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Revision as of 00:31, 28 March 2007
| Sarathambal | |
|---|---|
| Occupation(s) | Housewife and mother |
| Parent | Chandrasekara Sarma |
Sarathambal or Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 28 December 1999 and became a cause celebre 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 was forcibly dragged out from her home, in Pungudutivu, near Jaffna Peninsula, allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy soldiers.
Her house was situated at about 500m from a navy camp. Her father and brother were tied up allegedly by four security officers dressed in black. Her dead body was found on barren land about 100m away from their home the next day.
After public protest, her body was sent to Colombo for post-mortem by a senior JMO who indicated that the cause of death was "asphyxia due to gagging"; that her underpants had been stuffed inside her mouth; and that "forcible sexual intercourse" had taken place.
Her funeral was attended by a cross section of Sri Lankan activist 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 Dignity and Nimalka Fernando Of the Movement for Inter Racial, Justice and Equality delivered funeral orations.
Government investigation
The government under president Chandrika Kumaratunga ordered an immediate investigation but In mid-March 2000, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women Radhika Coomaraswamy, who is herself Sri Lankan, emphasized the lack of government response to allegations of sexual violence by security personnel in Sri Lanka.
She noted too, that, despite a presidential directive, little effort had been made to investigate the December 1999 gang-rape and murder by naval personnel of twenty-nine-year-old Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal near Jaffna.
Victims father and brother were allegedly threatened not to reveal the identity of the four men who came to the house. According to the Director of the 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".
It is alleged by witnesses that the soldiers who raped Sarathambal have been transferred from the area to prevent action being taken against them.
See also
References
- "Sarathambal murder". Sri Lanka Monitor.org. 2007-03-27.
- ^ "SRI LANKA: Rape in custody 2002". Amnesty.org. 2007-02-22.
- "UN report". HRI.ca. 2007-03-27.
- ^ "SRI LANKA: Systematic Detention,Torture, Rape and Murder as Weapon of War". AHRC.org. 2007-03-27.
- "Women protest Sarathambal murder". Tamilnet.com. 2007-03-27.
- "Sarathambal funeral held". Tamilnet.com. 2007-03-27.
- "Sri Lanka country report 2000". HRW.org. 2007-03-27.