An open invitation: Sri Lanka Guardian invites the high profile ministers and spokespersons of the Sri Lanka government to meet the real victims of the war in a public forum in the UK, to hear the facts about the dirty war that has inflicted so much harm on these people. The Sri Lanka Guardian will facilitate such a meeting so long as these officials will confirm they have ears to hear and heart to feel of the first hand accounts of these real victims. Please do not say these victims should go before the LLRC, instead of them and also not pre-empt they are LTTE mouthpieces.
The stories of rapes and murder:
(October 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Under heavy international pressure, the former President of Sri Lanka Mrs Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranayake allowed the excavation of the mass burials of Tamils killed by the army in Chemmany in Jaffna and permitted legal process to deal with the gang rape and brutal murder of a school girl Krishanthy Cumarasamy. Krishanthy’s mother and brother who went in search of her too were killed by the army rapists at the Chemmani army check point.
On 3rd July 1998 death sentences were passed on six service personnel involved in the triple murders, who in turn made disclosures of mass graves in Jaffna.
This is what the Report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture said. (Sri Lanka E/CN.4/2000/9. 02/02/2000) :
‘Krishanthy Kumarasamy, a Tamil, was allegedly raped by army and military officials at a checkpoint in Chemmani. Her mother Rasamma, her 16-year-old brother, Piranapan, and her neighbour, Kirupaharan Sithamparam, went to the Kaithady army check post that afternoon, asking for information on her. The soldiers allegedly denied any knowledge of her.
‘When the mother refused to leave without her daughter the three of them were placed in army custody and on that night, they were allegedly strangled to death with rope. They were reportedly all buried in a shallow grave. On 24 October 1996, their decomposed bodies were allegedly brought to Colombo by plane. Her family allegedly received death threats several times from the Sri Lankan armed forces.
‘Somaratne Rajapakse, one of the six members of the security forces who were found guilty of the rape, abduction and murder of the above-mentioned persons and were reportedly sentenced to death in July 1998 by the Colombo High Court, is said to have been assaulted by Welikade Prison guards on 23 August 1998. He reportedly sustained injuries to his mouth, below his left eye and his chest. He was subsequently visited at the hospital by one of the attackers, who is reported to have threatened him not to talk about the incident. During the trial, he reportedly revealed to the court that 300 to 400 other bodies were also buried at Chemmani, Jaffna district, where the body of Krishanthy Kumarasamy had been discovered.’
The President Mahinda Rajapakse and his high flying Foreign Minister Prof G L Pieris, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and Prof Rajiva Wijesinghe are saying that the days when army behaved like in the case of Krishanthy’s rape is a bygone era. But the tragedy is none of them have any direct contacts with the suffering Tamils and they profess the theme of best behaviour of the army as the paid servant of the government. These three high-flyers must disown the coats and suits and genuinely interact with the Tamil people to hear the awesome stories that are slowly filtering through the iron curtain put up by the government with the presence of hundreds of thousands of military men and the paramilitary groups.
Their preaching of gospels of humane behaviour of a kind army in the north and the civilians are well looked after will be slithered, if they meet the real victims face to face.
Rape has become a tool for the frustrated army. Some news is filtering through from the heavily fortified fortress built by the Defence Establishment to prevent news of atrocities leaking out to the world. There are numerous stories that soldiers have breached the army camps and gone in search of women in the vicinity and had encountered hostile reactions from the people. There are also incidences of unresolved rape and murders and these are being systematically suppressed with the heavy handed tactics of the government.
Rape and murder of Aneeta Annalingam on the 21 March 2008 by the army has come to the surface after two years. She was gang raped, murdered and her body systematically mutilated and dumped in an abandoned house by the notorious Ranjith group of the army.
The Ranjith group is said to be a ruthless undisciplined internal unofficial unit of the army that is said to have carried out heinous crimes in the north with the help of Tamil paramilitary groups backed the government. The Defence Ministry is fully aware of the functioning of this group and have allowed its activities to continue without interfering. One victim said, he was severely tortured by this ruthless group. He has come forward to provide very intricate details of the murders, rapes and tortures practiced by the army in general and the Ranjith group in particular.
Aneeta Annalingam’s rape and murder is a sad episode that has not treached the ears of the international community, due to the draconian controls established by the Defence establishment of the Sri Lanka government. This rape and murder case is no different to Krishanthi Cumarasamy’s savage killing. The silence of the Tamil community in Jaffna speaks for itself about the consequence of going public about any crimes committed by the army.
Even the government Minister and the paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda who is actively involved in the government backed political campaign in Jaffna is maintaining dumbfounded silence over this heinous murder, knowing very well, speaking about it will negate his very survival in the midst of the army. After all his hands too is stained with the blood of many Tamils. For him rapes and murders must be part and parcel of his life.
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