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A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Monday, April 1, 2013
Next
contingent of Sri Lanka blue berets leave for Haiti
tomorrow
Mar 31, Colombo: The next
contingent of Sri Lankan troops for the United Nations mission in Haiti will
leave the country tomorrow.
The
United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to prosecute ‘to the fullest extent of the
law’ 108 Sri Lankan soldiers with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of minors, including prostitution, the
Sunday Times reported. The number is one of the biggest single withdrawal of
soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission. During the conflict numerous local and
international NGOs protested both frequent rapes by security forces and the
climate of impunity in which they occur.
The charges against the Sri Lankan soldiers may include rape (which is constituted a "war crime" in the context of military conflicts) involving children under 18 years of age, the paper said.
The ejection of 108 out of Sri Lanka’s contingent of 950 for sex crimes highlights the frequency of rape during Sri Lankan operation in the Northeast during the decades long conflict.
In 2001, the year before a ceasefire ended the fighting, Amnesty International said it “has noted a marked rise in allegations of rape by [Sri Lankan] police, army and navy personnel.”
“Among the victims of rape by the security forces are many internally displaced women, women who admit being or having been members of the LTTE and female relatives of members or suspected male members of the LTTE,” Amnesty said.
“Reports of rape in custody concern children as young as 14,” Amnesty also said.
Amnesty said “to [our] knowledge, not a single member of the Sri Lankan security forces has been brought to trial in connection to incidents of rape in custody although one successful prosecution has been brought in a case where the victim of rape was also murdered.”
Also in 2001, Amnesty wrote to then Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, “urging her to take action to stop rape by security forces andbring perpetrators to justice” in response to reports of rape by security forces “in Mannar,Batticaloa,Negombo and Jaffna.”
“To date, no response has been received to the appeal,” Amnesty later said in a special report titled “Sri Lanka: Rape in Custody” which was published in January 2002, just as the Norwegian brokered Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) came into being.
Earlier, in March 2000, the then United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, expressed her “grave concern” over the lack of serious investigation into allegations of gang rape and murder of women and girls by the Sri Lankan security forces.
In 2000, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) protested that “Sri Lankan security forces are using systematic rape and murder of Tamil women to subjugate the Tamil population... Impunity continues to reign as rape is used as a weapon of war in Sri Lanka.”
Apart from the ejection of 108 Sri Lankan troops from Haiti, the actions Colombo takes against them would also determine whether the UN will deploy Sri Lankan soldiers in future peacekeeping operations, the Sunday Times said.
A UN source told the paper that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations would monitor what action the government proposed to take against the 108 soldiers who were part of a 950-member contingent from Sri Lanka.
"If they are found guilty, they should be punished for their crimes under the criminal justice system in the country," he said.
The UN would be very unhappy, he said, if only administrative and disciplinary actions were taken against the soldiers.
Asked how many soldiers would be repatriated, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters Friday that all 108 soldiers would be repatriated on disciplinary grounds.
The total number is one of the biggest single withdrawal of soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission.
Asked about the nature of the charges, a UN spokeswoman said the allegations were against members of the Sri Lankan battalion stationed in a variety of locations in Haiti, and were of a "transactional sex" nature.
She also acknowledged that they involved prostitution, including in some cases with minors.
In its 1999 annual report, Amnesty International, said rape of female detainees was used amongst a range of torture methods.
In a statement to the UN in 1998, the World Organisation against Torture observed: “Sri Lankan soldiers have raped both women and young girls on a massive scale, and often with impunity, since reporting often leads to reprisals against the victims and their families.”
“The consistent policy of rape and violence against Tamil women that we have documented for many years is a fundamental military tactic of the Sri Lankan forces,” International Educational Development, an NGO, also told the UN that year.
Human rights NGOs have frequently protested the impunity Sri Lankan soldiers enjoy regarding rapes and other abuses.
“Only one of the thousands of rapes which have been reported, has resulted in a conviction,” Pax Romana said.
“There also seems to be little point to expect justice on the basis of the constitution since the constitution itself provides the mechanisms and justifications for the commission of these war crimes and encourages impunity.”
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa asserted in a local meeting last week, when commenting on the Sri Lankan armed forces and their peace keeping missions, that, “I respect them profoundly and consider them as the most disciplined Forces in the world. They have not killed or raped anybody.”
400 'Sinha regiment' Sri Lanka soldiers leave for Haiti
Tamil
Guardian 31 March 2013
Mar 31, Colombo: The next
contingent of Sri Lankan troops for the United Nations mission in Haiti will
leave the country tomorrow.
A contingent of 400 soldiers from the Sinha
regiment will leave for Haiti on Monday (April 1) to assist the UN Peace Keeping
Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) there.
A 350-strong contingent has left the country for
Haiti on Thursday March 28.
Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya
said this is the 18th batch of Sri Lankan peacekeepers on UN missions.
According to the military, Sri Lankan peace keepers
provide security to all key towns along main roads and suburbs in Haiti,
preventing different armed groups from engaging in violence.
Sri Lanka is a committed partner for UN
peacekeeping operations with a total of 1,071 men and women from the three Armed
Forces and the Police currently serving in seven different Peacekeeping
Missions.
Uploaded
on Feb
16, 2009
This
says all about the Sri Lankan army. If they can do this kind of things in Haiti
under UN supervision,
Imagine what they can do to Tamils. Many sinhala ppl will still deny this. Many rape cases in Sri Lanka are still unhanded. Why? Their intention is to fight LTTE and save Tamils? Who is going to save the Tamils from this Army?
Imagine what they can do to Tamils. Many sinhala ppl will still deny this. Many rape cases in Sri Lanka are still unhanded. Why? Their intention is to fight LTTE and save Tamils? Who is going to save the Tamils from this Army?
Rape by Sri Lankan troops resurfaces – in Haiti
[TamilNet, Sunday, 04 November 2007, 07:31 GMT]
The
United Nations has asked Sri Lanka to prosecute ‘to the fullest extent of the
law’ 108 Sri Lankan soldiers with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti for
sexual exploitation and sexual abuse of minors, including prostitution, the
Sunday Times reported. The number is one of the biggest single withdrawal of
soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission. During the conflict numerous local and
international NGOs protested both frequent rapes by security forces and the
climate of impunity in which they occur. The charges against the Sri Lankan soldiers may include rape (which is constituted a "war crime" in the context of military conflicts) involving children under 18 years of age, the paper said.
The ejection of 108 out of Sri Lanka’s contingent of 950 for sex crimes highlights the frequency of rape during Sri Lankan operation in the Northeast during the decades long conflict.
In 2001, the year before a ceasefire ended the fighting, Amnesty International said it “has noted a marked rise in allegations of rape by [Sri Lankan] police, army and navy personnel.”
“Among the victims of rape by the security forces are many internally displaced women, women who admit being or having been members of the LTTE and female relatives of members or suspected male members of the LTTE,” Amnesty said.
“Reports of rape in custody concern children as young as 14,” Amnesty also said.
Amnesty said “to [our] knowledge, not a single member of the Sri Lankan security forces has been brought to trial in connection to incidents of rape in custody although one successful prosecution has been brought in a case where the victim of rape was also murdered.”
Also in 2001, Amnesty wrote to then Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga, “urging her to take action to stop rape by security forces andbring perpetrators to justice” in response to reports of rape by security forces “in Mannar,Batticaloa,Negombo and Jaffna.”
“To date, no response has been received to the appeal,” Amnesty later said in a special report titled “Sri Lanka: Rape in Custody” which was published in January 2002, just as the Norwegian brokered Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) came into being.
Earlier, in March 2000, the then United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, expressed her “grave concern” over the lack of serious investigation into allegations of gang rape and murder of women and girls by the Sri Lankan security forces.
In 2000, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) protested that “Sri Lankan security forces are using systematic rape and murder of Tamil women to subjugate the Tamil population... Impunity continues to reign as rape is used as a weapon of war in Sri Lanka.”
Apart from the ejection of 108 Sri Lankan troops from Haiti, the actions Colombo takes against them would also determine whether the UN will deploy Sri Lankan soldiers in future peacekeeping operations, the Sunday Times said.
A UN source told the paper that the Department of Peacekeeping Operations would monitor what action the government proposed to take against the 108 soldiers who were part of a 950-member contingent from Sri Lanka.
"If they are found guilty, they should be punished for their crimes under the criminal justice system in the country," he said.
The UN would be very unhappy, he said, if only administrative and disciplinary actions were taken against the soldiers.
Asked how many soldiers would be repatriated, UN spokesperson Michele Montas told reporters Friday that all 108 soldiers would be repatriated on disciplinary grounds.
The total number is one of the biggest single withdrawal of soldiers from a UN peacekeeping mission.
Asked about the nature of the charges, a UN spokeswoman said the allegations were against members of the Sri Lankan battalion stationed in a variety of locations in Haiti, and were of a "transactional sex" nature.
She also acknowledged that they involved prostitution, including in some cases with minors.
In its 1999 annual report, Amnesty International, said rape of female detainees was used amongst a range of torture methods.
In a statement to the UN in 1998, the World Organisation against Torture observed: “Sri Lankan soldiers have raped both women and young girls on a massive scale, and often with impunity, since reporting often leads to reprisals against the victims and their families.”
“The consistent policy of rape and violence against Tamil women that we have documented for many years is a fundamental military tactic of the Sri Lankan forces,” International Educational Development, an NGO, also told the UN that year.
Human rights NGOs have frequently protested the impunity Sri Lankan soldiers enjoy regarding rapes and other abuses.
“Only one of the thousands of rapes which have been reported, has resulted in a conviction,” Pax Romana said.
“There also seems to be little point to expect justice on the basis of the constitution since the constitution itself provides the mechanisms and justifications for the commission of these war crimes and encourages impunity.”
Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa asserted in a local meeting last week, when commenting on the Sri Lankan armed forces and their peace keeping missions, that, “I respect them profoundly and consider them as the most disciplined Forces in the world. They have not killed or raped anybody.”
400 'Sinha regiment' Sri Lanka soldiers leave for Haiti
Tamil
Guardian 31 March 2013
400 soldiers from the Sri Lankan army's 'Sinha
regiment' are set to leave for Haiti as part of a UN Peacekeeping mission later
this week.
The deployment follows the expulsion of Sri Lankan troops for
sexually abusing Haitian minors in 2007, with no prosecutions or punishments
having taken place. 111 soldiers and 3 officers were repatriated back to Sri
Lanka after being part of UN mission in Haiti and were accused of a string of
sexual assaults, including rape of children as young as 7 years
old.
350 soldiers already left for Haiti earlier this
month.
Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya
stated that this was the 18th batch of Sri Lankan soldiers, almost entirely
Sinhalese, serving peacekeeping
missions.
See our earlier posts:
Haitian sexual abuse troops
remain unpunished (11 January
2012)
Haitian lawyers condemn
impunity for Sri Lankan soldiers (11 September 2011)
Sri Lanka forces fire into
Haitian civilians (25 November
2009)
Rape by Sri Lankan troops
resurfaces – in Haiti (07 November
2007)
