Sri Lanka State Terrorism
Rape & Murder of Eelam Tamil Women

Violence Against Women in Sri Lanka (full Text in PDF)
Report by World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), November 2002
Prepared for the Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women
26th Sessions:14 January -1 February 2002

Excerpts from Report...

V. Violence Against Women - Perpetrated by the Sri Lankan State
V.1 State violence against women and racial discrimination

VI Impunity for Violence against Women
VI.1 Transfers
VI.2 Evidentiary issues
VI.3 Failure to prosecute and delays

VII Conclusions and Recommendations
VIII Annex of cases of violence against women and girls
Notes

V. Violence Against Women - Perpetrated by the Sri Lankan State

As mentioned previously, there is evidence to suggest that all of the parties to the lengthy conflict in Sri Lanka have been responsible for serious violations of human rights. While each of the different parties have duties under international law to protect the human rights of all persons within their jurisdiction, OMCT is particularly concerned by reports that police, para-military units and members of the government’s armed forces, have been involved in the commission of acts of torture, including rape and sexual violence, against women. Even more worrying is the fact that the perpetrators of this violence continue to enjoy a wide measure of impunity.

An analysis of cases of rape by armed forces personnel reported in the Sri Lankan press for the year 1998 has revealed that 37 such cases were recorded. As of 1999, 8 of these cases were still under police investigation, 22 were being inquired into by Magistrate’s Courts, 2 cases were before the District Court and an additional 2 cases were pending before the High Court. During the year 1998, 3 of the rape cases that were heard before the Sri Lankan courts resulted in prison sentences for the armed services personnel involved. 18 of the cases heard before the Courts related to crimes of sexual violence committed in the operational areas of the North-East while the remaining 19 cases were reported in other areas of the country. 45

In its Sri Lanka Monitor, the British Refugee Council notes that in the period February 1996-July 1999, more than 45 cases of rape by soldiers in the North-East were reported.46.  In her 2001 report to the Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women highlighted a number of cases of rape and sexual abuse perpetrated by the Sri Lankan police, security forces and armed groups allied to the government.47

Most of the cases annexed to this report refer to rape and other forms of violence committed by police and members of the armed forces against women in Sri Lanka. Information from other sources has shown that the extent of rape and sexual violence against women by members of the armed forces and police is vastly under-reported.48

Unfortunately, very little information is available concerning the ethnicity of the victims of rape and other forms of sexual violence committed by the armed forces and police in Sri Lanka. The connection between racial discrimination and violence against women is discussed in greater detail below.

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V.1 State violence against women and racial discrimination

The Declaration and Plan of Action adopted at the Asian Preparatory Meeting for the World Conference Against Racism which was held in Tehran in February 2001 recognised that: “racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance manifest themselves in an aggravated and differentiated manner for women, causing their living standards to deteriorate, generating multiple forms of violence, and limiting or denying them the benefit and the exercise of their human rights.”49

The Beijing Platform for Action states that women belonging to minority groups and women in situations of armed conflict are especially vulnerable to violence and highlights the fact that women from racial or ethnic minorities often face multiple forms of discrimination.50

At its 56th Session in March 2000, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination adopted General Recommendation 25 concerning the gender-related dimensions of racial discrimination.51

The General Recommendation draws attention to the fact that women and men are not always affected equally or in the same way by racial discrimination and notes that “certain forms of racial discrimination may be directed towards women specifically because of their gender.”

In the case of Sri Lanka, violence and other forms of discrimination against women are widespread. When this generalized violence is further analysed through the lens of racial discrimination, it appears that women from ethnic minorities are doubly disadvantaged as a consequence of both their ethnicity and of their gender.

Information received by OMCT reveals that Tamil women are frequently discriminated against by police and members of the armed forces and that this discrimination most often takes the form of rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Information received by OMCT suggests that ethnic minority women in Sri Lanka are targeted by members of the Sri Lankan police and security forces for acts of violence and that this violence overwhelmingly takes the form of rape, sexual assault and harassment.52

In November 2000, the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Development Fund for Women jointly organized an Expert Group Meeting on Gender and Racial Discrimination. In their Report, participants at the meeting cited Sri Lanka as an example of a conflict “motivated by ethnically based acts of aggression in which women have been targeted and become victims of ethnically-motivated, gender-specific forms of violence.”53

The number of female suicide bombers taking part in attacks by the LTTE has meant that Tamil women are often the targets of stringent security checks, arbitrary arrests and detention by police and armed forces personnel.54 The conduct of random night time checks by security forces of boarding houses and other establishments where Tamil women live has created a climate of insecurity and fear and women passing through security check points are particularly vulnerable to rape and other acts of sexual violence.55

Tamil women who are arrested and detained by police and security forces have reportedly been subjected to rape and other forms of torture. The individual cases reproduced in the Annex of this report, as well as information received from other sources, suggests that Sri Lankan security forces often use rape and sexual violence against women in detention as a means of forcing them to sign confessions stating that they are members of the LTTE.56 The form of torture used by police and security forces in Sri Lanka against ethnic minority women in detention clearly constitutes a gender-specific form of racial discrimination.

In addition, conditions in detention for Tamil women are reportedly poor and many detained women have stated that they are discriminated against in the allocation of water, food, tea and soap rations.57

Many instances of sexual assault and rape by police and members of the armed forces continue to occur outside of the context of police custody or detention. According to Women’s Rights Watch (Sri Lanka), 37 women and girls were reportedly raped by members of the armed forces in the period from January to December 1998.58 In its Sri Lanka Monitor, the British Refugee Council notes that in the period February 1996-July 1999, more than 45 cases of rape by soldiers in the North-East were reported.59 In her 2001 report to the Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women highlighted a number of cases of rape and sexual abuse perpetrated by the Sri Lankan police, security forces and armed groups allied to the government.60

While OMCT has been unable to obtain detailed statistics concerning the number of women from ethnic minorities who are victims of rape and other forms of violence, it has been estimated that a Tamil woman is raped by members of the armed forces or police every two weeks and that every two months a Tamil woman is gang-raped and murdered by the Sri Lankan security forces.61

The actual incidence of rape and sexual violence committed by police and security forces is certainly far higher than that which is reported. Women in Sri Lanka are frequently prevented through fear and shame from reporting acts of sexual violence. Fear of social ostracism and retaliation, when combined with the widespread lack of gender-sensitivity amongst police, judicial and medical personnel act as powerful deterrents to women reporting violence and pursuing legal action against the perpetrators.62 The prevailing climate of impunity for acts of sexual violence against women from ethnic minorities and the fact that women who are victims of violence frequently have no safe place to stay during investigations or trials are further elements that dissuade women from reporting crimes of violence committed against them.63

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VI Impunity for Violence against Women

There is evidence that the perpetrators of acts of violence against women often escape punishment. Victims of violence at the hands of police and security forces are, as mentioned previously, often threatened and intimidated into discontinuing proceedings. Moreover, the feelings of shame often associated with rape and other forms of sexual violence make women particularly unwilling to complain and it is often for this very reason that perpetrators use this form of violence as they are aware that they are unlikely to be held accountable for their actions.

The Secretary General of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), R. Sampanthan, wrote in an April 2001 letter addressed to Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga that “it cannot be denied that ever since 1994, the Krishanty Kumaraswamy case is the only instance related to a Tamil female victim where service personnel who were such offenders have been convicted.”64

OMCT believes that the widespread impunity enjoyed by perpetrators of rape and other forms of violence committed against women in Sri Lanka provides strong evidence of a systematic practice of discrimination. The consequences of this impunity are devastating for individual victims who are effectively denied access to criminal and civil remedies including reparations. At the community level, impunity leads to a diminution in confidence in law enforcement personnel and in the judiciary and potential perpetrators are not deterred from the commission of similar crimes. The failure of the government to send a strong signal that all forms of violence and other types of discrimination against women are unacceptable has important ramifications for women’s social status as the promotion and protection of women’s human rights are thereby perceived as being of little value.

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VI.1 Transfers

Members of the armed forces or police who are suspects in criminal cases are frequently transferred away from the area in which the crime allegedly took place. The Sarathambal Saravanbavananthakurukal case extracted in the Annex to this report provides one example of the practice of transferring members of the armed forces and police suspected of having committed crimes of violence against women away from the scene of the crime in order to avoid or delay the initiation of an investigation.65

There are some signs, however, that the judiciary are becoming less amenable to petitions by defendants from the armed forces wishing to transfer cases away from courts in the North-East. In the recent case of Sivamani Weerakoon and Wijayakala Nanthakumar (see Annex) who were allegedly raped by members of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Mannar police and by navy personnel, the court hearing the matter refused the petition by the officer in charge of the SIU to have the case moved to Colombo or Anuradhapura for hearing.66

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VI.2 Evidentiary issues

Where investigations into torture and other forms of violence are initiated, they are often hampered by evidentiary problems, including a lack of medical evidence, and victims and officials are frequently intimidated into withholding important evidence.

According to media reports, during a seminar in Batticaloa in February 2001, State Counsel Suganthi Kandasamy described the problems linked to obtaining medical evidence in rape cases. Kandasamy, a government official, reportedly stated that one of the major hurdles to the prosecution of torture, including rape, in the Batticaloa district is the fact that medical examinations are not systematically carried out on all victims and that vital evidence is therefore often not available to magistrates. Even in cases where District Medical Officers are willing to examine alleged victims of rape and other forms of torture, these officers and the victims themselves may be subjected to pressure or threats by police in order to keep the evidence from reaching the magistrature.67

In the Vijayakala Nanthakumar and Sivamani Weerakoon case concerning events that took place in Uppukulam in March 2001 (see annex), the two women were allegedly raped by members of the Mannar police’s Counter-Subversive Unit (CSU). According to the information received, the District Medical Officer initially reported to the magistrate that he had examined the women and that there was no evidence of rape.68

Following widespread public outcry and an intervention by the Bishop of Mannar, the women stated that they not been medically examined and that they had been warned by the police not to consent to an examination or provide any evidence to the magistrate concerning the torture. When the women were finally examined by the District Medical Officer 8 days later, he found strong evidence to suggest that the women had been subjected to torture including rape and sexual assault.69

The fact that the Sri Lankan Evidence Ordinance was not amended in concert with the 1995 amendments to the Penal Code may create additional evidentiary hurdles for women wishing to bring charges of rape against security forces personnel. As mentioned previously, Section 364 (2) of the Penal Code provides for punishments ranging from ten to twenty years imprisonment for public officers or persons in a position of authority who commit rape on women in official custody or who wrongfully restrain and commit rape upon women. Under the Evidence Ordinance, however, women may be required to prove an absence of consent even in cases of custodial rape and prior sexual history may be introduced into evidence.70 In recent years, Sri Lankan courts have reportedly been more willing to admit uncorroborated testimony from rape victims and it is to be hoped that judicial practice may be becoming more flexible in relation to the evidentiary requirements in cases involving rape and other forms of sexual violence, especially where these acts have occurred in the context of police custody or in detention.71

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VI.3 Failure to prosecute and delays

In its concluding observations on the report of Sri Lanka in 1998, the Committee against Torture noted that there were “few, if any, prosecutions or disciplinary proceedings” being initiated against police and other officials alleged to have committed acts of torture and called upon the government to promptly, independently and effectively investigate allegations of torture and to ensure that justice is not delayed.72

OMCT is concerned that the situation in Sri Lanka as regards discrimination against women in the administration of justice has not improved over the last five years. None of the perpetrators in the cases cited in the Annex has thus far been sentenced for rape or murder and while investigations have been initiated in some of the cases and some arrests have been made, it is uncertain whether any criminal or disciplinary sanctions will eventually be applied against the armed forces or police personnel involved.73

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VII Conclusions and Recommendations

OMCT welcomes Sri Lanka’s ratification of all of the major international treaties for the promotion and protection of human rights and urges the government to consider ratifying the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW, and to make declarations under Article 14 of the CERD and under Articles 21 and 22 of the CAT as all of these mechanisms provide the treaty monitoring bodies with the competence to accept individual communications. OMCT would also encourage the government of Sri Lanka to remove the reservation that it has made to the temporal scope of Article 1 of the Optional Protocol to the ICCPR.

OMCT is deeply concerned at the scope of permissible restrictions on fundamental rights under the provisions of the Sri Lankan Constitution currently in force and calls upon the government to ensure that fundamental rights, in particular the right to be free from torture and the right to equality, are respected at all times and in all circumstances, especially by members of the armed forces and other law enforcement personnel.

The proposed Constitutional amendments currently being considered by the Sri Lankan parliament should be rapidly adopted and implemented.

Emergency regulations must not be enforced in such a way as to violate internationally accepted standards in relation to arrest and detention. OMCT calls upon the government to repeal the emergency regulations currently in force or, at a minimum, to review them in order to ensure that their implementation does not erode the safeguards that are essential for the protection of all arrested and detained persons from torture, ill treatment and disappearance. The government should ensure that all detainees are promptly informed of the reasons for their arrest or detention; detainees should have the right to judicial review of their detention; relatives of the detained person should be promptly notified of the whereabouts of the detainee; detainees should be granted prompt and regular access to lawyers, family members and medical care; centralised and regional registers of all detainees should be kept and these registers should be made public.

OMCT welcomes the establishment of national human rights institutions including the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Sri Lanka and calls upon the government to enhance and support the monitoring, investigative and advisory powers of the Commission. The HRC should be encouraged to visit all places of detention, to interview detainees without witnesses and to report in an independent and impartial manner on conditions in detention. OMCT would also recommend that the HRC make greater use of its power to urgently bring any suspected cases of torture or ill treatment in detention to the attention of the Supreme Court.

In relation to the creation of mechanisms specifically designed to promote and protect the human rights of women, OMCT welcomes the establishment of a separate Ministry for Women’s Affairs within the Sri Lankan Government as well as the development of the National Committee on Women which was created in 1993 in order to implement the provisions of the Women’s Charter. OMCT would call upon the Government to ensure that these mechanisms are provided with sufficient resources in order to enable their effective functioning. In addition, OMCT would like to emphasise the need for greater efforts to be made to integrate a gender perspective into policy-making and legislation in all areas of government activity.

The manner in which personal laws are interpreted and applied should be reviewed and, in cases where these laws discriminate against women, they should be modified, if necessary through the adoption of new legislation drafted for this purpose. OMCT believes that greater efforts need to be made in the area of public education and awareness-raising in relation to violence and other forms of discrimination against women and calls upon the government to develop and implement broad-based educational campaigns designed to challenge traditional social stereotypes concerning the status of women in Sri Lanka.

The growing rate of female unemployment and the lack of sustainable income-earning opportunities for women in Sri Lanka when combined with the incentives being offered by the government to women who migrate are all working to push women to seek employment overseas. OMCT is concerned that the government’s policy of actively encouraging female labour migration, despite the enhanced monitoring mechanisms that have been put in place, will continue to place women migrants in situations where they are at risk of violence and exploitation. For this reason, OMCT would call upon the government to take urgent steps to address female unemployment and to increase the number of sustainable income-earning activities available to women in Sri Lanka.

Legislation in relation to violence against women should be amended to include a prohibition on marital rape and the government should consider adopting specific legislation on domestic violence. Any proposed domestic violence legislation should make provision for civil as well as criminal remedies and should include mechanisms such as protection and restraining orders.

More resources should be allocated to women’s legal centres and to other services offering protection and assistance to women fleeing violence. OMCT would recommend that an increased number of shelters for women who have been victims of violence be established and that women are provided with adequate levels of protection throughout criminal investigations and trials in which they are involved either as victims or as witnesses.

OMCT would recommend that the Sri Lankan government initiate a comprehensive training programme for all police personnel on the procedure for the investigation and prosecution of complaints relating to violence against women and that at least one female police officer be made available at every station in order to deal with the specific problems faced by women wishing to bring complaints. In addition, greater effort should be made to ensure that the staff in local police stations more accurately reflect the linguistic, social and ethnic balance in the area in which they are based.

Discriminatory evidentiary requirements under the Evidence Ordinance currently in force such as the need to prove a lack of consent even in cases of custodial rape and the admission into evidence of the past sexual history of the victim should be repealed. OMCT would also recommend that the Code of Criminal Procedure be amended in order to provide greater protection and assistance to victims and witnesses in criminal cases. OMCT reiterates the fact that law enforcement officials and the judiciary are required under national and international law to ensure that all alleged cases of rape and sexual violence are thoroughly investigated, prosecuted and the perpetrators punished.

Given the alarming number of cases of rape and other forms of torture being committed against persons in detention or in police custody, OMCT calls on the government to ensure that police, the military and prison officers are all provided with adequate and effective human rights training. This training should include information concerning racial and sex discrimination and on the intersection between different forms of discrimination. OMCT also recommends that detained women only be searched and interrogated by female law enforcement officers. Disciplinary procedures for members of the armed forces and police who commit acts of violence including rape and other forms of torture should be clearly explained and enforced.

OMCT calls upon the government of Sri Lanka to actively tackle impunity and to ensure that police and armed forces personnel who commit acts of torture, including rape and other forms of sexual violence are held accountable for their actions. The government must make a firm commitment to the enforcement of the law in relation to crimes of sexual violence perpetrated against women. To this end, measures should be taken to combat public sector corruption and to instil a greater sense of respect for human rights amongst law enforcement officers and the judiciary. Persons accused of rape and other forms of sexual violence should be tried in the area in which the crime took place unless this would have demonstrably detrimental effects upon the rights of the accused.

OMCT would also recommend that changes be made to the Code of Criminal Procedure in order to ensure the rapid and systematic collection of medical evidence in all cases of rape and sexual violence. Steps should be taken to improve the current system of victim and witness protection in order to prevent these persons from being harassed or intimidated. Members of the judiciary should be provided with gender-sensitive human rights training and they should be made aware of the procedural and other obstacles faced by victims of rape and sexual violence. Urgent action should also be taken to improve the system of case management in Sri Lankan courts in order to decrease delays and inefficiency in the hearing of cases. Finally, an effective system for the granting of reparations, including compensation, for victims of human rights violations and their families should be established.

Women from ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka face multiple forms of discrimination related to both their gender and their ethnicity. In order to prevent and punish violence and other forms of discrimination against minority women, OMCT would encourage the government to take urgent legislative and policy measures aimed at decreasing the general level of violence against women and racial discrimination in Sri Lankan society while ensuring that special attention is paid to the specificities of women from ethnic minority groups.

OMCT would like to request that in its next periodic report to the Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Violence against Women, the government provide further information on the measures that it is taking to prevent, eradicate and punish violence against women. Information on levels of violent crime, including statistics, should be disaggregated by both ethnicity and by gender in order to provide a clearer picture of the real situation of women in Sri Lanka and to enable the development of effective policies to combat violence and other forms of gender-related discrimination.

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VIII Annex of cases of violence against women and girls

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
LKA 280601.VAW

Brief description of the situation:

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by a member of OMCT’s SOS-Torture network of the rape by two policemen of “Rani” (pseudonym used in order to protect the victim’s confidentiality) a widowed mother of two.

According to the information received, on Saturday 23 June 2001 while on her way home from work in the company of a colleague, Rani was stopped by police at a check point on the Maradana Borella Road in Colombo and asked to produce her identity card. At approximately 3 am on Sunday 24 June, two unarmed policemen and an armed member of the military all of whom are attached to the check point, came to the boarding house (Chamarry) where the victim was staying in order to perform a routine check.

After interrogating all of the persons staying in the Chamarry, the three officials came to Rani’s room and told her that she was not allowed to stay there as she is a Tamil. The policemen then said that they were going to take Rani and her colleague, who accompanied her for security reasons, to the Maradana Police Station.

While en route to the police station, the officials stopped at the Maradana Borella checkpoint and sent Rani’s colleague to purchase some tea for them. After he had gone, the two policemen took Rani into the bunker, forced her to lie down on the concrete floor and raped her. The incident was over before her colleague returned.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
LKA 090401.VAW

Brief description of the situation:

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed of the alleged arbitrary detention, rape and torture of Mrs. Wijikala Nanthan, who is pregnant, and Mrs. Sivamani Sinnathamby Weerakon, by the Mannar Police’s Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) on March 13, 2001.

According to the information received, Wijikala and Sivamani were arrested at around 11 pm by the CSU under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency Regulations, with the CSU falsely accusing them of being trained members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group. Wijikala and her husband, and Sivamani and her six-year-old son were transported to the CSU’s offices in Mannar. Here the women were raped and subjected to other forms of torture until dawn by CSU officials. Both women were reportedly tortured until they agreed to confess that they were trained military members of the LTTE who had brought bombs to Mannar. The women were forced to sign typed confessions in Sinhalese to this effect, while still under arbitrary detention by the CSU on March 17, 2001.

According to the reports, the CSU has also threatened the women not to give evidence against them in the case of a judicial investigation. The women were reportedly sentenced to a total of 14 days in judicial custody by Mannar district judge M.H.M Ajmeer, during which time they were allegedly repeatedly raped. Reports indicate that the CSU has previously arrested, raped and tortured women under the pretext of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Emergency Regulations.

Case LKA 090401.1.VAW

New Information
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by a reliable source of the arrest of the alleged rapists of two women in Sri Lanka.

According to the information received by the International Secretariat, a Sri Lankan judge has ordered the arrest of four members of the Sri Lankan security forces, including three policemen and one naval officer, following the alleged arbitrary detention and torture (including rape) of the two women, one of whom is pregnant. The identity of the men in question remains unknown.

According to the information received, the two women, Mrs. Wijikala Nanthan - who is pregnant - and Mrs. Sivamani Sinnathamby Weerakon, as well as the main witness to the case concerning the alleged human rights violations, are currently being housed at the Bishop of Mannar’s residence.


Sri Lanka: gang-rape and killing of 29
year old mother by soldiers

LKA 050100.VAW
Brief description of the situation:
The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by reliable sources of the alleged rape and killing of Sarathambal Saravanbavananthakurukal on the evening of Tuesday, 28 December 1999.

According to the information received, Sarathambal Saravanbavananthakurukal, of a Hindu Brahmin family, was forcibly dragged from her home, in Pungudutivu, near the Jaffna Peninsula, by Sri Lankan Navy officers. They then gang-raped and murdered her. The body of the 29 year-old mother was found the following morning, under leaves, not far from her home near the Kannaki Amman Temple.

It is further reported that on 30th December 1999, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered an immediate investigation into the events. However, according to the neighbours of Sarathambal, the suspects have been transferred from the area perhaps as a preventive measure to avoid action being taken against them.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
LKA 100899.VAW

Brief description of the situation:

The International Secretariat has been informed by reliable sources of the alleged rape and murder of Ms. Fahreen Ida Carmelitta Laila or Ida Carmelitta, a 21 year old woman, by 5 soldiers during the night of 12 July 1999 in Pallimunai village on Mannar Island.

According to the information received, five heavily-armed masked men entered the house of Ida Carmelitta, while her family was sleeping, took her outside and violently raped and killed her. The post mortem report submitted by Dr Emmanuel Pieries, the district medical officer of Mannar observed that Ida Carmelitta had been repeatedly raped. Her lips and breasts were bitten off and she had been shot through the vagina.

During an identification parade, two people, including Ida Carmelitta’s brother, identified two of the alleged offenders. They were subsequently arrested and have been taken to Anuradhapura jail.

According to the information, the eldest brother of Ida Carmelitta is in army custody for having joined the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Ida Carmelitta herself was a refugee in India from 1990 to 1994. She returned to Pallimunai village to continue her studies in 1994. Two months after her arrival, two of her brothers were killed by militants of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), an anti LTTE group.

In order to keep her daughter safe, Ida Carmelitta’s mother took her to Pandivirchan village near Madhu where she was recruited to join the LTTE. Last year, Ida Carmelitta expressed her wish to leave the LTTE and to rejoin her family. In May 1999, she was staying in Adampan near Madhu in a Convent. On 15 June, she went to her family in Pallimunai, which is under the army control, and surrendered. After an exhaustive enquiry, the intelligence department released her and issued her with a temporary stay pass.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
Case LKA 100899.1 VAW
Follow-up Case LKA 100899.VAW
Geneva, 26 October 1999

New information:
The International Secretariat of OMCT has received new information from the High Commission of Sri Lanka in Australia, that the rape and murder of Ida Carmelitta has been brought to the notice of the Secretary of Defence by the Inspector General of Police and that he has instructed the Criminal Investigation Department to proceed immediately to the scene of the crime in order to conduct investigations.

According to the information received, out of the eleven soldiers attached to the Army Camp in Pallemunai, Dayantha Upul Gunasinghe and Raja Somaratne were identified as suspects. The case, case n°13/195/99, is still pending before the Mannar Magistrate’s Court.

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Notes:

45 – Women and Media Collective, Women’s Rights Watch 1998, Colombo 1999, p. 22.
46 – British Refugee Council, Sri Lanka Monitor, No. 138, July 1999.
47 – UN, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Violence against women perpetrated and/or condoned by the State during times of armed conflict (1997-2000), UN Doc. E/CN.4/2001/73, 23 January 2001, p. 30.
48. Women and Media Collective, Women’s Rights Watch 1998, Colombo 1999, p. 22. At pages 22 and 23 of this report the details of a number of additional cases of rape perpetrated by armed forces personnel between 1996 and 1998 are recorded.
49. Asian Preparatory Meeting for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, Tehran, 19-21 February 2001, Declaration and Plan of Action, para. 36.
50.Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, Fourth World Conference on Women, 15 September 1995, A/CONF.177/20 (1995) and A/CONF.177/20/Add.1 (1995), para. 48.
51. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, General Recommendation No. 25, 20 March 2000, UN Doc. CERD/C/56/Misc.21/Rev. 3.
52 – See for example: University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), Sri Lanka Information Bulletin No. 25, The Fatal Conjunction: Women, Continuing Violations and Accountability, 11 July 2001.
53 – United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations Development Fund for Women, Report of the Expert Group Meeting on Gender and Racial Discrimination, Zagreb, 21-24 November 2000, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/genrac/report.htm.
54 – C. Lindsey, Women and War, International Review of the Red Cross, No. 839, 30 September 2000, pp. 561-579.
55 – Women and Media Collective, Women’s Rights Watch 1998, Colombo 1999, p. 33. See the case of ’Rani’ (LKA 2809601.VAW) in the case annex.
56 – See the case of Wijikala Nanthan and Sivamani Sinnathamby Weerakon (LKA 090401.VAW) in the case annex. See also TamilNet, “Girl describes bizarre police torture in Supreme Court petition,” 31 March 2001, www.tamilnet.com.
57 – Women and Media Collective, Women’s Rights Watch 1998, Colombo 1999, p. 40.
58 – Women and Media Collective, Women’s Rights Watch, Quarterly issues 1-4, 1998.
59 – British Refugee Council, Sri Lanka Monitor, No. 138, July 1999.
60 – UN, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Violence against women perpetrated and/or condoned by the State during times of armed conflict (1997-2000), UN Doc. E/CN.4/2001/73, 23 January 2001, p. 30.
61 – Women Against Rape, oral intervention by Ms. Deirdre McConnell during the 57th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, 10 April 2001.
62 – British Refugee Council, Sri Lanka Monitor, No. 138, July 1999. “Local agencies say many rape victims do not report their ordeal for fear of retaliation or ostracization from the community. Most rape cases remain univestigated.”
63 – Women and Media Collective, Women’s Rights Watch 1998, Colombo 1999, p. 8.
Violence against Women in Sri Lanka
64 – Frederica Jansz, “Govt. taken to task on human rights”, The Sunday Leader, 8 April 2001, p. 10; J.S. Tissainayagam, “Rape case will justice be done ?”, The Sunday Leader, 22 April 2001.
65 – Frederica Jansz, “Govt. taken to task on human rights”, The Sunday Leader, 8 April 2001, p. 10.
66 – J.S. Tissainayagam, “Rape case will justice be done?”, The Sunday Leader, 22 April 2001.
67 – J.S. Tissainayagam, “Is rape just part of a game?”, The Sunday Leader, 8 April, 2001, p.11.
Violence against Women in Sri Lanka
68 – University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna), Sri Lanka Information Bulletin No. 25, The
Fatal Conjunction: Women, Continuing Violations and Accountability, 11 July 2001.
69 – Frederica Jansz, “Govt. taken to task on human rights”, Sunday Leader, Colombo, 8 April 2001, p. 10.
70 – Women and Media Collective, Women’s Rights Watch 1998, Colombo 1999, p. 20.
71 – Dhara Wijetileke, “Abuse of Women and Children: Recent Amendments to the Law in Sri Lanka to meet the situation”, The Bar Association Law Journal, vol. VI, Part II, 1996.
72 – Committee against Torture, Concluding observations on Sri Lanka, UN Doc. A/53/44, paras. 243-257, 19 May 1998, para.250.
73 – J.S. Tissainayagam, “Rape case: will justice be done ?”, Sunday Leader (Colombo), 22 April, 2001.
Violence against Women in Sri Lanka

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