‘A very big thank you’ to Mrs Clinton received hysterical responses from the diehards

“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.”
____________

By Rajasingham Jayadevan

(October 03, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) My article ‘A very big thank you Mrs Hillary Clinton’ published in the Sri Lankan Guardian, Tamilaffairs.com and LankaNewspapers.com received the bashing from the few determined traditional vituperative mindsets, belonging to the majority Sinhala community. Intoxicated with venom, vengeance and hatred they let loose their malignant nauseates in the skills they are specialists in.

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.com by one Thivya, which strengthen the claim of Sri Lanka ‘using rape as a tool of war’. Her comments are appended herein to form part of this article.

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’s mother tried to intervene after hearing her daughter screaming, but was assaulted and hit with rifles by the soldiers.

‘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.com and many other websites published a rare glimpse of a naked LTTE woman cadre’s dead body being dragged by the legs by a soldier with his lurid facial expression. Whether this cadre was raped, killed and pulled out of the bunker or the dead body was stripped naked pulled is not known. The government too has conveniently sidelined the story from being investigated.

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) Koneswary was constantly harassed at the Central Camp checkpoint which is on the border of Amparai Batticaloa district. On the afternoon of May 17, 1997, Mrs. Koneswary was verbally assaulted and sexually harassed by four police officers at this checkpoint and she defended herself by shouting at the officers and demanding that they leave her alone. At 11pm that same day, Ms. Koneswary a mother of four was allegedly raped and killed by the police after carrying her four-year-old daughter away. It is reported that her rapists killed her by exploding a grenade on her abdomen (in fact her genitals) thus destroying the evidence of any rape.

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.

-Sri Lanka Guardian