Still Sexual Toutre in North and eastern Provincial Area by Sri lanka Forces
The Army has categorically refuted the
statement made by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga over her allegations that
there was widespread sexual exploitation by the army against Tamil women in the
former war torn areas.
In a statement, the Army Headquarters said
that it noted with ‘dismay’ on the utterance made by Kumaratunga, who is also
the head of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation. “The Army
categorically denies the same as a baseless allegation,” the statement said.
The army has also warned that such ‘baseless’ assertions will only jeopardize
the reconciliation process.
Last week, Kumaratunga said that Tamil women
who survived the war were facing widespread sexual exploitation by the army,
and others. “There is a lot of sexual abuse still going on by officials, even
Tamil officials and even at lower levels, the grama sevakas (village
officials),” she told Sri Lanka’s Foreign Correspondents’ Association. “Even to
sign a document, they abuse the women and of course some people in the (armed)
forces” continue to commit sexual abuse, she said.
However, the Army pointed out that in 2010,
civil administration was firmly established in the North and the Army withdrew
from all forms of civil administration. Since then, the Army has not been
involved in administration concerning civilians, and the question of sexual
exploitation and abuses during the said process does not hence arise.
“Regrettably, the author of this statement has made unsubstantiated and
baseless assertions without specifying any incident of sexual exploitation or
abuse,” the statement said.
“The Army wishes to place on record that it
has a Zero Tolerance Policy on sexual abuses as evidenced in Premawathi
Manamperi case in 1971, Krishanthi Kumaraswamy case and Rajini Vellaydunpillai
case that took place during the period 1995-2005. In all these instances, the
Army fully cooperated with the civil court cases against the accused who were
on trial, resulting in death penalty,” the statement said.
_ By Tamil M.M .Nilamdeen-
