Asia: The true characters of “HR defenders” revealed

onor Funds used to suppress justice for victims of sexual abuse by the HR Head of a Regional NGO

by Our Special Correspondent - Oct 18, 2017

Oct 18, 2017

(October 18, 2017, Beijing, Sri Lanka Guardian) In this issue, we expose how the head of a regional NGO misused donor funds and other resources to deny justice for one victim of sexual abuse.

The case as explained by the victim

This particular lady first came to this regional NGO as a participant for a regional meeting organized by this office. When she was leaving the HR Head obtained her signature for documents which were necessary to apply for a job at his office. She neither applied nor requested such an opportunity. She never submitted a curriculum vitae (CV). Later the HR Head successfully got her visa from the immigration authority and requested her to join the organization. At that time, the victim’s father was suffering from a terminal illness. Due to her family’s financial difficulties, she accepted the offer.

But after arriving the country where the NGO is situated, the HR Head brought the new recruit to his house stating that he is providing free accommodation so she can send her entire salary home. However, within several days he was able to use her sexually.

He used his home, paid for by the office to keep her. Official funds were used to recruit her for the purpose of sexually abusing her. Office resources were used to keep her while abusing her. Entirety of the case would establish the fact that it was against her consent. It was a result of a massive misuse of funds.

Series of complaints by the victim

Within, several months the victim realized the reality of the situation she was caught up in. She started to complain against what happened to her all the authorities inside the office and the outside.

Complaint to the oldest staff member (former head of this organization)

The courageous victim first approached the former head of the organization who is still the staff member. He is the oldest staff member in the office, XX years old at the time of writing and still engaged in the office as a full staff member after he created a special post so that he could continue getting all the financial benefits from the donor provided resources. We will refer him as the Former Head.

The victim approached him due to several reasons.

1. Thinking that he is a professional
2. Believing that he will protect the victim’s confidentiality.
3. Thinking that he will stand for justice
4. On the trust that, he will understand concept of justice and will assist the victim of sexual harassment.
5. Hoping that he is having certain authority in the office affairs to assist the victim with justice.
6. Finally thinking that he will understand the pain of the victim girls as a father of a girl child.

However, the response the victim suffered was much pathetic and painful. First, the Former Head carefully listened to the victim’s entire story. She cried continuously as she narrated every detail.

How she was abused: how the perpetrator used his official authority to abuse her; cheated her pretending that his marriage was already broken down; promising job stability and uninterrupted continuation of the job; intimating that every facility was provided by him. From the inception, the incident of abuse was hidden using his authority to preventing her from revealing it to other staff members.

Throughout the story, the Former Head behaved before the victim that he is standing for justice. Like he is ready to provide justice with all his capacities. Comforting her and pretending that she would get justice and relief.

How the Former Head suppressed justice

The Former Head then approached the HR Head the suspected responsible person for all these abuses. They closed the glass doors of the HR Head’s office and had hourly long, closed-door discussion. It went on for several days.

Several days later the Former Head arrived the office with a response against the victim’s complaint.

He informed the HR Head that they were going to claim that the victim girl is suffering from a psychological sickness. This shameless story was created to simply assassinate the character of the victim. They knew very well that the truthfulness of content of the complaint and the veracity of the complaint could not be challenged at all.

The Former Head and the HR Head prepared for the next attack against the victim stating that she is having a habitual practice of complaining against men on sexual abuses. His actual intention was simply creating the story that she is having inappropriate behaviors. But none of the staff member believed this story.

The Former Head and HR Head created these baseless and shameless accusations against the victim while she was still serving in the same office. She had enormous courage to face all these baseless allegations.

Complaint to the senior most European staff member

The victim girl made her second complaint to the senior most female staff member in the office. By the time she was only a part time staff member (herein after mentioned as the European Staff Member) and paid only a small allowance. She had no human rights background, by way of training or experiences. The victim decided to make her complaint to her considering several reasons.

The European Staff Member was one of the few female staff members in this office. Next, she was born in the West. The victim believed her that as she grew up in the West she would have Western human rights values. She trusted that she will get justice definitely or at least a helping hand in her struggle to get justice. The victim respected the values of the democratically developed counties, where gender equality is highly respected.

This European Staff Member listened to her entire story. Then she left the place giving her promise that she would fight to the end to get justice to the victim. She further testified that she cannot allow these corrupt people to use donor funds to abuse their own employees.

How the European Staff Member Justice to the victim

The victim waited for the helping hand from the European Staff Member. Then she observed that this western lady was avoiding her. Though the victim tried to talk to her she was ignored continuously.

Finally, she was surprised by what was going on.

Within a few weeks, the Female staff member was appointed as a full time staff member by the HR Head. She was given following facilities.

1. She was afforded a salary of US $ 3,800. It was equivalent to the basic salary of the HR Head’s.
2. She was given special facility of not having to work from the office.
3. Considering she is working from the home, special allowances were given for her utilities and funds to purchase other equipment purchasing money. None of these things were included in the list of properties of the office by the administration.Further she was allowed some other payments for
4. Further, she was allowed some other payments for travelling as she requested.

Apart from these payments, according to the reliable sources,  she was allowed,

1. Every year several foreign trips in the names of field visits.
2. Airfare and hotels lodgings,
3. foods and beverages,
4. local travelling.

All were paid by the office.

This European Staff Member used all these facilities. The minor staff members of the administration of the office could not ever question the reasons for the allocations of such huge funds out of the project funds granted by the donors. 

Complaining to the Psychologist in the office

The victim’s third attempt was to make a complaint to the psychologist working in the office. She believed him for several reasons. He had worked for victims of abuse and assisted them with therapeutic treatments, therapies and referred them for the medical treatments.

The victim approached him and personally revealed the entire story over several occasions. She expected relief for the mental pain and the deep muscular pain she under went for the period of several months.

The psychologist listened to her carefully. Later he promised to help her get relief. The psychologist further promised her to help her if she attempted to get justice from any authority in the country.

How the Psychologist suppressed justice to the victim

The victim girl waited for helping hand from the said Psychologist for many weeks. Then she observed that this Psychologist was also avoiding her. Though the victim tried to follow him and talk to him, she was ignored continuously.

Several weeks later, she was shocked by observing what was going on in the office.

The HR Head announced the staff that, the wife of the psychologist was joining the office for the post of Consultant for Gender Matters. She also was paid with lucrative salary. She was given flexible working hours. She was allowed to visit the office anytime she wishes. But her salary was paid in time with all the benefits as a fulltime staff member.

Establishing the Gender Committee in the office 

Meanwhile the HR Head and the Former Head made a cunning attempt to establishing the façade of a Gender Complaint Investigating Committee. These two people appointed several members and it was declared before the staff.

The psychologist and his wife-gender officer, were included to the committee. The most shameful fact was as the Head of the Gender Committee they appointed the main perpetrator, the HR Head. The selection of the members was arbitrary. They just informed the staff about their appointments. They further mentioned that if there is any complaint on sexual abuses they can make complaint to this committee.

RELATED STORIES; 

• Asia: HR Boss attempted to file a false complaint against ex-employee

• Exclusive: Contemptible façade veiled indiscretion of installed HR Boss!

• Human Rights: Installed HR Boss invested to Surveillance his own staff

• Human Rights: Regional NGO — Dispute of rights over queries regarding misuse of funds! 

• Asia: NGO Head a Sexual Predator — Makes a Mockery of Human Rights Business

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Before appointing this committee, these two bosses ended the victim’s service by not extending her service contract in the office. After losing her job, she could not stay in this country, where the cost of living is exceptionally expensive. She left the country.

After making sure of her departure, these two heads announced the appointment of the committee.

Several years later, the office declared that as there was no any single reported complaint to the committee they had dissolved the committee. This is how a regional NGO provided justice to its victims of sexual abuses.   

Complaint to the Chairman of the Board of Directors

The victim finally directly made a written complaint to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of this Regional NGO and sought his intervention to provide justice.

With immediate effect, he wrote to the head of the organization questioning the situation of the complaint.  Within several days the Chairman wrote back to the victim that, the Management Committee of the Organization has investigated the case and reported their finding as, there have discussed and resolved the complaint, so that neither Chairman nor the Members of the Board of Directors need to interfere with the investigations.

The victim repeatedly affirmed that these two heads of the organization lied to the Chairman. According to her there was no such investigation by the management committee of the organization. Further, the management committee never met to discuss this matter.

We are aware of this as we were able to directly collect the testimonies of the several members of the management committee, whom testified that, there were no such discussions at all at the management committee. Further they told that, this particular Regional NGO intentionally ignored the management committee for many years as the installed HR Head considered the management committee as the major obstacle to his ruling in the office.

Conclusion:

This is a deplorable state of affairs and if it happened in any commercial company it would be bad enough. The fact that these events occurred in one of the most respected regional NGOs is unacceptable.

There can be no doubt that the people and the NGO mentioned in this article will recognize themselves. The question is, what are they going to do to make things right?

Our sole purpose of this revelation is based on several sacred objectives. We hope to encourage the governors of these organizations and the entire NGO communities to adopt certain Ethical Codes and Code of Conducts for the professionals involved in NGOs on dealing with the victims, protecting the witnesses and victims of sexual abuses. An exceptionally important motive would be adopting and upholding the Ethics for the Lawyers and legally related professionals in the field of NGOs in world. We are calling the lawyers in the NGO to reaffirm the Etiquette of Bar and adopt meaningful Standards of Professional Conducts and Etiquette for Lawyers who are engaged in NGO work.

Isn’t it the perfect moment for those men who disguised as Human Rights Defenders along with their bedfellows to find their own way out?

Six crimes against humanity committed against the Rohingya

Rohingya refugees arrive by boat from Myanmar, near Teknaf, Bangladesh, 28 September 2017. Source: Amnesty International

18th October 2017

IN 1915, the Ottoman government systematically exterminated 1.5 million Armenians living in its empire. Able-bodied men were killed and their women, children and elderly were deported through military escorts that subjected them to periodic robbery, rape and massacre.

This was the first time the term “crime against humanity” was used.

That term is now in vogue again in Southeast Asia today. Perhaps unsurprisingly,  Amnesty International’s latest report has found at least six crimes against humanity have been committed against the Rohingya in the current wave of violence in Burma’s northern Rakhine state.

The term is not one used lightly. It’s a crime that can be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice – the first of its kind was the Nuremberg Trials, a series of military tribunals held against the leaders of Nazi Germany.

The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials. Source: Shutterstock

In the 1998 Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute), the document that holds the latest consensus among the international community on this matter,  “crimes against humanity” is described as any of 11 acts “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack”.

The definition dictates that the crimes must be committed to further a State or organisations’s policy

SEE ALSO: Humanity before security: The human face of the refugee crisis

And according to the Amnesty International’s most detailed report on the Rohingya crisis this year, witness accounts, satellite imagery and data, and photo and video from the crisis all point towards one conclusion: Myanmar’s security forces’ “systematic, organised and ruthless campaign of violence” against the persecuted minority in Rakhine puts them in the same category as Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge and Indonesia’s army responsible for the 1965-66 mass killings of Indonesian Communist Party’s members and sympathizers i.e. perpetrators of ‘crimes against humanity’.

These are the six documented crimes against humanity as Amnesty found:

1. Murder

Opening fire, then systematically burning Rohingya houses and buildings were stated to be the modus operandi by Burma’s security forces in the days and hours after the ARSA attacks on Aug 25.

Hundreds were killed by the open fire, while the burning of villages left those who were unable to flee, like the elderly and disabled, left to perish according to survivor’s accounts.

At least 20.7sq km of buildings have been shown to be destroyed by fire, according to the UN Operational Satellite Applications Programme (Unosat), though the destruction may have been more given dense cloud cover affected what the satellites were able to detect.

Sona Mia, 77, recounted that he had to leave behind his 20-year-old daughter, Rayna Khatun, who was unable to walk or speak, when the shootings got closer and closer to his home in Koe Tan Kauk. When Sona’s sons returned to an abandoned house where he had left Rayna later, they found Rayna’s burnt body among the torched house.

2. Rape and other sexual violence

Source: Amnesty International

After executing scores of men and older boys, women were taken in groups to nearby houses where they were raped, according to Amnesty’s interviews with seven Rohingya survivors of sexual violence committed by Burma’s military. Soldiers later set fire to the house, killing many victims inside.

“They took the women in groups to different houses. …There were five of us [women], taken by four soldiers [in military uniform]. They took our money, our possessions, and then they beat us with a wooden stick. My children were with me. They hit them too. Shafi, my two-year-old son, he was hit hard with a wooden stick. One hit, and he was dead… Three of my children were killed. Mohamed Osman (10) [and] Mohamed Saddiq (five) too. Other women [in the house] also had children [with them] that were killed,” 30-year-old SK told Amnesty.

“All of the women were stripped naked…They had very strong wooden sticks. They first hit us in the head, to make us weak. Then they hit us [in the vagina] with the wooden sticks. Then they raped us. A different soldier for each [woman].”

3. Torture

Torture, as unequivocally defined by right bodies as well as international criminal tribunals, include rape by state officials (including soldiers and police officers). Other forms of sexual violence, under specific circumstances, also constitute crimes against humanity under the Roma Statute of the International Criminal Court.

As described in no. 2, these rapes and sexual violence acts were perpetrated by soldiers and the Border Guard Police (BGP) as part of their systematic attack on the Rohingya. Taking part means they knew of these attacks, and that constitutes a crime against humanity of torture.

4. Deportation and forcible displacement

We’ve heard the term “ethnic cleansing” used several times this time around – the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has called the situation a textbook example of this term.

But what this means on the ground, is an organised deportation operation aimed to force people to leave their homes and never return, Amnesty’s report says. And to do so, Myanmar’s security forces used terrorism, mostly through shooting, killing, sexual violence and threats, followed by the burning of villages.

5. Persecution

What’s going on in Rakhine is the depriving of people of food and other life-sustaining provisions. Restricting Rohingyas’ movement, their means of livelihood and access to humanitarian aid amount to persecution on racial or ethnic grounds, as these are done solely because of their race and ethnicity.

Amnesty reported that there have been “severe restrictions” on humanitarian access to Rakhine state – aid workers spoke of their travel in the state tightened before and “seriously intensified” in the immediate aftermath of the August attacks.

SEE ALSO: The history of the persecution of Burma’s Rohingya

In early October, the Norwegian Refugee Council Secretary-General Jan Egeland said that the organisation “is standing by, waiting for the authorities to allow us to move into areas where we fear many people may be stranded without clean water, food, or shelter. We have supplies, we have staff, we have transport. The only thing standing between us and the people who need help is permission to go.”

6. Other inhumane acts such as denying food and other life-saving provisions.

The Rohingya in Rakhine state have always been dependent on humanitarian aid due to the state’s restrictions on their movement and livelihood. And post-August attacks have only made the situation worse.

The report wrote:

“At least a dozen refugees arriving in Bangladesh in late September described fleeing due to fears they would have starved in Myanmar.”

Myanmar only caved in to international pressure to allow aid in early September via the Myanmar Red Cross Society, supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross. Aid workers doubt their capacity to fill the massive humanitarian void in the state. In addition, government-imposed restrictions on humanitarian access have inflamed locals, leading to tension and hostility between them and groups bringing aid in.

Reuters reported Buddhist protesters throwing petrol bombs at an aid shipment bound for northern Rakhine State on Sept 20.

“To date, most affected populations have not received the assistance they need,” the report wrote.

“In the case of the acts described here, they fall under the crimes against humanity of persecution on racial or ethnic grounds, or “other inhumane acts… intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.”

For Months, the Trump Administration Has Illegally Stopped Undocumented Women From Obtaining Abortions

Pregnant women are forced to attend Christian-sponsored “crisis pregnancy centers.”

By Liz Posner [1] / AlterNet [2]October 18, 2017, 9:45 AM GMT

The U.S. Constitution grants all women—including prisoners and undocumented immigrants—the right to an abortion, no matter what obstacles fundamentalist Christians may create in certain states. 

But since Trump's inauguration, the administration has blocked young pregnant women [3] who cross the border without papers from seeking abortions.

The San Francisco ACLU [4] has now taken on one such case on behalf of Jane Doe, a pregnant 17-year-old who is being held in a federal immigration shelter in Texas. The shelter won’t allow her to visit the doctor who has agreed to perform her abortion.

"The government may not want to facilitate abortion, but it cannot block it," U.S. Magistrate Laurel Beeler told SFGate. "It is doing that here."

Several hundred undocumented pregnant women cross the border alone each year, but shelters do not allow minors to leave to get abortions without permission from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Instead, these women are forced to attend Christian-sponsored "crisis pregnancy centers" where they are falsely warned that abortions are dangerous, forced to look at sonograms of the fetus and pressured into carrying their pregnancies to term.

Jane Doe missed her first scheduled abortion on September 28 because the shelter forbade it, and she is now attending mandatory anti-abortion counseling.

“Jane Doe is a brave and persistent young woman who has already been forced by the Trump administration to delay her abortion for weeks,” ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri told SFGate. “The government is holding her hostage so that she will be forced to carry to term against her will.”

According to SFGate, Scott Lloyd, director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, told a shelter staff person, “My priority is unborn children, and there will be no more abortions.”

Plenty of others are on his side. In response to the ACLU’s claim in court, seven states, including Texas, filed arguments stating that undocumented immigrants in American custody have no right to an abortion.

 

Liz Posner is a managing editor at AlterNet. Her work has appeared on Forbes.com, Bust, Bustle, Refinery29, and elsewhere. Follow her on Twitter at @elizpos. [5]

Drug therapy 'restores breathing' after spinal injury

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

17 October 2017

A drug-based therapy appears to restore breathing in rats paralysed from the neck down by a spinal injury, according to scientists.

They hope their "exciting but early" findings could ultimately help free patients from ventilators.

The pioneering work, in Cell Reports, suggests the brain may not be needed for respiration if a nerve pathway in the spine can be awakened.

More studies are now needed to better understand and exploit this system.

'No brain' breathing

Normally, messages to and from the brain control breathing.

If the spinal cord is damaged high up in the neck, these messages can't get through and a person will need mechanical assistance or a ventilator to breathe.

Experts have been looking at ways to repair spinal cord damage to reconnect with the brain, but the latest therapeutic approach, being explored at Case Western Reserve University, is entirely different.

Dr Jerry Silver and colleagues believe they have found an alternative nerve pathway for breathing in the spinal cord itself.

The researchers used a drug and a light therapy known as optogenetics to dial up this spinal system.

It appeared to control the body's main muscle of respiration - the diaphragm, a dome-shaped sheet of muscle that sits underneath the lungs, separating the chest from the abdomen.

The live adult rats that they studied had severed spinal cords, meaning the brain could not be the source of the diaphragm movement or breathing that the researchers saw after they administered the therapy.

They believe the treatment works by stopping other nerve signals that would normally silence the spinal system that they found.

Dr Silver said: "This is a primitive response that has been kept in the spinal cord for emergencies, like gasping and screaming in response to danger."

Although the researchers say the movements they saw resembled breathing, it's not clear yet if it would be enough to sustain life. They plan more animal studies to check.

Dr Silver said: "Ultimately, the goal of this research would be to free people with these neck injuries from having to use mechanical ventilators.

"Infections and other complications from mechanical ventilators are a leading cause of death after spinal cord injuries."

Dr Thomas Becker, an expert in neuroregeneration at Edinburgh Medical School, said: "This is an important discovery on the fundamental working of the spinal cord.

"Understanding the spinal network is the first step toward future therapies.

"This knowledge could be used for future therapies to restore breathing in patients who lost nerve connections from the brain as a consequence of spinal cord injury."

Release those detained under PTA: TNA

2017-10-17 

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) will move an adjournment motion seeking the immediate release of those held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).

Opposition and TNA Leader R. Sampanthan, who is expected to move the motion, said Sri Lanka had accepted both domestically and internationally that the Prevention of Terrorism Law is draconian, obnoxious and should therefore be regarded as obsolete.

“The Sri Lankan State has made several commitments both domestically and internationally that the said Law will be repealed, and that a new Law will be enacted in keeping with acceptable domestic and international norms. The Sri Lankan State is yet to fulfil this commitment, but that does not derogate from the Sri Lanka State’s commitment that the said Law should not remain on the Statute Book.) The only evidence available against most of these persons are confessions extracted from them against their will under the Prevention of Terrorism Law which would be inadmissible against them in a normal Court of Law. Many of the cases have been postponed because the Prosecution is not ready to proceed with the Cases. Almost all of them have been in custody for very long periods of time, for as long as, they would have been sentenced, if sentence was passed on them shortly after being taken into custody. The families of these persons in custody have suffered for very long periods of time, without the support of their bread winners. This vitally important factor has not been given due consideration,” the motion says. Also, the TNA said those, arrested during the JVP insurrections, were granted a general amnesty, and asked why the same principle could not be applied to Tamil PTA detainees.

“These cases cannot be considered as coming purely under the purview of the Attorney General’s Department. With due respect to the Hon. Attorney General as the Chief Legal Adviser of the State, these cases have a certain political dimension and cannot be addressed as a purely legal issue. It can be justifiably stated that if Sri Lanka’s national question had been reasonably addressed in time, many of the persons in custody, would not have been in their present position and would have been useful citizens. This circumstance makes it obligatory that you address this issue politically too. The issue not being addressed politically is a strong impediment to reconciliation and the restoration of goodwill and harmony. An unnecessary complication has been created by the transfer of some cases from Vavuniya to Anuradhapura. If witnesses needed. 0protection, such protection could have been provided without the cases being transferred,” the motion states.

Jaffna Uni students hold hunger strike in solidarity with political prisoners

17Oct 2017

Students at the University of Jaffna held a hunger strike demonstration today to show their solidarity with the detained political prisoners who have been hunger striking in protest at their ongoing detention by the Sri Lankan authorities. 

The political prisoners, who are currently being held indefinitely under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), have called on authorities to charge or release them. 

Today's demonstration lasted for over 2 hours. Students said that if the Sri Lankan president failed to deliver on a satisfactory solution to the issue of political prisoners they would carry out a further hunger strike in protest. 

 A number of protests have taken place in the North-East over recent months calling on the government to release Tamil political prisoners. 

Related Articles: 

16 October 2017 : Sri Lanka President to meet families of Tamil political prisoners with Jaffna Uni Student Union

17 October 2017 : TNA calls for immediate release of Tamils detained under PTA

16 October 2017 : PHU - 'there are no political prisoners in this country'

15 October 2017 : Families of hunger-striking Tamil political prisoners meet Northern Province governor

13 October 2017 : Hartal shuts down Jaffna in protest over Tamil political prisoners

15 October 2017 : No release for Tamil political prisoners says Ruwan Wijewardene

13 October 2017 : Tamils protest in Jaffna against detention of political prisoners amid STF intimidation

Sri Lanka: Constitutional Framework 

Contribution towards setting up a Modern Democratic Constitutional Framework for a thriving Sri Lanka

by Jude Perera MP-Oct 16, 2017

( October 16, 2017, Victoria, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Sri Lankan Government and the people of Sri Lanka are in the middle of a debate about a new constitution. An interim report has already been produced. Therefore, rather than being a bystander I have duly decided to make a contribution to the debate.

This is my contribution.

Sri Lanka Constitutional Framework.docx by Thavam on Scribd

Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy is named 'Central Bank Governor of the Year' in South Asia

Oct 17, 2017

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka is pleased to announce that Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, Governor Central Bank of Sri Lanka has been named Central Bank Governor of the Year, South Asia, by the popular publication house Global Capital at Global Capital Markets

Awards ceremony in Washington DC on 14 October 2017, which coincides with the World Bank-IMF Annual meetings. “GobalCapital is a leading news, opinion and data service for people and institutions working in the international capital markets”

The article which appears in “GlobalCapital” by Elliot Wilson on 13 October 2017 dedicated to the award on the global capital website, is titled ‘Cool, calm and collected approach to central banking’. The article begins by stating that “South Asia is awash with highly capable central bank chiefs, yet Indrajit Coomaraswamy fully deserves this award for his unstinting professionalism and for ushering his country through some choppy waters over the past”.

The link to the article is given below:

http://www.globalcapital.com/article/b1543cx35rxp17/central-bank-governor-of-the-year-southasia

Hindu shrine next to army camp attacked in Mannar

18Oct 2017

A roadside Hindu shrine next to an army camp in Mannar was destroyed by unknown attackers on Monday night.

The destruction of the Pillaiyaar shrine on the Mannar-Jaffna Highway was discovered by locals on Tuesday morning and reported to police.

The Pillaiyaar shrine had been attacked twice previously and was newly restored.

It is situated beside a Sri Lankan military runway next to the Thallady army camp.

Residents of Nayattruvazhi and Semmanthivu also reported that Hindu shrines in their areas had also been attacked and destroyed on Monday night.

Mannar police have been investigating a spate of hate crimes directed at Tamil religious sites, including Catholic and Hindu shrines, in the past few months.

Related Articles: 

14 September 2017 : Another Catholic shrine attacked in Mannar

18 July 2017 : Three Muslim men arrested over Mannar Catholic shrine attack

11 July 2017 : Vandal attack on Mannar Catholic shrine