[women-rights] Sri Lanka: Rape in custody must be stopped immediately

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *

28 January 2002
ASA 37/002/2002
12/02


Allegations of rape in custody by army, police and navy officials
increased markedly in Sri Lanka last year, Amnesty International
said in a new report published today. The organization has
evidence of cases where women in custody were blindfolded,
beaten, had their clothes forcibly removed and were raped.

        The majority of incidents occurred in the context of the
armed conflict between the security forces and the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who are fighting for an autonomous
state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. Many of the victims are
internally displaced women.

        "The fact that complaints of rape, like other complaints
of torture, are often not effectively dealt with by police,
magistrates or doctors challenges the government to tackle this
problem. Deficiencies in the early stages of the criminal
investigation process have repeatedly contributed to the ultimate
collapse of the investigation of the rape and the prosecution of
the perpetrators,"  Amnesty International said.

        "The new government of Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremasinghe must now do everything in its power to prevent
this grave sexual abuse of detainees."

The organization is urging the new Prime Minister to:

-- send a clear public message to all security forces personnel
that rape and other serious sexual violence in custody will not
be tolerated and that perpetrators of such offences will be
brought to justice and held accountable;

-- establish an independent investigative body with the necessary
powers and expertise to open criminal investigations where human
rights violations, including rape, are believed to have been
committed.

        Amnesty International has welcomed the steps taken by
successive governments over the last few years to combat torture,
such as the ratification of the UN Convention against Torture in
early 1994 and its incorporation into national law later that
year as well as the more recent inclusion of more specific crimes
of rape in custody and gang rape as acts punishable by a minimum
of 10 years imprisonment under the Penal Code. However, despite
those positive steps to date not one single member of the
security forces has been found guilty of rape in custody in a
court of law. Only in one case, where the victim was murdered,
the culprits were brought to justice.

        "Ensuring justice for the countless women who have been
victims of rape in custody, is an opportunity for the new Prime
Minister to redeem his party's election pledge to 'safeguard
women's rights', " Amnesty International concluded.

        Today the UN Committee on the Elimination of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is reviewing the periodic
report of the Sri Lanka government and Amnesty International
takes this opportunity to particulary highlight its concerns
about abuses of the rights of women in Sri Lanka.

Selected case study:
In March 2001, Sinnathamby Sivamany (24) and Ehamparam Wijikala
(22), two Tamil women , were arrested by members of the navy in
the coastal city of Mannar and taken to the office of a special
police unit. There, Ehamparam Wijikala was taken inside the
police station and brutally raped by two officers. In the
meantime, a navy officer climbed into the van and blindfolded
Sinnathamby with a sock aided by the driver of the van. This
officer then forcibly undressed and raped her. Some time
afterwards she was taken inside the office to the room in which
Ehamparam Wijikala was being held. Security forces personnel
present there beat her then demanding that she remove her
clothes. When she refused, Rajah, a male police officer, ordered
Ehamparam Wijikala to remove Sinnathamby's clothes. Both women
were made to parade naked in front of the men. They were then
made to sit in a crouched position; their hands and legs were
tied and attached to a pole which was then placed between two
tables so they were left hanging. They were in this position for
about 90 minutes and were pinched and beaten with a thick wire
during that time.

For a copy of the report visit
http://www.web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/asa370012002

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