While World Celebrates Women’s day - 90,000 Tamil War Widows Face Sexual Abuse by Sri Lankan Security Forces: TGTE
- UN Secretary General urged to act.
- Tamil women trafficked to South to work in brothels.
- Rape of Tamil detainees.
- Over a thousand Tamil Mothers of the disappeared blockd from holding prayer rally.
- UK’s Channel 4’s "Sri Lanka's Killing Field & “No-Fire Zone” exposes sexual abuse.
( March 8, 2013, New York City, Sri Lanka Guardian) While the world celebrates the International Women’s Day; 90,000 Tamil war widows and their daughters are facing sexual abuse by the Sri Lankan Security forces, said Mrs. Balambihai Murugadas, Minister for Women, Children & Elderly for the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE).
According to a report by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office on Human Rights and Democracy (May, 2012); there are up to 90,000 Tamil war widows in the North & East of Sri Lanka.
“United Nations Secretary General should take urgent steps to protect these vulnerable Tamil war widows and their daughters from facing sexual violence and rape at the hands of the Sri Lankan security forces. It is time to set up International Protection Mechanism to defend these vulnerable women. As a first step UN should send human rights monitors to be stationed in the North & East of the Island, where these widows live” said Mrs. Murugadas.
UN Secretary General’s own panel on Sri Lanka and UN’s Internal Review report documented sexual assault of Tamil women by Sri Lankan security forces. But, still United Nations Secretary General has not taken any meaningful steps to protect the Tamil women from these abuses. These UN Panels and UN Secretary General’s own legal team recommended UN Secretary General to appoint International Commission of Inquiry, under Article 99.
In addition to the abuses faced by Tamil war widows and their daughters, Tamil women in general face abuses in the hands of the Sri Lankan Security forces. For example:
1) An International Crisis Group report mentions that Tamil women from the North are also trafficked to the South to work in brothels and are sexually abused on the way to garment factories and that exploitation for sexual purposes is happening throughout the North and East especially with the war widows.
2) Recently over one hundred young Tamil girls were recruited to the Army. No formal procedures were followed and some of them have managed to escape and returned home. Sixteen of these girls have suddenly gone down with ˜mass hysteria.” Any one question about the plight of these girls are abused. When a Member of Parliament raised the matter in Parliament, his security was removed and his office was raided by the Terrorist Investigation Division. When a medical doctor went to plead for one the girls who sought his assistance, he was arrested and charged as a “terrorist.”
3) Human Rights Watch recently released a 141 page report on the sexual abuse, including rape of Tamil detainees. Most of the cases followed a pattern of an individual abducted from home, taken to detention center and abused.
4) Last Wednesday, over a Thousand Tamil Mothers of the disappered were blocked by the Security forces from holding a prayer rally for their loved ones.
5) UK’s Channel 4’s documentaries: “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields” and “No-Fire Zone” have documented sexual assaults, including rape by the Sri Lankan security forces.
