The following op-ed, How to Counter Rape During War, written by Elisabeth Jean Wood and Dara Kay Cohen was published in today's New York Times and highlights cases of armed groups who did not tolerate rape by their troops during conflict, including the LTTE.

Last year, at a global conference on sexual violence during war, many speakers agreed that the best way to deter such crimes was prosecution, and they called for more of it. But prosecutions are not enough. We must work to reduce sexual violence by armed groups during wars — not just act afterward.

First, we have to better understand it. Although rape during war is an ancient crime, it’s only in the last decade that social scientists have begun to study the patterns in which soldiers and rebels rape. The findings may be surprising: It’s not more likely to occur in particular regions, countries with greater gender inequality or during ethnic conflict; men may be victims, and women can be perpetrators.

But while rape is tragically common in war zones, it’s not an inevitable part of war. In fact, we have found that a significant percentage of both armies and rebel groups in recent civil wars were, surprisingly, not reported to have raped civilians. That’s because commanders have options: They can choose to order, tolerate or prohibit rape. A deeper understanding of their behavior offers the hope of mitigating the problem.

Some commanders order rape as a military or political strategy, and specify the target. As the Soviet Army marched toward Germany in 1945, generals ordered soldiers to take revenge on all Germans, not just soldiers. Guatemalan soldiers systematically raped indigenous Mayans during the civil war from 1960 to 1996. Today, the Islamic State forces Yazidi women and girls into marriages and sexual slavery, which they wrongly believe is legitimate under Islamic law.

The Sri Lankan army continues to occupy a village in the North-East, having driven out its inhabitants in 2011, reports James Ross, Legal and Policy Director for Human Rights Watch.

One of the villagers told Mr Ross “the army started by taking our maize and other crops”. “Then they blocked our children from going to school,” she said. “They said the land belongs to them.”

Sri Lankan Minister of National Dialogue Mano Ganesan said the government would not be granting an amnesty to Tamil political prisoners who had gone on hunger strike earlier this month.

Notorious paramilitary leader Douglas Devananda will stand trial for a killing that happened in Chennai in 1987.

The leader of the EPDP, a state-affiliated armed group accused of several crimes, will be tried remotely, and will be video conferencing from the Indian High Commission in Colombo.

Joint exercises by Sri Lanka's and India's navies commenced off the coast of Trincomalee today.

Six naval ships and six fast attack boats from the Sri Lankan navy, alongside three ships of the Indian Navy are taking part in this year’s joint training, which will carry on until November 1.

The recent findings of two inquiry commissions in Sri Lanka underscore the need for a formal process to investigate and prosecute those responsible for grave crimes during the armed conflict that spanned three decades.

The submission of the reports in Parliament should be welcomed, although it could also be interpreted as a signal to the international community that the domestic mechanisms are strong enough. The Maxwell Paranagama Commission, mandated to probe cases of missing persons and allegations of war crimes, has established that there were significant civilian casualties caused by Sri Lankan Army shelling in 2009 and that there may have been many individual acts of war crimes.

The three-member Commission has, however, mainly blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the civilian deaths, noting that it used civilians as human shields, placed weaponry in their midst and prevented them from leaving war zones.

The Tamil Nadu government says Sri Lanka has agreed to release 86 fishermen from the state, all arrested by the country's navy over the past two months.

"The Union government was informed that Sri Lanka would release 86 fishermen (hailing from Tamil Nadu) on October 28," an official release said.

The release of fishermen was the outcome of Jayalalithaa's "continuous efforts", the press release further said.

The fishermen, hailing from the Nagapattinam, Pudukottai, Tuticorin and Ramanathapuram districts, were arrested and kept in jails in Sri Lanka between September 22 and October 14 this year.