By Angie Singam –
The schoolgirl
Krishanthi Kumaraswamy cycles along a dusty road in the sweltering afternoon heat of Jaffna. ‘Ubiquitous palms, unique to the dry zone, stand direct like sentinels. An eerie feeling permeates the scenery and vegetation in this no-man’s land’. She was on her way to her Chemistry Advanced Level exam. She would be home for lunch. Home was her haven, the place that cushioned her from the war that she had known almost all her life – the place she shared with her widowed mother and younger brother.
Krishanthi was a high achiever. She had aced her O’Levels with seven distinctions and she knew that she was going to blitz the A’Levels as well. She had to. She wanted to study Medicine at University, a very competitive and demanding course. One that only a handful of elite Jaffna students could get into.
Krishanthi never arrived home! Her A’Level results were posted posthumously. She had passed with the highest possible grades, but she wasn’t there to celebrate the news! The 18 year old had been raped and killed by army personnel who had stopped her at a checkpoint on her way home, ostensibly to question her.
The book
Krishanthi remains the face of the horrors of the thirty year civil war in Sri Lanka and the tragic victim of the militarisation of the North. The rape and murder of the schoolgirl by the army and the murder of her mother, brother and neighbour who went looking for her in September 1996, has been graphically captured in a book written by Bhagavadas Sriskanthadas ‘Schoolgirl Rape & Four Murders’. It follows the crime through the court case and the proceedings some of which are produced ad verbatim in the book and provide first- hand accounts of what transpired.
The book was launched at Gleebooks in Sydney on 5 June 2022. Speaking at the launch, Sriskanthadas a former human rights lawyer, journalist and solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service in Australia, described the atrocities of war and rape in particular, as a weapon of war. He listed Rwanda, the Congo, Yugoslavia and more recently, Ukraine as countries where rape was systemic during conflict. In his foreword he also describes the many human rights violations committed during the war in Sri Lanka and the absence of any Governmental measures to curb the military or hold them accountable for the atrocities they committed.
Sriskanthadas writes with the clinical accuracy of someone who had poured over the court proceedings and researched conditions in Jaffna during the war, but writes with the heart of someone who understands and appreciates the Tamil culture and ethos. He travelled to Kaithady, Jaffna, where he interviewed neighbours, relatives and friends of the Kumaraswamy family while compiling the book.
Life in the North
Peppered through the book are cameos of life in the North which are familiar to someone who has grown up there – bicycles (a common mode of transport in Jaffna) and the history behind them, the meaning of the Thali Kodi for a Hindu wife, Saraswathi, the Goddess of Learning and Krishanthi’s affinity to her… Sriskanthadas’ powers of observation are heightened by his knowledge of Tamil culture and history.
While the burden of war was punishing, the people continued with their daily rituals and routines – their attempts to maintain normalcy in an otherwise abnormal environment. A review of the book by Philip Radmall, Macquarie University, says that ‘it speaks from the precariousness of ordinary life; how randomly the horror of the killings takes place out of the domestic context and routine goals of a day’. Sriskanthadas captures those routine moments with great detail and warmth.
Against this backdrop, Krishanthi’s personality and family life come alive.
What is distinct in the book is that the Kumaraswamy family were well respected people in the area – cosmopolitan, educated and influential. Krishanthi’s mother grew up in Malaya and did a Bachelor of Arts in India, returning to serve as Principal at a public school in Jaffna. Both younger children were in the best fee paying schools in Jaffna (the oldest daughter was in Colombo). Arguably, they had some power and influence and their family members were able to get the then President of the country, Chandrika Kumaratunga to intervene and justice was served in a fairly quick trial without jury.
The State Counsel for the prosecution in the Kumaraswamy case said in an interview, “In March or April of 1997 the case started and in 1998 it was over. Krishanthi Kumaraswamy was the first successful prosecution against military personnel for rape in the context of the conflict in Sri Lanka”. A pyrrhic victory for the Kumaraswamy family, who lost three members of their family in a senseless act of violence.
The political narrative
While the story is about Krishanthi and the subsequent court case and victory, running through the book is a political narrative that speaks of an ineffectual Government and a country with a tainted human rights record… A country that abandoned its duty towards its people in the North and East and its humanitarian obligations towards them.
Jaffna was wrested from the terrorists in December 1995 and supposedly in the safekeeping of the army. The irony is not lost on the young girl as she is shoved into the army bunker ostensibly for questioning, but in reality for a far more sinister purpose. “We trusted you and we came”, she tells the army corporal. The so-called saviours, the perpetrators of crimes against humanity!
The previous year, the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women specified that rape by armed groups during wartime is a war crime. ‘The jurisdiction of the international tribunals established to prosecute crimes committed in the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda both included rape, making these tribunals among the first international bodies to prosecute sexual violence as a war crime’.
The UN and human rights groups have pressed Sri Lanka to set up a war crimes tribunal, a request that Colombo has resisted saying it is an internal matter and would be dealt with internally. So many women have been raped, tortured and murdered in Jaffna during the occupation by the armed forces with complete impunity. Their tragedy is just a line item in statistics compiled by human rights organisations.
In March 2000, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women expressed grave concern over the lack of credible investigations into allegations of gang rape, and murder of women and girls. In a January 2002 report Amnesty International noted that not a single member of the security forces had been brought to trial in connection with incidents of rape in custody.
A tribute
Krishanthi’s rape and murder and the murder of her family rocked Jaffna, but for every Krishanthi whose body is recovered and whose story is told, there are a thousand Krishanthis who will remain unknown and unmourned, except by their close families. Jaffna keeps some dark secrets and the book lifts the veil on one of them.
The author concedes that people may question the relevance of the book and the fact that it had been written 20 years after the event – it is a seminal case which was prosecuted successfully, (despite the evidence being largely circumstantial), but one that is sadly not representative of the outcome of many rapes, abductions and killings by the military in the North and East.
Bhagavadas Sriskanthadas’ book is not just a tribute to a Jaffna schoolgirl with a dream who never came home, but it is also a tribute to all those women in the North and East who will never come home to their families.
Ashan / June 14, 2022
Any Sri Lankan with some compassion should feel nothing but empathy for this family, and be horrified by what happened to this poor innocent girl. Anyone with a daughter, sister, wife, or mother, should be outraged that in this country, a young girl was brutally raped and murdered, and that there are other stories that we may never know. In this Buddhist nation of ours, it is unbelievable that our soldiers, maybe with the consent of their superiors, behaved like uncivilized barbarians, and showed no tolerance or kindness towards the children up North. There is no justification for these racially motivated barbaric crimes against innocent civilians. They finally behaved like the terrorists and did not care they were killing civilians.
We cannot fault the thousands of families that want answers, and have appealed to international human rights agencies, to help them find those answers. Answers that the present President, and the Rajapaksa family, have dodged, and refuses to provide.
They have brought shame to this country.
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chiv / June 15, 2022
Ashan. You are absolutely right. Inturn what are we expecting after 25 years other than bankruptcy, poverty, starvation and failure,
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Sinhala_Man / June 15, 2022
The Tamils are not discriminated against. The proof: “A Tamil, Sanjay Rajaratnam, today, on 15/06/2022, holds a job as important as that of Attorney-General of Sri Lanka. How can there be discrimination?”
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Say something like that. A majority of Sinhalese accept it. A few will not, will ask how free this Tamil is; basically, “Is he a Quisling?”. I don’t know. How can one person know all the answers? In any case I know nothing of this Sanjay Rajaratnam; I just wanted one Tamil name in the Establishment.
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We’d like to dismiss Krishanthi Kumaraswamy also in the same way. The only way to counter that is for somebody to chronicle all the events as appears to have been done here; then this one horror can be read by those who care. She becomes a symbol for thousands who suffered similar fates.
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I’m glad that this book has been written. I have read the review.
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I will never read the book. Too many other things to do. However, let me hope that many others will read the book. I want the perpetrators of these horrors brought to book.
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I am an anonymous Sinhalese.
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Lester / June 15, 2022
Sinhala_Man,
“The Tamils are not discriminated against. “
Discrimination is relative. There is discrimination against Tamils in SL, but it is less than the discrimination suffered by lower-caste Tamils in TN or Christians in Pakistan. For example, even after 25 years, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in TN are still living in refugee camps. Whereas, all the Indian plantation workers who came to SL were given full citizenship. Also, this schoolgirl incident is not an ethnic issue. Discrimination is usually institutional.
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Sinhala_Man / June 16, 2022
Dear Lester,
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Thanks for your comment, but I’m afraid that there is much that you have said that I cannot agree with.
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Certain things that you say demand careful, and lengthy, discussion. I’m just not up to it.
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However, you’re repeating here certain things that I have seen others correcting you on. It is totally false to say that ” all the Indian plantation workers . . .were given full citizenship.”
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Please ensure the accuracy of whatever you say.
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Lester / June 17, 2022
Sinhala_Man,
Some posters here are not good at English. For example, they don’t know the difference between hydropower and electricity.
Regarding Indian plantation workers, they are all citizens. Sri Lanka has no stateless people.
“At a recent forum organised by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies and the UNHCR, the Secretary of the Ministry of Hill Country New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development Ranjini Nadarajapillai said that Sri Lanka no longer had stateless people as over 1.2 million Tamils of Indian origin had been granted citizenship.”
https://www.ft.lk/Opinion-and-Issues/Sri-Lanka-has-no-stateless-people/14-652649
I assume you have a basic knowledge of English.
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old codger / June 17, 2022
SM,
“However, you’re repeating here certain things that I have seen others correcting you on”
Lester’s modus operandi is to waste your time repeating his rubbish ad nauseam, until comments run out. He derives such pleasure in giving himself upvotes. Probably his employers pay per upvote. Such a loser.
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Mahila / June 16, 2022
Deception at it’s best by cowards!!
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old codger / June 18, 2022
Mahila,
Yes, if you are taking about Lester, who ran away when the going was tough, and wants to preach to those who stayed.
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Mahila / June 18, 2022
Ofcourse, undoubtedly!!
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Svenson / June 17, 2022
You can be sure that this schoolgirl issue and all other crimes will be made ethnic and religious issues by these people. This is their raison detr’e. They cannot see that they are Racists themselves. Instead of judging individuals, they judge entire races and religions.
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Mahila / June 18, 2022
Svenson,
“Instead of judging individuals, they judge entire races and religions.”
You may well have a point in what you say!
However, the core issue in this matter is that,
1. The perpetrator, convicted of the crime by the primary court was or of a particular race, and
2. The committal was done by independent judges, held as justiciable decision by appeal court
3. Reviewed by primary and secondary court, the convict has been pardoned
4. No rational explanation as to flaws in the original and/or appeal court decision forthcoming
5. Without explanation, when released by the President its tantamount to be suspicious
6. The President is ex – Military and suspect, convict may have served/acquainted with H. E.
Which compounds matter and leads perception as racial or military group decision!
The President with such sensitive/delicate issues should have got the judicial recommendations!
Sad to say that HE has not been too good in handling sensitive/delicate political issues with care?!
So there again it is a “FAIL”!!??
Governance, Justice is very delicate and sensitive, with far reaching issues if not handled properly!
2½ Years in the Saddle, still not become professional on that score, is a very SAD reflection??!!
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Sinhala_Man / June 19, 2022
Dear Mahila,
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I’m making this comment AFTER submitting my comment to Svenson, and AFTER googling to find out what else there is about this unfortunate girl.
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I found that there is an immense amount of writing on this, much more than I had imagined. When I made my first (anonymous) comment on the 15th, I thought that I would say just that, and be done with it. That hasn’t been the case!!
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I know that your comments on ALL subjects are intelligent, and it seems clear to me that you are a Tamil who knows Jaffna well. I’m merely a fellow from the South who wishes that these things never happened.
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Let my confused comments (on this subject, not necessarily on others!) remain as testimony to the fact that some of us (e.g. Lester – whom I must reply!) rush in like fools to make shallow observations which insult you, who have suffered so much.
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Of course, we, Sinhalese, also suffer; take me rather more seriously when I talk about things that I know at first hand!
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Sinhala_Man / June 19, 2022
Dear Svenson,
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You have made two valid comments on this page. (I have already made more than my fair share – apologies to all readers!).
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This comment of yours has received many DISLIKES. Not a single “LIKE”; even I have desisted from giving you one.
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However, I’d like to make this clear. I have usually found that your comments are serious, and contain useful observations. So does this.
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My many comments may confuse readers who may wonder what sort of lunatic I am! (I know that I have just made a statement that will be seized upon by some – and thrown back at me to question my sanity).
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In this instance, I’m hoping that some people will start THINKING.
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It is a sad fact that there there were many credible allegations of atrocities during the Civil War. When added together, an ethnic dimension does emerge.
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leelagemalli / June 18, 2022
Lester `s knowledege about trivial issues are far lower to that of high school going pupils – exposed again. .
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With all respect to you, Lester, further considering you as a human being, may I ask you – what is not relative on this earth ???????
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This man has the audacity to compare complex issues in a country, India, with 1300 millions ( to the POV of europeans it is the biggest hell on the earth) with that of a country comparable to Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia (23 millions).
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If he did it with that of Malaysia or Taiwan.. We could think the bugger has some sort of general knowledge about the world.
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As we all know – life is much more complicated in India than anywhere in the world. However, India is one of the powerful indrustrial nations to the world. That is what counts to them than anything else as of today.
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we have asked him to start it with KINDERGARTEN again – but he does not seem to see it so as Gota would not see that majority of SRILANKENS want him to disspear leaving the nation in peace.
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Lester / June 18, 2022
This guy Leela can hardly write a correct English sentence. Personally I don’t care, but I will point it out since this parasite follows me all over CT.
“Lester `s knowledege about trivial issues are far lower”
Knowledege? Are far lower?
WTH is this? At least use a spell checker before talking about “knowledge.”
“India is one of the powerful indrustrial nations to the world.”
Indrustrial? To the world? LOL, look at this Ranil backside licker bark from behind. A parrot could do better.
“majority of SRILANKENS want him to disspear”
Disspear? Somehow you “disspeared” to Germany without sufficient gray matter in the brain.
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Sinhala_Man / June 19, 2022
Lester,
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Some of the mistakes in English that you point out in “leelagemalli’s” English are indeed there, perhaps he knows German better – and we don’t know that language at all.
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I could identify some mistakes in your writing; and it may be that you could do likewise with my English.
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It is good to have no mistakes, but mistakes in a foreign language hardly matter! What does matter is that you seem to deliberately distort and mislead. old codger has also faulted you for that; have you got any complaints about his English?
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However, it looks as though he just dismissed you without bothering to follow the link; I did – and I discover distortions which imply either idiocy or dishonesty on your part!
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Sinhala_Man / June 18, 2022
Lester,
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What arrant nonsense you write!
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Example: this statement (no relevance to this article!):
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“all the Indian plantation workers who came to SL were given full citizenship.”
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In your comment on the 17th, you quote out of context from a 2018 DailyFT article which describes the deplorable life of UpCountry Tamils. By then, all those left behind were citizens. From that you extrapolate that all Tamils who were brought to Ceylon from 1820, and their descendants, were given citizenship.
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Don’t insult our intelligence! I don’t know enough to sufficiently rubbish your statement. Await a book by Dr Rajan Hoole that will be out this year.
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Despite other discrimination, “Estate Tamils” had citizenship, and elected many MPs in 1947 to the Parliament that governed until D.S. Senanayake died. By then these people had been deprived of citizenship. Fast forward to the heartbreaking scenes I witnessed myself as half these people were deported to India under the “Sirima-Shastri Pact”. These are complex issues. I will not dare making your type of statement.
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I know that injustice has been done to two quite different categories of Tamils. I’m not undertaking the proving of it.
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Lester / June 18, 2022
Sinhala_Man,
Who cares about 1947? I’m only talking about right now. Right now, there are no stateless people in Sri Lanka. Right now, Tamil Nadu has not granted citizenship to a single Sri Lankan Tamil. Tamils in Sri Lanka are treated better than Tamils in Tamil Nadu.
“I don’t know enough to sufficiently rubbish your statement.”
Yes, your knowledge is lacking. Consider reading a book on basic logic.
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Sinhala_Man / June 19, 2022
Lester,
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Before you make sweeping statements with the air of seeming to know all things, please check. You may not “care about 1947” but those who are seriously concerned about the FUTURE of this country, and truthfulness do care.
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I have now checked. The Citizenship Act was passed in 1948. That statement in no way contradicts what I had said in my comment on the 18th. There I asked you to await the book by Dr Rajan Hoole. Your statement has already been rubbished; but insufficiently!
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In another comment by you (below), dated 15th, you have sought to make the setting up of a War Crimes Tribunal here conditional upon other countries doing the same. Whether or not such a Tribunal should be set up can have nothing to do with what happens elsewhere.
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Ajith / June 15, 2022
“In this Buddhist nation of ours, it is unbelievable that our soldiers, maybe with the consent of their superiors, behaved like uncivilized barbarians, and showed no tolerance or kindness towards the children up North. “
This happened in 1995 but even in this Buddhist Nation elected a Military Person in 2019 to release or pardon a similar murderer who killed 8 civilians including children and sentenced to death by Sri Lankan Court. Today thousands of innocents Sinhalese children are almost near death in hungry but still he is the President of this country.
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Mahila / June 18, 2022
(Part I)
Ajith,
This is the outcome of the 6.9 million emancipated voter’s decision to elect a person, widely perceived as a violator of basic ethics??!
“Who is Lasantha?” as if he does not know Lasantha? Faking and ridiculing??
Now the same person is lamenting, that “he cannot go away as a failed president”!! Why not??
You have failed and truly failed utterly to such levels, all those who elected this individual, must “Put their heads down in shame and cry in unison FAIL”?!!
Unless public exposition is not forthcoming, there is no guarantee whatsoever, that this same individual would not be re-elected, and possibility of recurring in the future, even by the same person, “dry cleaned” by some organisations with weird names – Maga, Saga et all and perceived “CLEAN AND RE-ELECTABLE”!
Add to that mix, ¼ bottle of high quality “John & Stones” Gal Arrack, Chicken Biryani and SL Rs. 5000.00 currency note??!!
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ACCOMPLISHED ZIP SPEED – PAR EXCELLENCE!!
Then all of us electors, have to declare ourselves as IMBECILES or would be perceived as such??!!
Why should voters wear the rap and wrath??!!
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Mahila / June 18, 2022
(Part II)
Possible pardoning of the guilty were being discussed actively by the public!
That one cannot deny, and all of them were aware of what the outcome was going to be??? After election it happened!!!
People were discussing, the possible pardon to the Dematagoda political Killer, cases against the siblings being dismissed or withdrawn and the military convict jailed for the school girl rape and murder of 4 of the family being pardoned!!.
People of high moral values, religious and pious, should not have elected this individual to that position knowing the power vested in that institution and it may be abused!!
They did it knowingly, perceived the outcome – the pardon – and perhaps with glee!!!
God almighty has his ways to exemplify to these wrong doers their mistake, in ‘this journey’ to samsara, for behaving in such degradable manner!!!
The intelligent and learned, would adjust their ways to ensure they are treading the ‘correct path!’
This case too was a subject of discussion as the court case filing and decision to convict were protracted/delayed for a long time and in limbo?? Did not meet the general approval of the ‘Powers that be’ to proceed with expected speed!
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Mahila / June 16, 2022
Ashan,
“In this Buddhist nation of ours, it is unbelievable that our soldiers, maybe with the consent of their superiors, behaved like uncivilized barbarians, and showed no tolerance or kindness towards the children up North. There is no justification for these racially motivated barbaric crimes against innocent civilians. They finally behaved like the terrorists and did not care they were killing civilians.”
THEREAFTER, THYE DECIDED TO RELEASE THE PERPTRATOR WHO WAS CONVICTED BY THE Lankan COURTS TO BE PARDONED AND RELEASED!!??
So these rulers, claiming that they are Sinhalese Buddhists, are shameless, in condoning such low conduct!!
Buddhists by and for their convenience, otherwise BARBARIC!!??
Absolutely and without any doubt!!!!
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Svenson / June 17, 2022
Blind people, are all of you racists? There is nothing special about a ‘Buddhist nation’. Much worse is being committed as I type by a Hindu nation just a few miles away. And Muslim, Christian and Atheist nations too. Cruelty is much deeper than that. They were Humans first before they were brought up Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Christian. Leave religion out of this and judge each man by his actions not his religion or nationality.
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sriskanda / June 15, 2022
Good effort by this lawyer-writer of this incident which was totally ignored during the civil war period. There are more sad, horror stories like this to be documented.
I wonder how to get this book??
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ramona therese fernando / June 15, 2022
Thanks for the article. What a terrible thing to have happened to this poor girl and her family. Yes, so many others would have suffered the same way. Cruelty of our armed forces cannot be swept away by pictures of a few soldiers who did good deeds like carrying old people and children to safety. More needs to be done to bring perpetrators to justice. My heart goes out to all those who suffered. The book must be read.
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Lester / June 15, 2022
“The UN and human rights groups have pressed Sri Lanka to set up a war crimes tribunal…”
Of course Sri Lanka should set up a war crimes tribunal to investigate these atrocities. On one condition. Similar war crimes tribunals are held to investigate Saudi genocide in Yemen, US atrocities in Iraq, NATO atrocities in Afghanistan, etc. This will never happen, because there is one fundamental rule, one law of the universe that applies to all wars: history is written by the winners.
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Harishchandra / June 16, 2022
Nothing will come out of any investigation so long as the rulers of any given country dance the jig to the tune of that horrible fellow Uncle Sam. Keep on wishing all you can, its MCC time over here, in this country like no other.
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Mahila / June 16, 2022
“THERE IS ONE FUNDAMENTAL RULE, ONE LAW OF THE UNIVERSE THAT APPLIES TO ALL WARS: HISTORY IS WRITTEN BY THE WINNERS.”
That’s correct?!!
We can all see that being implemented because 6.9 million helped win?!!
Still in the dark ages like Imbeciles!!
The architect of the past Fame is the current ruler??!!
The future generation of this country, in agony even without milk food!!
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Native Vedda / June 17, 2022
Lester the lying jester
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“Similar war crimes tribunals are held to investigate Saudi genocide in Yemen, US atrocities in Iraq, NATO atrocities in Afghanistan, etc.”
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Why does not G L demand this in Geneva?
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“Of course Sri Lanka should set up a war crimes tribunal to investigate these atrocities.”
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Despite making too much noise neither he nor Dinesh could wipe clean the issue from UN’s annual ritual. During this session Sinhala speaking diaspora is actively campaigning against Gota and the state at UN.
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Hope you take whiz kid Manori Unambuwa to the protest, he wants to keep an eye on every diaspora kid.
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Please take Ravi Perera, Dinesh, Blind Eagle, HLD M, Wimal, Channa, ….. SJ with you.
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Humble / June 16, 2022
I am not talking about the girl this article talks about, but it needs to be clarified that not everybody who gets top grades in school and college, genuinely earned it.
Freemasons have been controlling the education sector for a long time, and they will often mark up the grades of their own children, and mark down students who are not from freemason families. They also favour those who come from cains serpent bloodline (they know who is who) aka tares.
This is happening not only in Sri Lanka, but world wide.
Thankfully the Most High YHWH is going to put a stop to this and reverse the whole thing around. Just wait and see!
‘The meek shall inherit the earth’ (after the freemasons and tares are thrown out of power).
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Good Sense / June 16, 2022
Part 1:
The author quotes the State Counsel for the prosecution in the Kumaraswamy Case as “ ……Krishanthi Kumaraswamy was the first successful prosecution against military personnel for rape in the context of the conflict in Sri Lanka”. The first serious conflict within Independent Sri Lanka was the insurrection of 1971 and during that time the Kataragama Beauty Queen, Premawathie Manamperi was raped and murdered by Military personnel all of whom were convicted by a Trial by Jury. Hence to mention that Krishanthi case was the first successful prosecution against military personnel in the context of conflict is incorrect. It is difficult to assimilate how a team member of the Attorney General’s Department could make that mistake. As shown in my subsequent comment whosoever who holds firepower, even non-state actors tend not to value life and this has nothing to do with the difference in ethnicity of the perpetrator as clearly shown in the crime committed on Shivaloganathan Vidya. Both the cases rocked not only the residents of Northern Province but the entire country.
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Good Sense / June 16, 2022
Part 2
As per reports, the political leaders of the North represented to the then President that the trial be heard by three judges instead of a single judge with / without jury. Consequently, the AG’s Department made representations to the Chief Justice who has the authority to constitute such a trial. Therefore, in my view it is an injustice to the injured Kumaraswamy family to say that their influence paved way for such a trial. In every society we find men, especially empowered by fire power to take for granted that women attractive to them are at their disposal. The notable case of “Swiss Kumar” and others who were convicted by a bench of three judges reveal that the way the crime was committed on Shivaloganathan Vidya had similarities with the Krishanthi Kumaraswamy case. The accused had access to some form of fire power and the poor girl had to pay for their amorous desires. It is also to the credit of some senior members of the armed forces and the tenacious prosecutor that accused of Kumaraswamy murder was finally convicted in the same manner that the villagers ensured the capture of who committed crime on Vidya.
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Sinhala_Man / June 18, 2022
Thanks, dear Good Sense,
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For commenting objectively on three horrendous rape-murder cases that illustrate evil within human males when they are allowed to have power over others. Nothing in the comments to be faulted.
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If we wish to generalise from there, we must extend what we learn here to the giving of privileges to any group of people.
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Nobody has voted down this disciplined comment. Some Tamils may have wondered whether, despite the validity of the arguments, their collective fates for thirty years were not worse.
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Yes. I remember the Premwathie Manamperi case; I was already a young working man. By itself, it was horrible; but reports of such cases were not as common as what happened during “our great humanitarian operation”. Not everything that happens can be proved, but that doesn’t mean that we should blind ourselves to the over-all picture.
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It was somewhat easier for out Justices to deal with the murderer of Shivaloganathan Vidya. Therefore, while not downplaying the repugnance we feel for the brutes involved in the other cases, we must recognise the greater social significance of the killers of Krishanthy. Ethnicity matters here, in that sense.
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Sinhala_Man / June 18, 2022
See the results of similar evil yesterday:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDI5TlgByyQ
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Who is really responsible for that? People as old as oc and me:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqdWThCCVCw&t=340s
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That’s the fine 42-minute WION documentary made a week ago by Palki Sharma. Focus on the the first twelve minutes which she spends with the old man who allows the agony of the country to be prolonged. Whom does this fair devil regard as his greatest foe?
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpYkAcjDyo4
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We can’t be polite all the time!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sd-mPCChLA
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I’d like all Tamil readers to note how effectively your messages are being carried across to Sinhalese audiences in the South by Shanakiyan Rasamanickam. You may have been told that Sumanthiran speaks Sinhalese. Re-think that in the light of Shanakiyan’s fluency. This amazing young man is our future. I’ve been told that his Tamil is also good. Anyone confirming?
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We must put the past behind us, but let’s remember the lessons we have been taught. I know my limitations; it is in Sinhalese that these messages have to be taken to the people. I get talking in the Swabasha when I walk about Bandarawela. I must re-think anonymity!
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Panini Edirisinhe (NIC 483111444V)
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Thanga / June 18, 2022
//For example, even after 25 years, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in TN are still living in refugee camps. Whereas, all the Indian plantation workers who came to SL were given full citizenship.// Lestor
You got the facts wrong. First don’t compare the Hill Country Tamils brought to Ceylon by the British as indentured labour to work in plantations. These people still remain poor, living in one-room huts and earning low wages compared to others. Remember 625,000 of these people born and lived in Ceylon were repatriated to India in the sixties.
There are 66,156 Tamil refugees living in approximately 110 camps and another 34,087 outside the camps. Those living in camps are provided by the general social welfare schemes in the state, be it the free rice or periodic festival incentives and “kits”. The head of each refugee family gets a monthly allowance of at least Rs 1,000 and monthly assistance for spouses and children below age 12. The DMK government announced a scheme to build 3,510 houses for Sri Lankan refugees, renovate 7,469, and provide financial assistance to refugee students for higher education. free homes, electricity and water.
Right now they are 10 times better off than their counterparts in Ceylon.
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Lester / June 19, 2022
Why are you twisting the facts? A Hill Country Tamil in Sri Lanka has the same rights as all Sri Lankan citizens. They can go to school and get jobs and start their own businesses. WTH can a refugee do sitting in a refugee camp? Who can survive on 1000 INR a month? Are you taking drugs?
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old codger / June 19, 2022
Lester the liar,
“WTH can a refugee do sitting in a refugee camp? Who can survive on 1000 INR a month? Are you taking drugs?”
What did you do when you arrived in YOUR refugee camp?
There are hundreds of Sri Lankans fleeing across the Palk Strait currently. Why don’t you ask them how they plan to survive? Haven’t you noticed that TN is sending free food to your miserable “hydro-electric civilization”, not the other way around?
WTH are you smoking, idiot?
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Sinhala_Man / June 18, 2022
I’m still reluctant to read this sort of thing, but this appears in a newspaper today. Rivalling the other three cases for horror:
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https://www.dailymirror.lk/print/front_page/Negombo-Hospital-murder-case-CA-affirms-death-sentence-for-the-Doctor/238-239271
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Some Human Rights groups have been on to this.
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http://www.humanrights.asia/news/urgent-appeals/AHRC-UAC-036-2008/
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And there have been many reports on this. An “Island” report:
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https://thinkworth.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/a-psycho-gets-his-just-deserts/
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I also hope that you will see these 150 seconds, on YouTube. Footage of 2014, but displayed only yesterday.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKeTGrtjUhU
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This lawyer (slight difference of name, checked by me) impressed with his sincerity. He states that this girl had been confirmed a virgin.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasantha_Lal_De_Alwis
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The girl’s parents also speak. I know the area that they come from. Very remote. Moneragala District. These are the people who have kept our economy going, working in either garment factories of as housemaids in the Middle East.
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This case has received coverage abroad as well.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29045560
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This is the fullest report:
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https://www.dailymirror.lk/51999/retribution-for-dr-sex-maniac
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More here:
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https://english.gossiplankanews.com/2014/09/negombo-doctor-who-raped-girl-and.html
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The doughty middle-aged cleaning woman who gave evidence comes in for praise.
https://thinkworth.wordpress.com/2014/09/05/a-psycho-gets-his-just-deserts/
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There are Sinhalese people also whose fate on this island is terrible.
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Panini Edirisinhe of Bandarawela, Uva Province
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Lester / June 19, 2022
Sinhala_Man,
“There are Sinhalese people also whose fate on this island is terrible.”
Yes, women’s rights is an issue in Sri Lanka. But it has nothing to do with “Buddhism” or race. Men don’t rape because of religion or race. Eelamist buggers twist everything. What if I said suicide bombing is a Tamil Hindu phenomenon?
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old codger / June 19, 2022
Lester the liar,
“What if I said suicide bombing is a Tamil Hindu phenomenon”
That’s exactly what you’ve said many times. In any case, no Hindu cleric has been accused of raping minors girls and boys.
https://www.dailymirror.lk/latest_news/Schoolgirl-raped-by-grandfather-uncle-brother/342-238621
https://www.emirates247.com/news/sri-lanka/monk-arrested-for-raping-underage-girl-2016-01-28-1.619063#:~:text=A%20monk%20aged%2038%20has,temple%20while%20doing%20religious%20rituals.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-15507304
https://www.insider.com/former-maldives-minister-sri-lanka-politicians-arrested-child-sex-exploitation-2021-7
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/2005/05/17/Sri-Lankan-monk-rapist-attempts-suicide/67591116319122/
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