Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State Clinton
TCWA's President Veluppillai Thangavelu,
Canada
Not surprisingly the Sri Lankan government notorious for human rights abuses has been stung by your statement that "We've seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma and Sri Lanka and elsewhere.
Further in a letter to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka the State Department have stated "numerous cases of rape and sexual violence in Sri Lanka, particularly acts committed against women held in detention by the government." The Sri Lankan government propaganda machinery is now in full throttle to deny charges of using rape as tool of war during the past 33 years.
Though the government is in a total denial mode, facts speak otherwise. Here is the list of rape victims, some of them killed after raping, for your information. The list is no more complete. Recent rape of Thamil women imprisoned in the camps took place without witnesses as inmates were afraid to complain and media has no access.
(a) There is "Widespread police torture, abductions of journalists, politicised courts and uninvestigated disappearances have all played a part in creating a state of "complete or virtually complete impunity in Sri Lanka ". - The Economist, 3 Sept 09. On August 25, 2009
(b) "Just three months after the Sri Lankan government declared the country liberated from the Tamil Tigers, video footage has emerged apparently showing government troops summarily executing Tamils". - Channel 4, 25 Aug 09
Here is a partial list of Victims of Rape
(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.com/Massacres2.htm)
(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 fiancée. 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.com/Sarathambal2003.htm)
(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.com/Krishanti96.htm)
(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.
It may be recalled that 108 of the Sri Lanka's 950-strong contingent in the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was ordered out "following allegations of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse by members of MINUSTAH's Sri Lankan Battalion stationed in a number of locations in Haiti in 2007." The United Nations at that time repatriated 108 Sri Lankan peacekeepers serving with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti. . The move comes in response to allegations which are of a transactional sex nature. The Secretary-General`s spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters that those involved included underage girls. The Sri Lankan government also decided to repatriate the battalion`s second in command and two company commanders in the wake of the charges. This is added evidence that the Sri Lankan armed forces are indisplined and commits sexual abuses routinely.
TCWA's President Veluppillai Thangavelu,
Canada
Not surprisingly the Sri Lankan government notorious for human rights abuses has been stung by your statement that "We've seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma and Sri Lanka and elsewhere.
Further in a letter to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka the State Department have stated "numerous cases of rape and sexual violence in Sri Lanka, particularly acts committed against women held in detention by the government." The Sri Lankan government propaganda machinery is now in full throttle to deny charges of using rape as tool of war during the past 33 years.Though the government is in a total denial mode, facts speak otherwise. Here is the list of rape victims, some of them killed after raping, for your information. The list is no more complete. Recent rape of Thamil women imprisoned in the camps took place without witnesses as inmates were afraid to complain and media has no access.
(a) There is "Widespread police torture, abductions of journalists, politicised courts and uninvestigated disappearances have all played a part in creating a state of "complete or virtually complete impunity in Sri Lanka ". - The Economist, 3 Sept 09. On August 25, 2009
(b) "Just three months after the Sri Lankan government declared the country liberated from the Tamil Tigers, video footage has emerged apparently showing government troops summarily executing Tamils". - Channel 4, 25 Aug 09
Here is a partial list of Victims of Rape
(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.com/Massacres2.htm)
(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 fiancée. 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.com/Sarathambal2003.htm)
(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.com/Krishanti96.htm)
(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.
It may be recalled that 108 of the Sri Lanka's 950-strong contingent in the UN mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was ordered out "following allegations of incidents of sexual exploitation and abuse by members of MINUSTAH's Sri Lankan Battalion stationed in a number of locations in Haiti in 2007." The United Nations at that time repatriated 108 Sri Lankan peacekeepers serving with the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti. . The move comes in response to allegations which are of a transactional sex nature. The Secretary-General`s spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters that those involved included underage girls. The Sri Lankan government also decided to repatriate the battalion`s second in command and two company commanders in the wake of the charges. This is added evidence that the Sri Lankan armed forces are indisplined and commits sexual abuses routinely.