ARMY REJECTS HRW ACCUSATIONS

The Military rejected the allegations levelled by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) that the Army continues to commit sexual violence on former LTTE cadres currently in detention.

Military Spokesman Ruwan Wanigasuriya said the Sri Lankan government rescued close to 300,000 captives from the LTTE and completed resettlement, and rehabilitated close to 11,800 ex-LTTE combatants but there has been no such complaints until Human Rights Watch came up with this ‘masterpiece’ of baseless allegations.

He said there had been a few instances in the past where soldiers were charged with violations of human rights including rape, and each and every one of those cases had been investigated and those guilty had been punished through due legal procedure.

According to the SL Army during the conflict period (January 2007 – May 2009), seven security forces personnel were reported as being involved in five sexual violence incidents in the North. They also noted that 125 persons (including complaints against civilians) accused in 119 incidents for the entirety of the Northern Province.

There had been a few instances in the past where soldiers were charged with violations of human rights including rape, and each and every one of those cases had been investigated and those guilty had been punished through due legal procedure

In the post-conflict period ten security forces personnel were reported as being involved in 6 incidents of sexual violence in the North. This is out of a total of 307 persons accused in 256 incidents for the entire Northern Province.

“Legal action has been taken by the Government in all of the above cases in which the Sri Lankan Security Forces personnel have been involved.

The military has taken strict action to either discharge or mete out other pun- ishments to these personnel according to the Army Act,” he said.

He said the five personnel had been discharged from service after due punishments. Furthermore, cases had also been filed in civil courts, some of which are pending in Courts and with the Attorney General’s Department.