Lankan military 'sexually abused' Tamil girls in refugee camps

S.A.T.A

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Lankan military 'sexually abused' Tamil girls in refugee camps

London, Dec 20 (PTI)

In what may bolster the claims of human rights organisations, Tamil women in refugee camps in Sri Lanka were ''sexually abused'' by their military guards while many suspected of links to LTTE were taken away and not seen since, a British medic of Asian-origin has alleged.

According to 25-year-old Vany Kumar, who was locked up in a refugee camp for four months, along with many who escaped the horrors of the civil war, not only military guards traded sex for food with Tamil women but prisoners were also being made to kneel for hours in the sun, 'The Observer' reported.

"It was a concentration camp, where people were not even allowed to talk, not even allowed to go near the fences. Sexual abuse is something that was a common thing, that I personally saw. In the visitor area relatives would be the other side of the fence and we would be in the camp.

"Girls came to wait for their relatives and military officers would come and touch them, and that's something I saw. The girls usually didn't talk back to them, as they knew that in the camp if they talked anything could happen to them.

"It was quite open, everyone could see the military officers touching the girls. Tamil girls usually don't talk about sexual abuse, they won't open their mouths about it but I heard the officers were giving the women money or food in return for sex. These people were desperate for anything," Kumar said.

Kumar, from Essex, was released from internment in September, but she has waited until now to reveal the full scale of her ordeal in the hope of avoiding reprisals against friends and family held with her. They have now been released.

The Sri Lankan government has confirmed to the British newspaper that it had received reports from the UN agencies of physical and sexual abuse within the refugee camps but said it had not been possible to substantiate the allegations.

Rajiva Wijesinha, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, said "there was a lot of sex going on" inside the camps, but he claimed that most reports involved abuse by fellow detainees.

"I can't tell you nothing happened, because I was not there. Individual aberrations could have happened, but our position is 'Please tell us and they will be looked into'," he told the newspaper.
 

redragon

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Lankan military 'sexually abused' Tamil girls in refugee camps

London, Dec 20 (PTI)

In what may bolster the claims of human rights organisations, Tamil women in refugee camps in Sri Lanka were ''sexually abused'' by their military guards while many suspected of links to LTTE were taken away and not seen since, a British medic of Asian-origin has alleged.

According to 25-year-old Vany Kumar, who was locked up in a refugee camp for four months, along with many who escaped the horrors of the civil war, not only military guards traded sex for food with Tamil women but prisoners were also being made to kneel for hours in the sun, 'The Observer' reported.

"It was a concentration camp, where people were not even allowed to talk, not even allowed to go near the fences. Sexual abuse is something that was a common thing, that I personally saw. In the visitor area relatives would be the other side of the fence and we would be in the camp.

"Girls came to wait for their relatives and military officers would come and touch them, and that's something I saw. The girls usually didn't talk back to them, as they knew that in the camp if they talked anything could happen to them.

"It was quite open, everyone could see the military officers touching the girls. Tamil girls usually don't talk about sexual abuse, they won't open their mouths about it but I heard the officers were giving the women money or food in return for sex. These people were desperate for anything," Kumar said.

Kumar, from Essex, was released from internment in September, but she has waited until now to reveal the full scale of her ordeal in the hope of avoiding reprisals against friends and family held with her. They have now been released.

The Sri Lankan government has confirmed to the British newspaper that it had received reports from the UN agencies of physical and sexual abuse within the refugee camps but said it had not been possible to substantiate the allegations.

Rajiva Wijesinha, the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, said "there was a lot of sex going on" inside the camps, but he claimed that most reports involved abuse by fellow detainees.

"I can't tell you nothing happened, because I was not there. Individual aberrations could have happened, but our position is 'Please tell us and they will be looked into'," he told the newspaper.
I fully support India to send troops to Lanka to ensure human rights are protected.
 

Energon

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Ok, let's be real, this is probably just the tip of the ice berg. Atrocities of the worst kind are synonymous with protracted civil wars, and it would be naive to think that the SL model is any different.

The lesson here for all of South Asia to learn is that you never let a conflict reach that stage, it has to be addressed immediately.
 

ppgj

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while deplorable, it is generally true that refugee camps and detention centres are breeding grounds for sex abuse and torture. UN needs to rope in NGO's and Human rights groups to monitor the running of these camps and put in place systems to address the complaints thereof within the constitutional norms of the the countries concerned.
 

S.A.T.A

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Most of these people are not refugees,but are forcibly detained by the Sinhalese govt which has not allowed these Tamils to go back to their home in the north east.If the war has ended why the **** are these people not allowed to go back,oh yes we already know the answer,question is if the Indian govt will show the urgency to press the Sinhalese govt to allow the Tamils to go back to their homelands.
 

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