Manalkadu victim retracts statement under SLA threat

[TamilNet, Friday, 31 October 2003, 17:26 GMT]
A group of soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) Wednesday threatened Anthony Prabha Manjula, 19, of Manalkaadu in Vadamarachchi division in Jaffna district and obtained a statement from her denying earlier allegation that two soldiers had attempted to molest her while returning home with her infant, relatives of the woman said.

The young woman, Anthony Prabha Manjula, 19, was returning home to Manalkaadu from Pt. Pedro around 10.30 a.m. with her six month old infant on October 9 Sunday when two Sri Lanka army soldiers had accosted her and had ordered her to go into the shrub jungle by the road. Sensing danger, she had refused. One of the soldiers had then tried to snatch her child while the other had tried to drag her off the road. Manjula, however, had struggled with the two, holding fast to the child.

Meanwhile, her husband Mr. Anthony Prabha, 20, had come there to take her home. Upon seeing his wife struggling with the two soldiers, he had set on them. The two soldiers thereafter ran away into the shrub jungle unable to withstand his blows, a relative said later

The SLA personnel at the sentry had threatened the husband and wife when they went to make a complaint at the army sentry point later with dire consequences if they dared to make the incident public, according to earlier reports.

There are twenty Sri Lanka army sentry points on the access road to Manalkaadu. Sri Lanka Navy has a camp on the village's beach, civil sources said.