http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=SL_Army_Denies_Allegations_of_Sexual_Violence_in_North_20131019_03

SL Army Denies Allegations of Sexual Violence in North

Colombo: The Sri Lanka Military has denied "in the strongest terms" allegations by the Minority Rights Group (MRG) and the Human Rights Watch (HRW) that sexual violence by its troops has been causing insecurity among women in the northern and eastern Provinces.

"Seven Personnel were reported as being involved in 5 incidents of sexual violence in north as against 125 allegations that were made" - BRIG RUWAN WANIGASOORIYA Military Spokesman

Military spokesman Brig Ruwan Wanigasooriya told the Media here on Friday that a study of incidents of sexual offences which had occurred in the North between January 2007 and May 2012 had revealed that during the conflict period (January 2007 - May 2009) seven security Forces Personnel were reported as being involved in five incidents of sexual violence in the North.

"This was out of a total of 125 persons accused in 119 incident in the entire Northern Province", he pointed out .The ethnicity of the victims of these cases was: four Sinhalese and one Tamil.

In the post conflict period (May 2009 - May 2012) ten Security Forces personal were reported as being involved in six incidents of sexual violence in the North. This is out of a total of 307 persons accused in 256 incidents in the entire Northern Province. The ethnicity of the victims was: 2 Tamils, one Muslim and three Sinhalese.

Only 11 incidents out of a total of 375 reported during the conflict and in the post conflict periods (January 2007-May 2012) could be attributed to the Security Forces, he pointed out. The involvement of Security Forces personnel as a percentage of the total accused stood at 5.6 percent in the conflict period and 3.3 percent in the post conflict period.

"The decline clearly demonstrates that the allegation that the presence of the SF in the North contributes to the insecurity of women and girls is a myth", Brig Wanigasooriya said.

As a percentage of the total number of accused (including civilian and military), 82.4 percent had been Tamils; 3.2 Sinhalese; 3.2 percent Muslim, and 5.6 percent of unknown ethnicity in the conflict period.

The corresponding figures for the post conflict period stood at 89.6 per cent Tamils; 2.6 percent Sinhalese; 1.6 percent Muslim; and 2.9 percent of unknown ethnicity.

"In a majority of cases, the perpetrators had been close relatives or neighbors of the victim and had been of Tamil ethnicity", the spokesman contended.

Courtesy : The New Indian Express