STF accused of assaulting young widow

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 May 1999, 18:34 GMT]
The Forum for Human Dignity has complained to the Secretary of the Anti-Harassment Committee that a twenty eight year old young Tamil widow had been harassed by some members of the Special Task Force (STF) stationed at Karativu in the Batticaloa district on April 25.

Ms Maheswari Velautham, Secretary of the Forum for Human Dignity in a letter to the Anti-Harassment Committee today states:

"On April 25 Mrs Pakiyalakshmi Ganeshan was threatned by seven members of the STF while she was waiting for a bus to return to Veeramunai with some produce collected from her property at Veeracholai.

STF personnel had told her that she was taking the produce from her property to supply the LTTE.

Thereafter they beat her with sticks for about half an hour. She was badly injured.

While the STF personnel were taking Pakiyalakshmi Ganeshan back to their camp she appealed to an elderly man who happened to be passing.

The STF personnel thereafter released her and warned her not to reveal anything of this incident to others.

She made a complaint to the Sammanthurai Police the following day and was admitted to the local hospital.

Fearing that some harm would be done to her she got herself discharged from Sammanthurai hospital and was admitted to the Batticaloa hospital on April 28.

She is presently undergoing treatment at the Batticaloa hospital."

In conclusion, the Forum for Human Dignity has requested the Anti-Harassment Committee to take immediate action against STF personnel and ensure that the civilian population is not harassed in the future.

The Anti-Harassment Committee has been appointed by the President to go into the complaints of illegal arrests, intimidation and detention made by Tamil people and to provide necessary relief to the victims.