Villagers surround SL military camp, demand removal of soldiers harassing women

[TamilNet, Sunday, 12 January 2014, 10:41 GMT]
The people of Pi’laavaththai village in Vaddukkoaddai, on Saturday surrounded the mini-camp of the occupying Sri Lankan military and demanded immediate removal of the soldiers, who have been harassing the women in the village. The SL military has been sexually harassing the women and those who opposed to it were being threatened and assaulted. The villagers surrounded the camp after Sinhala soldiers were threatening the women by throwing stones at their houses. The SL military has been forced to admit that they would be withdrawing the soldiers, but has continued deployment of additional troops around the mini-camp, news sources in Vaddukkoaddai said.

The villagers surrounded the mini-camp and demanded the Sri Lankan Police at Vaddukkoaddai to arrest the culprits.

But, the SL police refused to act on the complaints and the villagers stepped up their protest against the SL military.

The villagers demanded complete and immediate withdrawal of the SL military from the camp.

As the confrontation continued, the SL military officers finally chose to argue that they would be withdrawing the soldiers, but they had to place other soldiers to guarantee the ‘security’ of the military base. The villagers argued that the SL policemen could stay there to ensure the concerns of the SL military until the camp is dismantled.

In the meantime, the SL military has beefed up its deployment around the camp.

The villagers blame that the Sinhala soldiers were sexually harassing the women in the village for a long time.