Do you want to save people from rape? Act now:

The Sri Lankan armed forces have a long history of rape, not only in their own country, but during tours abroad as well.^[1] Footage soldiers filmed themselves, recently broadcast by Channel 4, suggests that they consider rape to be a sport.^[2] This information is not news to Tamil people from Sri Lanka. It is one of the reasons so many Tamil people have fled Sri Lanka since the 1950s:

“the Council upheld the propriety of a letter from P. Alles published in The Island newspaper which had denounced lesbians while calling for convicted rapists to violate them sexually as an appropriate punishment.” (www.gaytoday.com, 2000)^[3]

“Three (7%) of the 38 said they had been given electric shocks to their genitals, 26 (68%) had been assaulted on their genitals, and four (9%) had sticks pushed through the anus, usually with chillies rubbed on the stick first. One said he had been forced to masturbate a soldier manually, three had been made to masturbate soldiers orally, and one had been forced with his friends to rape each other in front of soldiers for their “entertainment”” (The Lancet, 2000)^[4]

“She was taken to a lonely spot near the checkpoint and raped by six policeman and soldiers. . . . . . She had her face covered with a shopping bag containing chilli powder mixed in petrol, was beaten with wires and a pole, had paper pins driven under her finger and toenails, and had a plantain flower covered in chilli inserted into her vagina. She alleges police forced her to write and sign a confession admitting to being an LTTE member.” (www.wsws.org, 10 July 2001)^[5]

“Two young women in the northern island of Mannar were stripped naked, gang raped, beaten and paraded naked in front of police officers. Their hands and feet were tied to a pole and they were suspended for an hour and a half while being beaten once again with thick wire.” (BBC News, 28 January 2002)^[6]

“airport security personnel approached her and questioned her whether she was going to Kuwait and asked her what was the name of her employment agency. Despite answering his questions, she was told that she needed to be searched again. She was forced into a room on the 1st floor of the airport where civilians are not allowed to enter. There she was confronted by the other three airport officers; one security personnel and two casual workers from the Janitorial Services Company. They then threatened her by revealing a knife before taking her to the cleaners' quarters where they drugged her. She reported that the perpetrators forced her to drink a powdery substance and soon after she became unconscious. The four alleged perpetrators then raped her. As the victim’s flight time approached, one of the perpetrators accompanied her to the awaiting aircraft. The victim was placed on the aircraft and flew out of the country. As a result, the victim was deprived of her right to make an immediate complaint regarding the incident.” (Asian Human Rights Commission, 21 October 2005)^[7]

“a woman who had been gang-raped in a police station in Amparai district was killed; a grenade in her vagina erased all evidence. . . . . . soldiers turn their fury on the first available target. Of course, the only people around are civilians. They open fire on everyone, they destroy everything in sight, they rape and torture people they catch on the streets or in their homes, they lob bombs into homes and schools, markets, and city streets. I’ve tried to stop them, I try to control the situation. I can’t. None of us commanders can—though god knows some don’t try. The troops just take off like this and there’s no stopping them. We can’t discipline them. We can’t prosecute them. We can’t dismiss them—we’d have no army left if we did.” (Politics & Society, March 2009)^[8]

“Sri Lankan soldiers were accused of systematically raping Haitian women and girls, some as young as 7 years old. . . . most of the 114 Sri Lankan soldiers deported back to Sri Lanka from Haiti in 2007 for sexual abuse and rape in Haiti did not get punished.” (Open Salon, 9 November 2009)^[9]

“A nine-year-old girl studying in the 5th Grade was raped by soldiers attached to the Digiliwatiya Camp at Batticaloa. The victim is a student of the Sinthandiya School at Digiliwatiya.The rape has led to protests by the villagers of the area which in turn has led to retaliation on the part of the soldiers from the camp who have ridden into the village on their motorcycles to harass the villagers. One of the protesters was killed and his body found in a pond near the army camp.” (Sri Lanka Guardian, 23 February 2010).^[10]

Tamil people have been asking for international help for as long as I have been alive. Governments from other countries seem to have turned a blind eye to it though. Several other Governments contributed to the arming and training of Sri Lanka’s oppressive regime, and Tamil people have been stigmatised as terrorists.^[1] The Sri Lankan government’s censorship and propaganda machine has successfully covered up most of its atrocities and blamed everything on Tamil terrorism, to the extent that even people in Sri Lanka that do not live in the historically Tamil areas largely believe that nothing is wrong. When I tried to raise awareness of this issue during the latest (and most concentrated) massacre in 2009, some people that I thought were my friends, told me that they would rather not know. Luckily, Channel 4 has highlighted the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils. It seems that despite this, some people may still be happier to turn a blind eye to the problem:

“Watching these films made me retch and I wonder quite what the purpose was of viewers being exposed to such horror. Snow said he believed the films should be made public, but why to the British public?” (The Telegraph, 15 June 2011)^[11]

If you have read this far, please think of the Tamil people still trapped in Sri Lanka, and think of the Tamil refugees here that are at risk of deportation. A minority of Tamil immigrants have proven themselves to be criminals, and I would like to see them sent back to Sri Lanka, but what about the rest?^[12] Is it really ethical to leave people trapped in a country where they are likely to be raped or killed on the basis of race, or even worse, send them back to such a country once they have tried to escape?^{[13, 14]} Please consider writing to your MPs, requesting refuge for Tamil civilians that escape from Sri Lanka: http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/ If you have any doubts, about this course of action, the pictures below may convince you. I strongly discourage you from reading or looking any further though, because this blog is about to get nasty.

THE PICTURES BELOW ARE LIKELY TO DISTURB YOU AND POSE A RISK TO YOUR MENTAL HEALTH. UNLESS YOU ARE BATTLE HARDENNED, THINK VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE READING ANY FURTHER. I CANNOT ACCEPT ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR DECISION TO LOOK AT THE PICTURES.

Sinhalese Nationalists reading this blog will probably proclaim that I am a terrorist. Sinhalese Nationalists are very fond of claiming that it was the Tamil terrorists that were committing rape, but they are unable to produce any shred of evidence.

“The observed absence of sexual violence on the part of LTTE cadre toward civilians is best explained by the theoretical framework’s top-down implication: Such violence is banned by the leadership and the organization’s strict internal discipline enforces the prohibition.” (Politics & Society, March 2009)^[8]

The LTTE certainly committed acts of terrorism:

“In early August, LTTE cadre killed more than one hundred men and boys attending services at two mosques. . . . . In 1985, the LTTE killed 146 civilians in an indiscriminate attack near an important Buddhist temple in Anuradhapura. More recently, despite the nominal ceasefire in place, in 2006 the LTTE killed more than one hundred Sinhalese civilians in various villages in the northeast, including sixty-eight in the village of Kebithigollewa. The LTTE also kills civilians in the course of its political assassinations, often carried out in public settings with blatant disregard for the inevitable accompanying civilian casualties” (Politics & Society, March 2009)^[8]

The LTTE’s attacks on civilians were unjustified, and ultimately that is why the LTTE is no longer. When my father was alive, he told me the LTTE was unethical and should not be supported. No terrorist organisation can survive without support, and by behaving unethically the LTTE lost its support. Based on relatively recent events, I am starting to think the LTTE was the lesser of two evils. Perhaps all there is to look forward to in Sri Lanka, is never ending oppression of Tamil people. Sinhalese Nationalist, government-orchestrated terrorism was going on for 19 years before Tamil terrorism emerged. I have seen no reason to believe this has stopped or will stop. If you want to see for yourself what I am talking about, look at the pictures below. These pictures represent just a small snapshot of what has been going on in Sri Lanka since the 1950s. If you want more information, you can find it at: http://www.srilankanatrocities.com/

References:

1. Jivan (undated) Occupational Alienation: a personal perspective. Available from: http://www.metaot.com/blog/occupational-alienation-personal-perspective Accessed 18/6/2011
2. Snow J. (2011) Sri Lanka's Killing Fields. Available from: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/sri-lankas-killing-fields/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1 Accessed: 18/6/2011
3. GayToday (2000) Raping Lesbians Upheld by Sri Lanka's Press Council. Available from: http://www.gaytoday.com/garchive/world/060500wo.htm Accessed 18/6/2011
4. Peel M., Mahtani A., Hinshelwood G., Forrest D. (2000) The sexual abuse of men in detention in Sri Lanka. The Lancet 355(9220):2069
5. Silva V. (2001) Protests in Sri Lanka against the rape and torture of Tamil women. Available from: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jul2001/sri-j10.shtml Accessed: 18/6/2011
6. Harrison F.(2002)'Rape by Sri Lanka police grows' Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1786835.stm Accessed 18/6/2011
7. Asian Human Rights Commission (2005) SRI LANKA: Rape of a female passenger by the airport officers inside of the Bandaranayake International Airport. Available from: http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/UA-183-2005 Accessed: 18/6/2011
8. Wood E.J. (2009) Armed Groups and Sexual Violence: When Is Wartime Rape Rare? Politics & Society 37(1):131-162
9. Danto E. (2009) Letter to the UN asking for investigative reports on UN rape. Available from: http://open.salon.com/blog/ezili_danto/2009/11/09/letter_to_the_un_asking_for_investigative_reports_on_un_rape Accessed: 18/6/2011
10. Sri Lanka Guardian (23 February 2010) Army officers raping a nine year old girl; Can the new army commander maintain army discipline? Available from: http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/02/amy-officers-raping-nine-year-old-girl.html Accessed 18/6/2011
11. Davies S. (2011) Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, Channel 4, review. Available from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8576015/Sri-Lankas-Killing-Fields-Channel-4-review.html Accessed: 18/6/2011
12. Majumdar D. (2007) Tamil gangs tackled from 'within' Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6380817.stm Accessed: 18/6/2011
13. Belfast Telegraph (16 June 2011) UK 'has Tamil blood on its hands' Available from: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/uk-has-tamil-blood-on-its-hands-16012681.html Accessed: 18/6/2011
14. Miller J. (2011) UK goes ahead with deporting 42 Sri Lankan asylum seekers. Available from: http://www.channel4.com/news/campaigners-outraged-over-sri-lanka-deportations Accessed: 18/6/2011