The mystery of Sri Lanka's 'grease devils'

BBC

News South Asia    28 August 2011   By Charles Haviland BBC News, Puttalam

Mrs Faris imitates the loping gait of the "grease devil" intruder.

 

A few nights ago Tuan Mohamed Saleh Nona Faris heard a rustling outside her house and saw a shadow move.

"He looked like a gorilla, he was completely covered in black from top to toe. I couldn't see his face or hands," the elderly lady in the west coast fishing district of Puttalam said.
She believes the intruder was one of Sri Lanka's notorious "grease devils".
Over the last few weeks large swathes of the country have been gripped by a fear of nocturnal prowlers who have frequented rural areas assaulting women at night.
The media and the public were swift to dub the intruders "grease devils". This is an old caricature referring to malevolent men who smear themselves in grease to avoid being caught.
But this wave of violence has spawned a series of brutal retaliatory vigilante attacks. People have been killed, there have been arrests by the hundred and tanks have been deployed.
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1000 children 'still missing' since war

29 August, 2011
By Jeyapragash Nallusamy
BBC Tamil service

	30% of missing children were last seen in Govt controlled areas, say authorities

Nearly 1000 children who went missing during the final phase of the war against the Tamil Tigers are still unaccounted for, authorities say.

Almost 600 children out of 1800 have been reunited with their families by UNICEF with the coordination of several organizations, Vavuniya Government Agent (GA) PSM Charles told BBC Tamil service.

According to UNICEF reports, 30 percent of those disappeared children were last seen in government controlled areas and another 64 percent were recruited by the LTTE. 

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