“There are many hundreds of victims of rape by the security forces in Sri Lanka. Very few come to the public due the social stigma attached to their experience. The impunity enjoyed by the Sri Lankan forces has political backing and when it involves the minority Tamils, it is something of an achievement for the perpetrators.”
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By Rajasingham Jayadevan
(October 01, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is with the deep feeling the right thinking Sri Lankans are saying a big ‘thank you’ for your pivotal role to chair the meeting of the United Nations Security Council to adopt the resolution to create new tools to combat sexual violence against women. In your speech, you have candidly charged number of countries including Sri Lanka of using rape as a tool of war.
Inclusion of Sri Lanka in the list is welcome decision, as the country has evaded international pressures despite the systematic campaign of rape as a weapon in its war with the LTTE.
In the mid 90’s there was heavy campaign to bring justice to the murdered rape victim Krishanthi Kumarasamy. Krishanthi was repeatedly gang raped by the soldiers and then murdered. Even her mother and brother Piranavan who went in search of Krishanthi to the Kaithady army camp in Jaffna too were brutally murdered.
According to testimonies presented to the court, gang raped Krishanthy, before her death, pleaded with the rapists to give her bit of time to rest. Her plead was disregarded and she was further raped and finally murdered. Army officers involved in the murders were sentenced to death, but it was not implemented. No one knows what has happened to these rapists, whether they are serving prison sentences or being released and serving in the army.
My public engagement and socio-housing advocacy work gave me the rare opportunity of dealing with real Tamil victims of the war in Sri Lanka. Many stories are grimly. When I was doing social housing advocacy work, I came across a twenty year old lady who is from Jaffna. She had come to London to avoid the brutality of the war. She too became our family friend like many others who received my help.
Her interaction with my family and relatives prompted one of our relative to propose a marriage for her. This prompted her to tell her terrible experience with the Sri Lankan army. She sobbingly said to my wife ‘I do not want to marry as I am very traumatised by what I experienced in Sri Lanka. I was taken on gun point and raped by an army officer in Jaffna.’ She further said: ‘my priority is to save my family members as they too are vulnerable to the army’.
This lady is an ordinary civilian and was not involved in any of the Tamil movements. Since she revealed her terrifying experience, she was able to get her family members out of Sri Lanka to a safe country. She is a living testimony for the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to meet and understand the extent of her trauma with the army.
The leading Sri Lankan ‘Daily Mirror’ newspaper gave publicity to the UN resolution. ‘Rape was used as a weapon of war in Sri Lanka- Clinton’ is the title and it also facilitated video attachment of the proceeding of the UN Security Council meeting chaired by the US Secretary of State and also gave an opportunity for the readers to comment on the news. After reading the extreme comments published, I decided to send my comments under a pseudonym name based on the said rape victim’s story. Unfortunately, due to reasons best known to the Daily Mirror, my views did not find its passage into its comments section.
There are many hundreds of victims of rape by the security forces in Sri Lanka. Very few come to the public due the social stigma attached to their experience. The impunity enjoyed by the Sri Lankan forces has political backing and when it involves the minority Tamils, it is something of an achievement for the perpetrators.
The news and comments published by the ‘Daily Mirror’ is appended here to expose the lack of objectivity of the newspaper and its intent to prop up canard and hatred on the very serious accusation on the Sri Lankan forces by the UN.
Rape was used as a weapon of war in Sri Lanka- Clinton
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressing the UN Security Council, Wednesday, noted that rape has been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma, Sri Lanka and elsewhere and that in too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence are not punished, and so this impunity encourages further attacks.
The U.N. Security Council meanwhile yesterday unanimously adopted a resolution creating new tools to combat sexual violence against women and children in conflict situations. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chaired Wednesday's meeting, which came on the last day of the United States' presidency of the council.
VIDEO LINK: Click Here
-Sri Lanka Guardian
Home Unlabelled A very big thank you Mrs Hillary Clinton
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Yoou should marry Mrs Clinto,
Unlike the US army and the LTTE, Sri Lanka army soldiers are professional soldiers. Hilary Clinton and the above writer, Rajasingham Jayadevan have got it wrong. They have nothing other than malicious intention to discredit Sri Lanka and its security forces. The following are some of the examples of RAPE that had taken place in Iraq by US army soldiers;
Private Steven Dale, age 24 sentenced to life in prison for rape of 14 year old girl and murdered of her 3 family members (mother, fathers and sister) in Iraq. Three more soldiers who participate in this brutal act also charged with lesser sentences.
LaVena Johnson was 19 years old, serving in Iraq as a private in the US Army, when she was raped, murdered, and her body was burned--by someone from her own military base. Despite overwhelming physical evidence, the Army called it a suicide and closed the case.
There are many other instances that US service women were raped by male soldiers in Kuwait and Iraq. It has been widely known that US service women are having more risk of sexual abuse by fellow soldiers.
Apart from sexual abuse the torture and humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops is widespread activity.
When it comes to LTTE there are so many told and untold stories about gang raping and killings of its underage women cadres and school girls and boys by LTTE terrorists.
Hillary Clinton would say that because it is a well known fact that she is lobbied by the LTTE with one sided views, after all this is a women who said that "some form of terrorism is necessary" when reflecting on the Sri Lankan conflict, what a dumb statement to have come from the secretary of state. Has anyone showed her the pictures of the pregnant Sinhalese women whose fetus was ripped out when she and hundreds of othe Sinhalese were murdered in the Dollar farm massacre? .. you can distort the views of all the world politicians & world organization with your lies and money, but in the end the truth will set Sri Lanka free.
Jeezus....
Who in thier right mind would want to Rape let alone peck a Tamil woman?
Do they fancy themselves as Sex Objects??? What a hoot..//
Get lost hilary. It seems you are still getting money from LTTE. What I can say is leave us alone. you better look after whats happening in Iraq and Afgan. Poor busterds can't win the war and we won it. Now can't tolarate our victory. Get lost.
writer has fogoten strories about ipkf,us army ,british army etc.Otherwise good short story.
All these stories might be one sided, but i think security forces of sri lanka should be held to a higher standard than LTTE. LTTE is a brutal terrorist organization and they havent done anything valuable to resolve the real issue. but that dosent give us the right to ignore illicit activities done by few.
im confident these activities such as rape is not wide spread. however, that dosent mean they do not happen as there are plenty of evidence to support this. when they happen its the governments responsibility to take legal action against the perpetrator and take necessary action to ensure they do not happen in the future. failure to do so just fuel the existing ethnic issues and gives a bad name to the armed forces
War is evil and it is most likely to be a fact that crimes such as rape did take place. No point denying it fellow posters, and certainly no call for the ultra racist comment from Channa.
If we ignore it and try to hide it then nothing will be done rapists will continue to walk the streets.
Bravo for posting this blog. I try to imagine the stories are not true but these are real people with real tales, I can only offer my sympathy.
Jayadevan can give only one instance of rape by the Military which has taken place in mid 90s. He contradicts his statement that there is impunity enjoyed by the Sri Lankan forces by admitting that the persons involved were prosecuted and sentenced to death.
One can believe that it is on this the kind of contradictory evidence that Hillary Clinton is making this kind of wild accusation to please the Tamil Diaspora.
Vichara
A good story as someone said earlier. The rape victim in question would have had a date with her boy friend and knowing Tamil culture must be trying cover with story, well the obvious choice, rape by the armed forces. Many lies are being told, it is sickening to read articles and I wonder how many people are being paid by these tamil terrorists dispora. Still they maintain these people. Well Hilary Clinton is stupid, she must be still thinking about the abuse by her husband, remember Monica!!! and the cigar, well she will grow up with time, but the problem here is then she will will be too old and gone.
NoelP
Dear "Noel","Tudor the canadian", "Helaya", "Channa","Niluka" & "Third eye" you are a disgrace to the decent Srilankans.Thanks to a few fair thinking people like "chinthaka" & "street lamp".
If rape is common in all wars, does it become an acceptable norm?
Won't you acknowledge the fact that rape is a crime unless & until it is committed on your wife, mother, sister or daughter?
Is this what you learnt from the teachings of Lord Buddha or Jesus Christ?
Sociopaths have a total disregard for the impact that being repeatedly caught in a lie may have in their credibility. They just continue to spew allegations willy-nilly without showing any inclination to support their claims with evidence.
So, Ms. Clinton, what evidence have you got to back those allegations that you so eagerly repeated?
Thanking a women who could not keep her wayword husband in check took money from terrorists and coming from a land that spells rape as as ripe, voted to extint a complete nation is like thanking the hubby for having sex with a teenager.What do you idiot call an old man having sex with a teenager. It's rape of a mind dummy.OOPS sorry he did not have sexual intercourse with that women.LOL And to those who beleive SL forces committed rape do you have any proof or are you guys imagining things living in the west.Dont watch so much of TV.Also why not visit Sri lanka and see for yourself and when you do so please go find some mines so that you can get blown up accidently and blame the soldiers for it.You guys are some jokers.You want Elam go get it from India first an then you can have the North and the East will go to Pakistan.Kisses to you guys.lol
Dear Noel you are genious.I 100% agree with your following comment.
"The rape victim in question would have had a date with her boy friend and knowing Tamil culture must be trying cover with story, well the obvious choice, rape by the armed forces"
Hi Mr.Look good and feel great. You are a sick bustered. Dont insult Tamil ladies. You are giving and immpression that most of the Tamil ladies are raped. No rapes were taken place in SL as a war tool or as any other tool. This is uter lie. Can't you rememebr we rescued badly wounded three LTTE sisters. One was a teacher. OUR armed forces are not sick like LTTE bastereds. All the soilders have their families sisters,wifes,mothers. You are lost the battle. Accept it. You can fool Hilory. She has to say someting to pay off the money paid by LTTE. We dont care . There is a saying "Truth will win one day" Thats what happened in Sri lanka.That is why Sri lankans won the battle against LTTE.
Dont cry. No mo Elam.
Hilary can ask Bill and Monika what is the meaning of rape.
SICK HILORY. SHAME ON YOU.
Dear all ,
dont suprprise if Hilary will come up will follwing logic in near future.
USA cant win the battle in IRAQ and AFGAN because US soldiers are not using a RAPE as a TOOL.These days new weaponary is not useful. If we want to win the war against terrorisum we have to use RAPE as a tool of war. Sri Lanka used RAPE as a tool of war and they won the battle. Since we are not using RAPE as a tool of war we rae not going to win the IRAQ war.
This is the Secretory of State. Can you imaging the what type of fools are in OBAMA administration.
I like Bill very much. He was a great man. Dear Bill you deserve MONIKA.
Ms.Clinton you have a lot of work to do in the United States: save the health care system, fix inner city schools and eliminate poverty.
How much are they paying you to talk crapola about our beautiful little island?
God...don't be such a loser; do something useful!
Mr. Rajasingham is making an unfair allegation. He knows that most of the Tamil girls got sexually involved doing LTTE politics. And sex was used by the LTTE to attract innocent youth to their movement. Most of them had the confidence to find their partners within the organization, which I appreciate. But the allegation that Mr. Rajasingham is trying level against Sri Lankan Forces is pathetic. I know few Sri Lankan soldiers who have fallen in love with Tamil damsels who have got married to them. Human condition does not separate people on the lines of ethnicity and nationality. I do not understand why the writer emphasis that Tamils and Sinhalese are different animals. We are all the same.
About time these horrible and secretive abuses came to light. Sinhalese people must learn to leave the Tamils alone, get out of their lands and mind their own business.
It is not nice to accuse an army of high morality! Please do not bring out what we did in Haiti. It is only 108 out of 900 proud strong army men who were involved in sexual abuses. It is only the second-in-command and the company commander who were involved. The batallion commander is blemishless. Are you asking what happened to these 108 after they were evicted from UN "peace mission"? They were deployed in Wanni for the "same mission". This time with no bars! Those who leave comments on the sanctity of Sri Lankan army, I wish their sisters/mothers have the same experience that the Tamil women experienced. Go search in google for sri lanka and Haiti, you will know the greatness of this ruthless, inhumane, government terrorist army. They are so vulgur and perverted that they will not even spare the fallen soldiers. You sick people, go hold the lamp for your army when they are in your bedroom with your wives!
I'm a Sri Lankan and I'm really grateful to the current Sri Lankan government and the President for,that the country is no more facing the unfortunate violence of war,which we suffered for nearly 30 years.It had always been a true Sri Lankans only dream to eradicate violence and bring back hope to the whole nation.So here we are,all gathered together now.
But there is a hidden truth where the Sri Lanakan government has gone wrong.I personally think what Hilory Clinton has stated was quite the truth.It is the harsh truth behind the long waited peace, We respect the army with all our hearts for the unbelievable victory they brought upon the whole nation .But proof from all over the country on this reckless behavior of the army is reverberating.
There are innocent people,homeless,and orphans without any guardian,people suffering from epidemic diseases and people famishing with no food.They are begging for shelter and begging for food.And on top of all they are begging for the protection of their daughters.
Do u call this peace???We sinhalese do not need peace with no humanity.We want the same rights for both us and the tamil people.They have the right to live in this small island as much as we do.Most of the workers from UN,UNICEF,WHO,Red cross..etc complain that they are not being allowed to enter the salvage areas to at least feed the victims.No one knows what exactly is happening in there.If there's peace what's so big to hide in there???These victims should be re-established with shelter,food and a job to survive,not be trapped in a salvage area.Like us,they lived there lives,they had their dreams,they had a hope to live...they prayed for peace...but not this...
Everyday there's a girl being raped,in front of their parents begging for mercy,everyday there's a murder...everyday there's nothing but violence...
They are humans,they need their rights...Prabhakaran was a vicious person who used the innocent tamils against the government to fulfill his personal grudges,but if the government continues to treat the tamils like this,it will be like giving birth to millions of future Prabhakarans.And it has already begun,the new born babies are named after these terrorists,and being a sinhalese Sri Lnakan I don't see any fault in that...
It's not only Hilory Clinton,millions of people have there eyes on this foolhardy behavior of our troops on the tamil people,and their rights...this island of buddhism,is now called the 'blood Island"...this is not any of Hilory Clinton's statements...this is what the whole world thinks of us!!!Hilory Clinton is just one person,but there will be soon a day,a day that the whole world will be against us.
If the Sri Lankan government does not take any action against this abrasive truth,this so called peace we are celebrating now will turn against our children being the most devastating disaster of the whole history...and on top of all...leaving thousands of new Prabhakarans to deal with,and the whole world will be there to support them...which will not be easy to contend.
Here we are,Sri Lanakans begging for peace,not only to Sinhales,to all Sri Lankans alive on our motherland.
Naysayers can say what they like and it may be that rape was never used as a 'tool of war'. Rape and many other forms of violence happened and happens today. There are no excuses for this, absolutely none. You cannot call yourself human if you even try to excuse that.
In this the supposed land of the Buddha, politics and petty jealousy has created a land that is anything but. People should be ashamed that the Buddhist monks still do not do anything for the people of Sri Lanka, they only serve their own twisted agenda to "preserve Buddhism". The problem is it is a Buddhism that the Buddha would not recognise, it is a monster.
I wonder why I bother writing these comments, not like the idiots who run the country and the idiots who would run the country nor the idiots who would separate the country have any interest in looking after the people of Sri Lanka. Insert several swear words here.
By the way Sri Lanka Guardian editors. These posts are clearly moderated but what kind of moderation are you applying? You publish Channa's comment which is clearly abusive and downright racist and yet you have removed other posts. I don't see Jayadevan's which other posters reference for example? Is this a site only for Sinhalese viewpoints and opinions? I am Sinhalese and that makes me sick.
Strive for some human decency please and stop giving the racist peabrains a forum to express their rabid ignorance.
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