Tharsini Ilayathamby | |
|---|---|
 Tharsini Ilayathamby | |
| Born | 1985 |
| Died | December 16, 2005 Pungututheevu, Sri Lanka |
| Occupation | Student |
| Parent | Ilayathamby |
Ilayathamby Tharsini (also Tharsini Ilayathamby) was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed in her home town of Pungudutheevu on December 16, 2005. [1] [2] [3]
On 16 December 2005 Tharsini Ilayathamby was on her way to her aunt's place. She was allegedly abducted by unknown men close to a Sri Lankan Navy post. [1] [2]
Her body was found the next day, completely naked, in an abandoned well near the Sri Lankan Navy camp at a place called Maduthuveli. [1] [2]
According to the post mortem report conducted at Jaffna Teaching Hospital, she was brutally raped before being strangled to death. Several injuries caused by fingernails and biting had been found on several parts of her body. One of her breasts had been severely bitten. [1]
After the body was found locals violently protested in front of the Navy camp. One person was injured in the subsequent shootings. The locals destroyed an administrative building as a result. [4] Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora groups also organized protest meetings in the UK. [5]
Human Rights groups such as UTHR initially reported that she may have been killed by the rebel LTTE operatives to discredit the government and create an environment of protest. [6] UTHR eventually retracted the statement that the victim had known the naval persons previously. [2]
Subsequent to her death, there were number of attacks on the Sri Lankan Navy. The rebel LTTE denied attacking the naval personnel. [7] Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission ruled that such attacks were a violation of the Oslo sponsored ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE. But number of websites that are known for their pro rebel stance reported that subsequent to the rape and murder, a front organization calling itself resurgence people's force, widely believed to be a front of the rebel LTTE group claimed responsibility for attacks on the Sri Lankan Navy that lead to 15 deaths and another 15 being seriously injured. [8] [9]
According to Tamilnet, Sri Lankan Tamil political parties such as the Tamil National Alliance and others requested that the Sri Lankan government take appropriate actions to protect civilian life. [10]
International and local Human rights organizations such as the ACHR, Home for Human Rights and UTHR have requested a thorough investigation be done to apprehend the culprits. [4] Currently the government is investigating the rape and murder. [2]
The Sri Lankan civil war was a civil war fought in Sri Lanka from 1983 to 2009. Beginning on 23 July 1983, it was an intermittent insurgency against the government by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam led by Velupillai Prabhakaran. The LTTE fought to create an independent Tamil state called Tamil Eelam in the north-east of the island, due to the continuous discrimination and violent persecution against Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lanka government.
Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) was the Indian military contingent performing a peacekeeping operation in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990. It was formed under the mandate of the 1987 Indo-Sri Lankan Accord that aimed to end the Sri Lankan Civil War between Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military.
Krishanti Kumaraswamy, also spelled Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, was a Tamil woman in Sri Lanka who was raped and murdered on 7 September 1996 by six Sri Lankan Army soldiers; the effort to bring her assailants to justice became a cause célèbre as a part of the protest against atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Army during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
The Sri Lankan state has been accused of state terrorism against the Tamil minority as well as the Sinhalese majority, during the two Marxist–Leninist insurrections. The Sri Lankan government and the Sri Lankan Armed Forces have been charged with massacres, indiscriminate shelling and bombing, extrajudicial killings, rape, torture, disappearance, arbitrary detention, forced displacement and economic blockade. According to Amnesty International, state terror was institutionalized into Sri Lanka's laws, government and society.
The 1990 Batticaloa massacre, also known as the Sathurukondan massacre, was a massacre of at least 184 minority Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, including infants, from three villages in the Batticaloa District by the Sri Lankan Army on September 9, 1990. Although the government instituted two investigations, no one was ever charged.
TamilNet is an online newspaper that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War. The website was formed by members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community residing in the United States and publishes articles in English, German and French.
Taraki Sivaram or Dharmeratnam Sivaram was a popular Tamil journalist of Sri Lanka. He was kidnapped by four men in a white van on 28 April 2005, in front of the Bambalapitya police station. His body was found the next day in the district of Himbulala, near the Parliament of Sri Lanka. He had been beaten and shot in the head.
The University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) or UTHR(J) was formed in 1988 at the University of Jaffna, Jaffna, in Sri Lanka, as part of the national organization University Teachers for Human Rights. Its public activities as a constituent part of university life came to a standstill after the assassination on September 21, 1989 of Rajini Thiranagama, a key founding member, for which the group blamed the LTTE.
The Chencholai bombing took place on August 14, 2006 when the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed what it said was a rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) training camp, killing 61 girls aged 16 to 18. The LTTE, UNICEF, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission and UTHR all said those in the compound were not LTTE cadres.
Ida Carmelitta or Farheen Ida Carmelitta Laila Figerardo was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 12 July 1999 and became a cause célèbre of the Sri Lankan civil war.
Eelam War I is the name given to the initial phase of the armed conflict between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE.
Eelam War II is the name given to the second phase of armed conflict between Sri Lankan military and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The war started after the failure of peace talks between the Premadasa government and the LTTE. This phase of the war was initiated by the LTTE who massacred almost 600 Sinhalese and Muslim police personnel after they were ordered by the Premadasa government to surrender to the LTTE. The truce was broken on June 10, 1990, when the LTTE in October expelled all the 28,000 Muslims residing in Jaffna.
Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal or better known as Sarathambal was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 28 December 1999. This became an internationally known incident of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
Murugesapillai Koneswary or Koneswary Murugesapillai was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was raped and killed on 17 May 1997 as part of the ongoing Sri Lankan civil war. The rape and murder received extensive local and international attention.
The Kattankudy Mosque Massacre was the killing of over 147 Muslim men and boys on 3 August, 1990. Around 30 armed Tamil militants raided two mosques in Kattankudy where over 300 people were prostrating in Isha prayers. The Sri Lankan government, survivors, and observers accuse the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of committing the crime. The LTTE denied involvement and never retracted the denial.
Shoba, also known as Shobana Dharmaraja, was a Sri Lankan Tamil journalist and television broadcaster for the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). She died in the final days of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009 with video evidence that she was captured by the Sri Lankan military before being raped, tortured and murdered. A senior United Nations official deemed the footage to be authentic. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch also verified that it was her.
Sexual violence against Tamils in Sri Lanka has occurred repeatedly during the island's long ethnic conflict. The first instances of rape of Tamil women by Sinhalese mobs were documented during the 1958 anti-Tamil pogrom. This continued in the 1960s with the deployment of the Sri Lankan Army in Jaffna, who were reported to have molested and occasionally raped Tamil women.
