Abduction, torture and sexual violence by forces is continuing 

Sep 14, 2015

Abduction, torture and sexual violence by forces is continuing despite the change of government in Sri Lanka. A new film by the International Truth and Justice Project contains interviews with two Tamils survivors, who describe how they were abducted in Sri Lanka’s notorious “white vans” this year. They do not show their faces for fear of on-going reprisals against family members still in Sri Lanka.

“Witness 1” had already undergone repeated torture in the government’s “rehabilitation” programme for former fighters, even though he was a forced recruit who twice deserted the LTTE ranks. On 18 May 2015, ‘Witness1’, attended a Mullivaikkal Remembrance Day event for those who died in the last phase of the civil war. Within days he was abducted and taken to an unknown site where his torturers showed him photographs of himself at the event.

“I was tied to a bench and beaten with sticks and batons on the soles of my feet. Then they put a petrol-soaked polythene bag over my head and they beat me with cables and wires. I lost consciousness.” He was accused of trying to regroup the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE,
a charge he denies. He had however assisted the opposition Tamil National Alliance party. “Witness 2’ was forcibly recruited by the LTTE aged 16 and injured in the war. When he surrendered he did not turn himself in to the authorities but kept a low profile thinking he was too young to attract

attention. After the change of government in January 2015, ‘Witness 2’ thought he’d be safe to go back to his village and join his family. Within a week he was abducted in a “white van”, brutally tortured and gang raped.

These cases are among a total of eleven cases of security force torture and sexual violence that occurred in 2015 and have been documented by ITJP. All eleven victims (3 women and 8 men) are now outside Sri Lanka.