Ilayathambi Tharsini
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Ilayathamby Tharsini also Tharsini Ilayathamby was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed in her home town of Pungudutheevu on December 16, 2005.[1][2][3]
The incident
On 16 December, 2005 Tharsini Ilayathamby was on her way to her aunt’s place. She was allegedly abducted by unknown men close to a Sri Lankan Navy post.[1][2]
Her naked body was found the next day in an abandoned well near the Sri Lankan Navy camp at a place called Maduthuveli.[1][2]
According to the post mortem report conducted at Jaffna Teaching Hospital, she was brutally raped before being strangled to death. Several injuries caused by fingernails and biting had been found on several parts of her body. One of her breasts had been severely bitten.[1]
Reactions
After the body was found locals violently protested in front of the Navy camp. One person was injured in the subsequent shootings. The locals destroyed an administrative building as a result.[4] Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora groups also organized protest meetings in the UK.[5]
Human Rights groups such as UTHR initially reported that she may have been killed by the rebel LTTE operatives to discredit the government and create an environment of protest.[6] UTHR eventually retracted the statement that the victim had known the naval persons previously.[2]
Subsequent to her death, there were number of attacks on the Sri Lankan Navy. The rebel LTTE denied attacking the naval personnel.[7]Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission ruled that such attacks were a violation of the Oslo sponsored ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. But number of websites that are known for their pro rebel stance reported that subsequent to the rape and murder, a front organization calling itself resurgence people’s force, widely believed to be a front of the rebel LTTE group claimed responsibility for attacks on the Sri Lankan Navy that lead to 15 deaths and another 15 being seriously injured.[8][9]
According to Tamilnet, Sri Lankan Tamil political parties such as the Tamil National Alliance and others requested that the Sri Lankan government take appropriate actions to protect civilian life.[10]
Government investigation
International and local Human rights organizations such as the ACHR, Home for Human Rights and UTHR have requested a thorough investigation be done to apprehend the culprits.[4Currently the government is investigating the rape and murder.
Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal or better known as Sarathambal was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 28 December 1999. This became an internationally known incident of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Incident
According to AHRC report on 28 December 1999, Mrs. Sarathambal Saravanbavananthakurukal, 29, daughter of a local Hindu temple priest[4] was forcibly dragged out from her home, in Pungututheevu, near Jaffna Peninsula, allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy sailors.[5][1]
According to the Amnesty International her house was situated at about 500 m from the nearest naval base and her father and brother were tied up allegedly by four security officers dressed in black. Her dead body was found on barren land about 100 m away from their home the next day.[1]
After public protest at the village where the incident happenedProtest[›][6] and in Jaffna her body was sent to the capital Colombo for post-mortem by a senior medical officer who indicated that the cause of death was "asphyxia due to gagging; her underpants had been stuffed inside her mouth, and that forcible sexual intercourse had taken place".[1]
According to the pro-LTTE Tamilnet, her funeral was attended by a cross section of Sri Lankan activists from around the nation. Vasudeva Nanayakara, then Member of Parliament, S.Sivadasan, the then EPDP Parliamentarian, Maheswary Velautham, Attorney-at-Law and the Secretary Of the Forum for Human DignityFFHD[›] and Nimalka Fernando of the Movement for Inter Racial, Justice and EqualityMIRJE[›] delivered funeral orations.[7]
Government investigation
The government under then president Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered an immediate investigation but in mid-March 2000, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Radhika Coomaraswamy, emphasized the lack of government response to allegations of sexual violence by security personnel in Sri Lanka.[1]
Further more she noted, that, despite a presidential directive, little effort had been made to investigate the December 1999 gang-rape and murder of Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal.[8]
Amnesty International also allege that the victim's father and brother were allegedly threatened not to reveal the identity of the four men who came to the house. Also Director of the Sri Lanka Police's Criminal Investigation Department, who had been instructed by the President of Sri Lanka to investigate the rape and murder,
"the brother had not been able to identify any of the four persons who came to the house".[1]
Amnesty International further mention that the alleged sailors who raped Sarathambal have been transferred from the area to prevent action being taken against them.[1]
The Attorney General’s Department informed the Committee of Inquiry into Undue Arrest and Harassment (CIUAH).CIUAH[›] in late May 2001 that there will be no prosecution relating to the Sarathambal rape and murder case, as the police report contained no evidence on the offenders.[9]
, respect, not only for women, but also for men. That’s why we staged this demonstration carrying dry palmyrah leaves. We wanted to show the world the undignified manner in which the human beings in these areas are treated-human beings are treated not worth more than a dry palmyrah leaf”. They went on to explain that there had been previously many unreported cases of harassment and sexual violence by Murugesapillai Koneswary
] , Murugesapillai Koneswary or Koneswary Murugesapillai was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed on 17 May 1997 as part on the on going Sri Lankan civil war.[1] The rape and murder received extensive local and international attention.[2]
Incident
Mrs. Koneswary was constantly harassed at the Central Camp checkpoint which is on the border of Amparai Batticaloa district. On the afternoon of May 17, 1997, Mrs. Koneswary was verbally assaulted and sexually harassed by four police officers at this checkpoint and defended herself by shouting at the officers and demanding that they leave her alone.[3] At 11pm that same day, Ms. Koneswary a mother of four was allegedly raped and killed by the police after carrying her four-year-old daughter away. It is reported that her rapists killed her by exploding a grenade on her abdomen thus destroying the evidence of any rape.[4]
According to her neighbours, she had history of problems with the Central Camp police in the Kalmunai district in eastern Sri Lanka. During that time she had been subjected to alleged persistent harassment at the Central camp checkpoint.[4]
Two months before she was killed, some police officers had allegedly cut and took away a Margosa tree from her yard. Although she is reported to have filed a complaint with the officer in charge at Central Camp immediately, nothing was done. Subsequently Ms. Koneswary complained to a deputy inspector general in Ampara, who intervened on her behalf, and instructed the local police to return the timber to the family. It was after this incident that the alleged verbal abuse and sexual harassment of Ms. Koneswary began.[4]
On May 17, around 11 p.m., as described by her four-year-old daughter, some "uncles with guns" had entered the hut carried the little girl outside and left her near a neighbour’s fence. According to villagers, Ms. Koneswary had that night sent her three other children to her relatives who were living nearby. The little girl is the only witness to the ensuing crime.[4]
Reactions
In a letter to President Kumaratunga, Mothers' Front of Jaffna wrote,
"reprisals by the security forces against civilians and their property have now become a common feature. Tamil women in the north and east are no longer able to live with self-respect and dignity. Normal life in these parts of the country is severely hampered, as law-abiding citizens are prevented from going about their day-to-day life".