SLA commanders target women in North for garments industry in South

[TamilNet, Monday, 10 January 2011, 04:44 GMT]
Sri Lanka Army commanders in North have been campaigning among the rural populations in the North that they were offering employment to Tamil women in the garments industry in the South. Women's Development Centre, Jaffna, and gender equality groups such as Paalnilai Chamaththuva Amaippu have urged residents in the North to be aware that such offers targeting women are being made without any guarantees of transparency or contracts, sources in Jaffna said.

The Sri Lanka Army commanders at various levels in the military hierarchy have gone to remote villages in Jaffna and to resettled uprooted civilians in Vanni, openly announcing through speakers that they were offering jobs to females in the garments industry far away in the South.

But the garment industry in the South is seriously affected after EU laying down sanctions aiming at improvement of human rights situation in the island.

There is also an active campaign in the West against garments coming from genocidal Sri Lanka.

The SL military targeting Tamil women for garments industry in the South has motives of double exploitation, and the military's open involvement in the campaign shows the dangerous levels of the deteriorated conditions, sources in Jaffna further said.