them
instead all the jewellery the girl had. They took the jewellery and raped the
girl as well.
(9) The victims of the Vankalai massacre were members of one such family that
returned from India. The husband was 38 year old Sinnaiah Moorthy Martin. The
wife was 27 year old Anthony Mary Madeleine. The daughter was 9 year old Anne
Lakshika. The son was 7 year old Anne Dilakshan. The family had re - settled in
Vankalai about a year and a half ago. SLA soldiers armed with bayonets and
knives entered the house of a family of four and slaughtered 35-year-old father,
27-year-old mother, 9-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son Thursday midnight in
Vankalai, 12 km southeast of Mannar. Eyewitnesses in the area, Thomaspuri Ward
No 10 in Vankalai, have told Mannar Additional Magistrate that they could
identify the soldiers involved in the massacre. Villagers alleged the mother was
raped before the massacre. Tension prevails in Vankalai. Religious leaders
including the Bishop of Mannar, parliamentarians and civil society members in
Mannar have rushed to site. Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission officials have visited
the massacre site.
(10) Ilayathamby Tharshini (20), whose body was recovered from an abandoned well
in Punguduthivu Saturday, was brutally raped before being strangled to death,
according to postmortem examination conducted in the Jaffna Teaching Hospital.
Dr.Balasubramaniam, Judicial Medical Officer, who conducted the postmortem
examination later handed over the medical report to the Kayts Police. The
funeral of Tharshini was held Monday amid intimidation and threat by the Sri
Lanka Navy personnel in Punguduthivu, residents said. According to the report
several injuries were caused by fingernails and biting had been found on several
areas of her body. One of her breasts had been severely bitten.
(11) On 24
September 2003, the Special Rapporteur sent a joint communication with the
Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of
opinion and expression and the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture
regarding the case of S.R. (f), aged 22, held in detention in Batticaloa since
23 July 2002. She was arrested on 24 November 2001 by four male police officers
from the Methirigirya police station on the basis of being a member of the
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), and was reportedly taken to the office
of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in Polonaruwa. At about midnight,
she was put alone in a cell, where it is alleged that officers from the
Methirigirya police station and the Polonaruva CID threatened to shoot her with
a gun, put chili powder all over her body, suspended her from the ceiling,
slapped her repeatedly, kicked her back, beat her with a rope, and burnt her all
over with cigarettes. She was then allegedly raped by 12 police officers while
in custody of CID.
(12) Thambipillai Thanalakshmi, 42-year-old Tamil woman from Meesalai, Jaffna
district was reportedly dragged from her home at around 8.30pm on 7 July 2001 by
soldiers allegedly attached to the Kachchai army camp. They took her to a nearby
rice field where she was raped by at least three of them. Thambipillai
Thanalakshmi'