Gang Rape of Krishanthi Kumaraswamy by Sri Lanka security forces

On Saturday Sep. 7, 1996, Krishanthi Kumarasamy, an 18 year old student at Chundikuli Girls' High School went missing, soon after she had taken her first paper at the GCE A/L examination. She was seen by a number of witnesses being taken into custody by Sinhala army personnel at the Kaithady checkpoint, and she disappeared soon after. According to a report published later in the Sri Lanka Sunday Times (Nov 3, 1996),

"She was stopped at the checkpoint and three soldiers allegedly raped her until she fell unconscious. When she revived, according to the confessions, police officers and six soldiers further raped her."

On learning of Krishanthi's detention at the army check-point, her mother, Rasamma (59), who was the vice principal of Kaithady Maha Vithyalayam, accompanied by her son, Pranaban (16), and a neighbor, Kirupakaran Sithamparam (35), went to the army camp, and then they too disappeared.

The same Sri Lanka Sunday Times report said, "Her journey was not only futile but she, her son and neighbor were strangled, cut into pieces and buried in a little hut within the gates of the army camp." Krishanthi's relatives in Colombo, including her older sister, Prashanthi (21), who was staying in Colombo at that time, took up the matter with authorities in Colombo, including President Kumaratunga, but nothing was done as the army headquarters denied the arrests. On Sep 20th, Amnesty International published an Urgent Action Appeal (UA 222/96), and even at this stage the government remained silent. On Oct 23, more than 6 weeks after their disappearances, the Colombo-based Tamil daily Virakesari published the story. Although none of the other newspapers published it, things began to heat up. The matter was raised in Parliament, and all of a sudden the four bodies buried in a shallow grave within the army camp were found.

Tip of an iceberg? Tamil Voice has information that this kind of atrocities are quite rampant in the Jaffna peninsula, and in other Tamil areas occupied by the Sri Lankan army. This is not an isolated incident... The reason for lack of publicity is the unofficial ban on independent reporters and human rights organizations from visiting these areas...

A recent Asia Watch report said, "the army only permits access to the state run media." Foreign humanitarian organizations that are allowed to function in these areas are ones who (by charter) do not publish such crimes. They consider such silence necessary for them to be able to carry out their primary humanitarian work. News pertaining to large scale violations, such as those in the peninsula, however, is difficult to conceal.