SL military ‘punishes’ families opposing forced conscription of Tamil women

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 01 April 2014, 23:48 GMT]
More than 30 soldiers and intelligence personnel of the occupying Sri Lankan military, who came in 5 vehicles, rounded up the village of Ka'nukkea'ni in Tha'n'neer-oottu in Mu'l'liyava'lai of Mullaiththeevu district on Monday and arrested 28-year-old brother of a woman as the woman had refused to join the SL military. A Sri Lankan military commander was exerting pressure on the two survivors of a family, which lost both the parents and a sister in the genocidal onslaught on Vanni in 2009, to enlist the remaining girl. The ‘arrests’ come as the girl declined to enlist herself and her brother too opposed the SL military, news sources in Mullaiththeevu told TamilNet.

The brother, 28-year-old Balachandran Vijayarooban, who has been taken away by the SL military is a family man.

The SL military told the family that his sister was living under ‘poverty line’ and that they were offering the job as a means of ensuring livelihood of the family. When they collectively declined to accept the offer, the brother and another relative were taken away.

The SL military didn't give any document explaining the arrest.

Both the Sri Lankan Police and the Sri Lanka Red Cross (SLRC) refused to register the complaints of the ‘arrests’.

The relatives of the family said there was no place where they could complain.

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