Please see 4 parts of this WUNRN
release.
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Fleeing the Sri Lanka War
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Stella, 13, Manipuram Stella is among tens of thousands of people displaced by
fighting between troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in northern "The ground was shaking and shrapnel flew everywhere.
That's how I lost my leg." Stella and her family have fled more shelling since then.
"I felt sad for my family that I was slowing them down... I do not know
of any safe place anymore." |
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The
New York Times
War
Worsens as Sri Lanka Puts Pressure on Rebels
September
28, 2008
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WUNRN
REPORT - GENDER COMPONENTS -
GIRLS & ARMED CONFLICT IN SRI LANKA
Direct Link to Report: http://www.watchlist.org/reports/pdf/sri_lanka/ENGLISH%20REPORT%20LR%20p.pdf
Watchlist
on Children and Armed Conflict
Watchlist
Launches Report on Children and Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka
April 14, 2008
The Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict is pleased to present its latest report, No Safety No Escape: Children and the Escalating Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka (April 2008).
Launched at the UN headquarters in New York, No Safety No Escape is being released against the backdrop of an escalating military build up and fear of deepening warfare in Sri Lanka. Many children in Sri Lanka live in a state of constant fear and insecurity. Every day the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), the Government armed forces, and paramilitary groups, such as the military wing of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), commit heinous crimes against children. Thousands of children are missing out on school, denied basic health care and facing daily threats to their lives, such as suicide bombings, landmine explosions, abductions, arbitrary arrests, recruitment and use as soldiers and forced displacement.
Both the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE obstruct humanitarian access to thousands of children in war-torn areas, denying them urgently needed assistance and concealing the grave crisis they face. Additionally, restrictions on the movement of civilians exacerbate this crisis by preventing civilians from seeking assistance or escaping to safety.
The report illustrates the precarious situation of children in Sri Lanka and provides practical recommendations for urgent actions that are needed to protect them. Recommendations are targeted for the Government of Sri Lanka, the LTTE, the TMVP, the UN Security Council, the humanitarian community, donors, and others.
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Incidents
of conflict-related gender-based violence (GBV) against children in
Prevalence and Types of
Conflict-Related GBV
Lack of
Protection in IDP Camps
Some
IDP camps in
Sexual
Violence by Armed Forces and Groups
The
proximity of military institutions and checkpoints to schools, IDP camps and
health facilities exposes children to sexual violence, according to the
Coalition/Chatham House, Child Recruitment in South Asian Conflicts. A
Comparative Analysis of
Early
Marriages as a Protective Strategy
The
fear of child recruitment has encouraged parents to marry off their boys and
girls at early ages, such as 14 or 15 years old, because of a widespread belief
that the LTTE does not recruit people who are married. However, the
“protective” strategy of early marriage has failed to keep the LTTE from
recruiting children, according to the Coalition.
Obstacles and Deterrents to
Reporting
International
and national organizations working on GBV in
Potential
Repercussions for Reporting
Many
survivors of sexual violence, afraid of stigmatization and potential
socio-economic repercussions for their families and communities, choose to
remain silent. Cultural taboos relating to sexuality, STIs and sexual violence
make it difficult for parents, teachers, and community leaders to speak about
and address these fears. Even though sexual violence committed by family
members is reportedly a major problem in IDP camps, it is considered a “family
problem” and has not been widely addressed by those serving the IDP population.
Survivors of intra-family violence who do speak out often encounter antagonism
by other members of their families. Even more, they risk losing their families’
vital economic and social support, which would be particularly difficult to
cope with in displacement settings.
Moreover,
survivors’ fears for their physical safety may prevent them from reporting,
particularly if the perpetrators belong to security forces or armed groups.
Community workers reportedly are also afraid that they could be identified as
supporters of an armed group if they assist survivors who complain about GBV,
according to information from a locally based organization. In an increasingly
insecure environment, many local organizations working on violence against
women struggle to be adequately visible, trusted and accessible for the
communities they strive to serve, according to the same confidential source.
The
proliferation of small arms, often in the hands of civilians or paramilitary
groups paired with the lack of effective legal protection, feeds this sense of
insecurity. Tense inter-ethnic relations also pose an obstacle to reporting as
Tamil or Muslim children are often hesitant to report cases of GBV to Sinhala
caseworkers and vice versa. Police officers often lack the linguistic ability
and cultural sensitivity to interview witnesses and effectively investigate
violence within the Tamil and Muslim communities, according to the Special
Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions to the Commission
on Human Rights following his mission to
Access to
Services
Displacement
and insecurity in the North and East make it difficult for survivors of GBV to
seek out care from appropriate and compassionate service providers. This
includes legal and judicial actors, such as the local police or court
officials, health care workers, and social workers and other social service
providers. Without access to appropriate and confidential health, psychosocial,
legal and protection services, few if any survivors of GBV will ever report an
attack.
While
national NGOs working on issues related to violence against women provide
services for GBV survivors [22] throughout
the country, all relevant service providers need strengthened comprehensive
case management and referral systems. Government-run District Child Development
Committees, comprised of multi-disciplinary teams, have recently been set up
with the support of UNICEF to facilitate referrals and case management.
In
the East and LTTE-controlled areas, very few organizations, if any, provide
comprehensive case management services to survivors of GBV, and access to
health services is extremely limited. To receive post-rape health services from
a government health center, a survivor of abuse is often asked to present a
completed police report form, given to her by the police department. This is
particularly true for survivors under the age of 18. Many health workers
believe that they will be penalized for failing to report the rape of a minor
to the police. Health centers in many districts have been known to refuse
services to GBV survivors who did not have a completed police form. However,
many survivors of sexual violence wish only to receive medical care and not to report
the case of abuse to the police and pursue legal action. This is particularly
true in cases where the perpetrator is a member of an armed force or group.
Many
police officers are not trained to handle cases of GBV and are not skilled in
working with survivors. As a result, they rarely respect principles of
confidentiality or the needs of survivors, according to anecdotal reports
shared with Watchlist. In a case reported by the Asian Human Rights Commission
(AHRC), the police at Rattota in the Central Province of Sri Lanka interrogated
a 13-year-old rape survivor alongside the suspect, exposing the girl to mental
trauma, according to AHRC, Sri Lanka: Rattota Police Mishandle Case of Child
Rape Victim, November 26, 2007. In the same case, the police also failed to
obtain critical evidence of the rape after a hospital refused to admit the
girl, arguing that their medical staff was not qualified to conduct a medical
examination to determine rape. The police did not arrest a suspect or conduct
any investigation of this case as of November 26, 2007, according to AHRC.
Some
police officers have reportedly discouraged victims from filing complaints to
avoid confrontations with the military in cases where the military is the
accused perpetrator. One local women’s organization noted that the case of a
14-year-old girl had been dropped by the police when it was discovered that the
perpetrator was a member of the TMVP/Karuna faction. The police have even
allowed members of armed forces or the police who are suspected of perpetrating
gender-based violence to be transferred to other locations, according to the
World Organization Against Torture (OMCT), Violence against Women in
On
a positive note, the GoSL maintains women and children’s desks in many police
stations to encourage women and children to report criminal cases of violence,
including GBV, to women police officers in private settings. However, the
absence of these desks in some areas undermines the purpose of providing an
accessible and gender-sensitive channel for reporting GBV cases.
Many
Sri Lankans have lost confidence in legal mechanisms as few perpetrators of
violence are punished, which may also dissuade some GBV survivors from
reporting. While legislation against violence against women and children
exists, weak mechanisms to implement and enforce this legislation breed a
climate of impunity, according to OMCT, State Violence in
This
extended delay works against the survivor as evidence may get lost, witnesses
may disappear or forget important facts and perpetrators can use the time to
threaten victims and witnesses, according to ALRC. The lack of witness
protection also helps explain the low conviction rate of four percent in
criminal cases. The Ministry of Justice and Law Reform is currently considering
a draft bill for the Assistance and Protection of Victims of Crime and
Witnesses.
In
some cases, family heads or village and religious leaders have led informal
arbitration processes which often obligate the perpetrator to compensate
survivors or the families of survivors, avoiding formal legal proceedings
altogether, according to Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan, Domestic and Gender-based
Violence among Refugees and Internally Displaced Women, 2005.
________________________________________________________________________________
Internal
Displacement Monitoring Centre
10
September 2008
Sri Lanka: Precarious Situation for Internally Displaced
Persons - IDPs - Trapped in the Vanni
The
UN has called for the free movement of tens
of thousands of civilians displaced by the fighting in Sri Lanka’s Vanni area,
which is under the control of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE). More than 160,000 people are displaced in the Vanni, and at least
134,000 IDPs within the Vanni’s Kilinochchi District, the headquarters of the
LTTE. With the army closing in, people in the Vanni have become exceptionally
vulnerable. The response to government leaflets urging civilians to move out of
the conflict zone has been slow, and the LTTE has been accused of forcing
people to stay on and using them as human shields
in the fight against government troops. The UN has been providing supplies to
the displaced through a single access point 50 kilometres south of Kilinochchi,
but the situation remains very precarious.
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