Issaipriya, Vany Kumar And Ananthi Sasitharan; Women Of Courage – Beating The Labelling

By Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah -March 9, 2014

Usha S Sri-Skanda-Rajah

Out of the many women of courage the world has seen, three stand out for me. If courage is measured in real terms, free of prejudice, they would win hands down.

My women of courage are Issaipriya, Vany Kumar and Ananthi Sasitharan,

They’re icons in our struggle for justice and freedom, but they’re labelled as “terrorists”.

It is about these women of courage that I want to write about.

Take Issaipriya, a young woman who worked as a correspondent and news reader for the Tamil Tiger communications wing, whom the Sri Lankan government claimed was a combatant who died in combat. Now it has come to light that Issaipriya was a non-combatant and did not die in combat, was indeed taken alive by Sri Lankan soldiers, a fact, caught on camera which Channel 4 UK called “chilling new evidence” which would one day serve to convict the psychopaths who stripped her naked, gang raped her, mutilated her private parts, inflicted gashes on her face and head and executed her.

In seeking justice for Issaipriya, I wrote a piece published in the Tamil Mirror. It was also found posted in aTamil Tiger website. I too have a label pinned on me as a ‘terrorist”.

In my appeal to world leaders for an international investigation drawing attention to “the sheer brutality” inflicted on Tamils, I wrote of  Issaipriya, her bloody rape and execution style murder, a war crime for which the dreadful and savage Sri Lankan army must be held accountable. I wrote:                   Read More