Sexual abuse of resettled women in Vanni by SLA soldiers escalates

[TamilNet, Saturday, 10 July 2010, 07:46 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers occupying Vanni continue to sexually abuse women among recently resettled civilians, according to complaints made to a Christian priest now living in Vanni. Meanwhile, a journalist from Tamil Nadu who returned Friday from a visit to Vanni also said that the resettled people in Vanni had told him about SLA soldiers sexually abusing women besides intruding into their privacy under the pretext of search and checking. The journalist who wishes to remain anonymous said that he will write in detail the sufferings of resettled civilians in Vanni in Tamil Nadu papers when he returns home.

The Tamil Nadu journalist also said how he was able to see in person the difficulties and suffering the resettled people in Vanni have to undergo contrary to President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s publicity campaign on the success of his resettlement projects in Vanni.

Meanwhile, the Christian priests said that women are the most victimized as most of them have to look after their families as their husbands or males in the families had been either killed in the war or taken as prisoners by SLA.

SLA soldiers enter the temporary dwellings of these women when they go on morning patrol and sometimes create opportunities to intrude into their privacy in the name of sudden checks and searches, he said.

Young women are forced to remain in their huts as SLA soldiers harass them while going past the SLA sentry posts besides attempting to abuse them sexually, the priest further said,