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Sri Lankan Army Systematically Raping Women Fleeing from War Zone
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by Moggy | April 23, 2009 at 01:06 am
8405 views | 18 Recommendations | 12 comments
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Though there have been numerous reports indicating that the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) has been systematically raping Tamil women fleeing the country’s war zone for the past four months, the Sri Lankan government’s brutal methods of media censorship have almost entirely prevented these stories from being publicized. The most notable exceptions are two articles in the Tamil media, one that reported “130 women were taken for sexual abuse” after fleeing the war zone by SLA soldiers, and one that described “shocking stories of sexual violence meted out” to Tamil women civilian detainees in military-run detention camps. However, the untold personal accounts from witnesses and victims of these crimes are countless.
In February, a doctor in the Vavuniya hospital, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reported that he had an entire ward full of women who had been raped by soldiers, many of whom had bite marks “all over their bodies.” In March, a woman who is being forcibly held in a female-only “transit camp” reported the soldiers had raped virtually every detainee in the camp while taking them outside individually to “interview” them about possible connections to the rebel Tamil Tigers (LTTE). Another anonymous source, who is involved in disposing dead bodies from the conflict zone, said that the majority of bodies of women who the army claims were LTTE members had been raped.
The Sri Lankan military has a long history of raping Tamil women with complete impunity. A 2002 Amnesty International report said there had been “a marked rise in allegations of rape by police, army and navy personnel” and that “not a single member of the security forces has been brought to trial in connection to incidents of rape in custody.” In 2000, the Asian Human Rights Commission issued a statement that “impunity continues to reign as rape is used as a weapon of war in Sri Lanka”.
However, the current level and pattern of rapes is likely unprecedented, suggesting that they may be acts of genocide. Rape has historically been a trademark of genocide, with Rwanda, Darfur and Bosnia being prime examples. According to Former US Ambassador for War Crimes David Scheffer, “rape can be so well planned and done on such a mass scale as to wipe out much of an ethnic group just as thoroughly, if more slowly, than large-scale murder”. He explains that for
women who had been raped during the atrocities in the Balkans, Sierra Leone, Uganda and the eastern Congo…the experience was devastating to their character, their ethnic bonds and often to their physical health. Even if they were still physically able to bear children, these women typically were ostracized from their communities and could not marry their ethnic men…. mass rape can destroy a substantial part of a group and thus constitute genocide.[1]
The UN Genocide Convention requires its parties – which include Canada, Australia, the USA, the UK and 136 other countries – to "prevent and punish" genocide, “whether committed in time of peace or in time of war”. Classifying the rapes and other atrocities currently being committed in Sri Lanka as genocide is therefore crucial to stopping them.
[1] According to international law, acts that cause “serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group or deliberately inflict on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part” constitute genocide.
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Tamiya
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (12)
at 03:05 on April 23rd, 2009
WATCH VIDEO Recorded by Srilankan Soldier to show their fellows.
at 04:54 on April 23rd, 2009
I feel sorry for your ignorance.
Have you no idea that when a Tamil speak in Sinhalese, there is a slight trace of a "Tamil accent" no matter how hard one tries?
Pathetic and disgusting attempt by LTTE.
at 05:05 on April 23rd, 2009
Oh...! I see..!!
Is it not like the "chemical and atomic weapon" video by "web news service"?? (heck..! I am running out of quotes..)
.Agent.
at 07:41 on April 23rd, 2009
The video is an evidence for the war crime committed by the Sri Lankan Army.
A time will come to answer for all they have done to the Tamils community.
at 03:55 on April 23rd, 2009
The Sri Lankan Army has raped and harassed many Tamils women repeatedly. There are many Amnesty and human rights groups' reports to support the claim.
However, the western countries seems to think rapes in their countries are horrific, but rape of Tamils women in Sri Lanka is the norm.
Hypocrites.
at 04:54 on April 23rd, 2009
"Hypocrites."
...and Hippopotamus too...!!
.Agent.
at 04:28 on April 23rd, 2009
Is this your new theory to show and dishoner Sri Lanka and its people. Very interresting as now same people who wrote falls about the war now coming with this. Great keep writing this sort of falls and lets find facts after the people totaly settled.
at 07:42 on April 23rd, 2009
There are many cases of Sri Lankan Army using rape as a weapon of war against the Tamils community.
Rape of Tamil Women: Sri Lankan Army's Weapon of War
at 22:17 on April 23rd, 2009
Ok.. i understand death, discrimination, survival and famine very well. I too lived in the tamil heart land of SL. I'm not a Tiger nor support them, i'm not a Sri Lankan and never support them either views on tamils; who am I?? one proud Tamil-Canadian.
The whole tamil-sinhala civil war had to be blamed on Tamil Naitionalist & Sinhala Nationalist (including politician). oh, not to mention the biggest Terrorist & Mastermind, India. India could've and should've stepped in and helped defuse the tention, instead fanned the flames by arming TELO, LTTE, PLOTE, EPRLF and EPDP. one would wonder whyyy????? why would anyone want to arm 5-8 groups of guys to fight each other and a democratic (non-excistence in Asia) government..20 years later helped the same goverment to fight groups they intially armed...i'm still puzzled to this day!!! I don't understand politics and never pretented to understand intrigate web of politics, it's like reading a women's mind, you can only guess.
Back to my point, Sinhalese should do more to educate their side that this land belongs to both tamil & sinhala, and must respect each others reglion. There are 2 decendents of tamils in SL, 1 arrived some time in A.D. or B.C (but after sinhala settlers) and other tamils were brought in by British few houndred years to toil in the south, tea estate in particular. Illiterate Sinhala nationalist twisted this story to their vantage, running around telling Sinhalese that every tamil in the country is an import.
Jaffna tamils will never let their children marry into a estate tamil family...but will marry a sinhalese, no problem there. These estate tamils are considered lower caste indian tamils.
I've lived under LTTE, SL army and IPKFs... in general all of them deserve to be sentenced to life in prison..only way to survive under any of them is to go w/ the follow and don't stand up like a nail, because you'll definitely will get hammered.
anyhow, i hope this fighting will end w/ minimal casulty and this is a perfect oppertunity for the sinhala people to help the tamils in this region.. This will be a perfect way to heal the old woulds.
PS:: it's late at night and i'm half asleep, correct any errors.
at 22:27 on April 23rd, 2009
"Anyhow, i hope this fighting will end w/ minimal casulty and this is a perfect oppertunity for the sinhala people to help the tamils in this region.. This will be a perfect way to heal the old woulds."
Amen..!
.Agent.
at 08:42 on May 24th, 2009
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Tamil Eelam - Introduction
The Tamil people of the island of Ceylon (now called Sri Lanka) constitute a distinct nation. They form a social entity, with their own history, traditions, culture, language and traditional homeland. The Tamil people call their nation 'Tamil Eelam'.
As a nation, Tamils have the inalienable right to self-determination, a universal principle enshrined in the U.N. Charter that guarantees the right of a people to political independence.
Apart from the right to self determination, the Tamil Eelam may also be justified in terms of international law under the concept of reversion of sovereignty and the concept of effectiveness.
Before a succession of western nations (including the Portuguese, Dutch and the British) ruled the island, there were two distinct kingdoms on the island, the Tamil Kingdom in the north and the Sinhala kingdom in the South.
For ease of administration, the British amalgamated the two distinct nations into a single entity with its capital in Colombo. The British gave Ceylon independence in 1948, handing over control of the entire island to a Sinhalese government, based in Colombo, which renamed the island Sri Lanka.
The Sinhala state's oppression of the Tamil people began in various forms almost immediately, attacking everything that defined the Tamils as a nation.
A series of laws that discriminated against Tamils were implemented. These included making Sinhala, instead of English, the only official language of the country, i.e. Tamils could not be employed unless they learnt Sinhala. The educational structures were altered to restrict Tamil admissions to higher education. Investment in Tamil areas was minimised.
Recruitment of Tamils into the security forces was restricted. The Sri Lankan security forces are almost exclusively Sinhalese. The security forces have been responsible for and continue to carry out human rights abuses and atrocities against Tamil civilians on a genocidal scale.
Sinhala colonisation of traditional Tamil areas was started in the fifties, and was intensified in the eighties with the security forces wiping out Tamil villages and replacing them with Sinhala settlements. Colonisation continues unabated.
Anti-Tamil rioting, with the active participation of the Sri Lankan security forces, has claimed thousands of Tamil lives. Thousands more suffered torture and rape.
As the Tamil people sense of helplessness deepened, Tamil politicians advocated a separate Tamil state. In 1977, the Tamil United Liberation Front resolved in its Vaddukoddai Resolution to campaign for political independence on the basis of the Tamil nation's right to self- determination.
At the general elections of 1977, the TULF demanded a clear mandate from the Tamil people to launch a national campaign to establish the sovereignty of the Tamil homeland. These elections were effectively a referendum the Tamil speaking people voted overwhelmingly in favour of secession.
The Tamil call for independence was met by island wide anti-Tamil rioting. The Sri Lankan government forced all elected MPs to take an oath that they would not seek a separate state.
With all democratic ways to achieve equality having failed repeatedly, an armed struggle for independence began, led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). International Law recognises that the armed resistance of the Tamil people to Sri Lankan rule is lawful and just.
Today, the LTTE has evolved into a military and political organisation representing the aspirations and hopes of the Tamil people.
at 08:44 on May 24th, 2009
LOL..!
.Agent.