2ND LEAD (Correction)

Two Tamil girls brutally raped by occupying Sinhala soldiers of genocidal Sri Lanka

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 26 June 2018, 23:26 GMT]
Sinhala-speaking soldiers of the 18th Sri Lanka National Guard have brutally raped two Tamil school girls in Batticaloa on 18 June. The victims are at the age of thirteen and fifteen. The two girls, and a 6-year-old boy, who is the brother of one of the victims, were being chased by the occupying soldiers sometime after 8:00 a.m. Then, the soldiers stuffed clothes into the mouth of the girls, bound their hands and took them away. The rapists were from the 18th SLNG stationed at Panichchang-kea'ni junction, according to the available information.

In the meantime, the officers of the SL military have threatened the family, their relatives and grassroots activists in Challith-theevu not to blame the Sinhala soldiers for the crime.

On that fateful Monday, the three Tamil children were returning home towards Challiththeevu as they were late to the school and the gates had been closed.

The 6-year-old boy was desperately running after the soldiers who were abducting the girls. Subsequently, he was detained.

The villagers who were searching for the children found them only in the evening around 6:00 p.m. and admitted the girls to the hospital.

The victims were identified as 13-year-old A.R. and 15-year-old K.G. The 6-year-old boy, Roshan, is the brother of A.R. (Full names of the rape victims are avoided in the news report).

The SL military officers have told the family that there was a possibility that the rapists could be ‘your people’ wearing an army uniform.

The families have also received veiled threats that they would be risking the image of the mothers in the family if they blamed the military as culprits, the sources in the village said.

TamilNet has confirmed the brutal incident with several sources including the relatives of the victims, activists of Challiththeevu Rural Development Society, the school and the hospital, as the families were under threat from the military against speaking to media.

Panichchang-kea'ni Junction, where the 18 SLNG has a camp, is located 58 km north of Batticaloa city on Batticaloa Trincomalee A-15 highway.