Abuse in Sri Lanka’s military is on a "systematic level", Human Rights Watch's Asia advocacy advisor, John Sifton, said in an interview with Frances Alonzo of Voice of America regarding recent video evidence showing abuse of female military recruits by their seniors.
"If this is how they treat their own recruits, one can only imagine how bad the abuses are against ordinary Tamil civilians," Sifton said, stating that there was near complete impunity, with almost no interest in accountability.
See extracts of the interview below:
“This [abuse of recruits] is indicative of the fact that the Sri Lankan military has a terrible record of sexual violence against the general population. And if this is how they treat their own recruits, one can only imagine how bad the abuses are against ordinary Tamil civilians and Sri Lankan civilians. There was a very big report that came out recently about sexual violence by the military. Quite simply put, the Sri Lankan military has a terrible record,” Sifton said.
“Generally speaking, of course, the Sri Lankan military and the Sri Lankan government don’t have a great record of transparency or accountability for abuses. These allegations have not been made in a vacuum. Incredibly serious violations of sexual abuse have been made against the Sri Lankan military last month, last year, the year before, in context of the final conflict against the Tamil Tigers in 2009. And there is a whole slew of allegations against them that have yet to be investigated properly.”
