Sri Lanka’s genocidal soldiers making lewd comments on the naked bodies of female victims killed in the war, suggesting that they were killed after rape has been documented in the Channel 4 documentary. While denying the documentation as fake to Headlines Today this week, Sri Lanka’s defence secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made a sexist comment on a war victim who was giving evidence to Channel 4. The attitude of Gotabhaya only proves the mind-set with which a defence establishment is being steered in the island, media circles in Chennai commented. Headlines Today released the main comments of Gotabhaya on Thursday. The full interview will be on telecast on Monday.
Gotabhaya’s vulgar comment was on Vany Kumar (Damil Vany), who escaped the war and was giving evidence to Channel 4.
Vany Kumar, who has British citizenship, was in Vanni during the war. Risking her life she was doing medical work, survived the war, interned in a camp and was released early because of her British citizenship.
When the Headlines Today asked Gotabhaya about the TV Programmer Isaippiriyaa that visuals showed possible sexual assault, Gotabhaya said, “she was never under custody”.
Then he continued:
Gotabhaya:“These are all fabricated things, how can you say she was assaulted or? A good example I will tell you. The other girl who came in the Channel 4 video, the British citizen...”
Headlines Today: The paramedic?
Gotabhaya: “NO! She was a LTTE cadre that Vani Kumar. In the video she says she was a civilian, it is not so. She came here, she was involved in the UK and then she come here for one year. She was in the Vanni. We have evidence we have people among the Surrendees (sic) who know her. She was trained. She was not a civilian. Now, she says that there had been all these alleged rape and murder and all these things. Now she is one person who will get attracted by soldiers...because she is so different from others. I want to know whether she was raped...she was there for one year. She came with the IDPs, and she was in the IDP camps. Then the British high commission got involved and got her released. In fact I objected to that releasing. I wanted to know what was she doing there for one year... but government said release because she is British. Now she is talking about rape, when she was safe...a person so attractive...safely came into this area was in IDP camp. On release, she was not raped, she was not killed. How can she comment like that?”
Headlines Today: Is it not the case that people with foreign passports were kept at separate camps with better facilities
Gotabhaya: “No, she was in the normal IDP camp... She was there.”
TN
