Two Vadamaradchy women complain of sexual assault by SLA

[TamilNet, Monday, 02 January 2006, 15:50 GMT]
Two women from Malusanthi, a village located 3 km southeast of Point Pedro town on the Jaffna Point-Pedro, road registered complaints with the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commision (SLHRC) offices in Jaffna Monday that they were sexually assaulted by Sri Lanka Army (SLA) troopers around midnight Sunday, sources in Jaffna said.

The SLA troopers had allegedly taken the man occupant of the house outside for questioning and in the meantime other soldiers inside the house had sexually assaulted the two women, the complaint said. When the women screamed to fight back the attackers the troopers threatened to kill the man, the complaint further said. The complainants requested the SLHRC to provide adequate saftey from future attacks.

Civil society sources in Jaffna allege that SLA troops are arresting increasing number of women during middle of the night for interrogation and are sexually assaulting them.

Number of complaints registered with the SLHRC has shown alarming increase in sexual assaults in the last several weeks, according to officials of the SLHRC.