Sexual Violence in Conflict: Sri Lanka - rape, sexual assault and forced prostitution of Tamils in military-run IDP camps
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| Photograph HRW Arunachalam Camp, Menik Farm 19 Aug 2009 |
Next week, the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict is due to take place in London, co-hosted by the UK's Foreign Secretary, William Hague and the Special Envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Angelina Jolie.
In the run up to the ESVC summit, we revisit the mounting evidence which documents the widespread, systematic and on-going use of sexual violence by Sri Lanka's military against Tamils, that occurs with absolute impunity.
See our full feature: 'Sexual Violence in Conflict: Sri Lanka'
As the armed conflict drew to an end in May 2009, an estimated 300,000 Tamils, who had faced repeated displacement, shelling and a severe lack of humanitarian aid, were forced into IDP camps run by the military and detained there for several months on end.
Reports of rape, sexual assault and forced prostitution rings run by the military soon began to emerge from the camps.
A Tamil medic, based in the UK who had been working as an aid worker in the Vanni during the armed conflict before being detained in the notorious Menik Farm camp, Damilvany Kumar, told The Observer:
"Sexual abuse is something that was a common thing, that I personally saw. In the visitor area relatives would be the other side of the fence and we would be in the camp. Girls came to wait for their relatives and military officers would come and touch them, and that's something I saw.
"The girls usually didn't talk back to them, because they knew that in the camp if they talked anything could happen to them. It was quite open, everyone could see the military officers touching the girls,"
