URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Spørgsmål 103: MFU spm., om ministeren vil arbejde for, at EU lægger pres på den srilankanske regering for at stoppe tortur og undertrykkelse af landets tamilske befolkning, til udenrigsministeren

Udenrigsudvalget 2015-16
URU Alm.del Spørgsmål 103
Offentligt

A Still Unfinished War:

Sri Lanka’s Survivors of

Torture and Sexual Violence

2009-2015

July 2015

URU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Spørgsmål 103: MFU spm., om ministeren vil arbejde for, at EU lægger pres på den srilankanske regering for at stoppe tortur og undertrykkelse af landets tamilske befolkning, til udenrigsministeren

D edication:

This report is dedicated to the

survivors who trusted us enough

to tell us about their darkest

days in the hope of saving others

from the same fate. At their

lowest point, they still exhibited

huge courage and selflessness.

Sadly they have to live with

the knowledge that those who

abused them go free – and likely

will never be punished – and yet

they still chose to speak out.

Contents

Executive Summary

Acknowledgements

I. Political Context

II. Methodology

III. Narrative

IV. Findings

A. New Torture Cases

2014 Cases

2015 Cases

B. Torture Sites, Commanders and Perpetrators

Case Study 1: Joseph Camp

Case Study 2: Manik Farm

Case Study 3: Trincomalee Naval Dockyard Secret Site

C. Reprisals and Persecution

Surveillance and Intimidation of Witnesses

Case Study 4: The Visit of David Cameron to Jaffna

The Extensive Use of Informers

Persecution & Torture of Family Members

V. Conclusions

120

VI. Recommendations

129

Annexures

Post Election Incidents Reported in Media

Timeline Political Statements on Accountability

Kankesanturai

Jaffna

Point Pedro

Elephant Pass

Mullaitivu

Mankulam

Pulmoddai

100 Abductions

2009 — 2015

Kilinochchi

Mannar

Kalpitiya

Trincomalee

Mutur

Vavuniya

Anuradhapura

Habarana

Puttalam

Polonnaruwa

Batticoloa

Kattankudi

Kalmunai

Chilaw

Kurunegala

Matale

Kandy

Ampara

Negombo

Kegalla

Badulla

Moneragala

Pottuvil

Colombo

Nuwara Eliya

Mount Lavinia

Moratuwa

Kalutara

Ratnapura

Kataragama

Note: This does not

include “rehabilitation

camp” or IDP camp

torture. This is purely

abductions in “white

vans” or other vehicles.

Ambalangoda

Hambantota

Galle

Matara

Executive Summary

This report paints a disturbing picture of a multifaceted assault of terror still

wreaked in 2015 on Tamil families by the security forces in the former conflict

areas of Sri Lanka. The findings are based on the testimony of survivors of

illegal state-organised abduction in “white vans” by the security forces. The

most recent incident occurred in July 2015. The victims of these abductions

experienced repeated sexual torture and/or torture and then fled the country.

As a result they are victims who are not widely known about inside Sri Lanka

even by human rights activists there who courageously assist victims of

arbitrary detention and torture.

Increasingly the Tamil victims have not just suffered one isolated instance of

abuse. Several have been detained on multiple occasions and/or their family

members have been detained, disappeared or killed. Not to mention that a

large number survived the final terrible months of the civil war in 2009, as well

as decades of prior displacement and loss. Among the 180 cases documented in

this report, the pattern is that the young are detained, tortured and raped, the

elderly forced into debt to save them, while none can safely exercise even their

most basic rights or feel safe. The on-going harassment and intimidation of the

families in Sri Lanka of torture survivors who have fled abroad has continued

unabated throughout 2015.

The structures of cruelty used for this ethnic persecution, political repression,

extortion and revenge have not been dismantled six years after the war ended.

There continues to be a thriving torture industry amounting to state run

organised crime by sections of the security forces in Sri Lanka, seemingly

unaffected by the change of politicians at the helm. Its continuation does not

necessarily mean the security forces are out of the control of the politicians,

rather that the politicians have simply not tried to curb them. Nor have

international initiatives thus far, including the UN Investigation into Sri Lanka,

been successful in stopping the on-going serious violations against Tamils by

the security forces.

Impunity is so entrenched that ITJP has identified forty-one sites in Sri Lanka

where victims state they were tortured after the war, as well as numerous

alleged individual perpetrators of war crimes, rape, torture and execution. This

is the result of painstaking research and cross-referencing new evidence from

security force insiders with the testimony of survivors including some of the one

hundred “white van” abductions we have documented that took place after the

war ended.

We reveal the GPS coordinates for the secret naval intelligence detention

facility in Trincomalee Naval Dockyard, and also possess names and

photographs of torturers and guards who worked there. In Vavuniya, Joseph

Camp was the base for military intelligence “white van” abduction teams and a

site where multiple victims were tortured and sexually abused; we have

multiple names and photographs of torturers who worked there, as well as

other sites island wide. However the 41 sites we have identified represent only a

fraction of the total number of torture sites in Sri Lanka because many

witnesses have no idea where they were tortured, having been blindfolded

when transferred there and out.

The victims cannot be looked at in isolation from their families, who continue

to suffer reprisals even after one member is driven out of the country. More

than a quarter of torture survivors interviewed abroad said a close relative back

home had been subjected to physical violence, including beatings, torture, rape

and in some cases killing, after they had fled the country. These violations

occurred at the end of the war and continues to the present day.

The findings of this report should raise red flags about any domestic

accountability process for Sri Lanka. Witness safety simply cannot be

guaranteed at present. International organisations, including the United

Nations, have offered technical assistance to the government on addressing

human rights violations and accountability need to take cognisance of the

findings of this report regarding ongoing violations by the security forces. The

proposed UN involvement envisages consultations with law enforcement

agencies that are not just responsible for past violations, but are alleged to be

still committing crimes and attempting to silence witnesses.

The report is based on:

180 cases of post-war torture and/or sexual violence in Sri Lanka.

From which ITJP has recorded 115 statements from witnesses and

survivors. Of these, 100 are “white van” abduction survivors.

These cases include eight accounts of torture and sexual abuse that

occurred after 8 January 2015, and fourteen cases that occurred in 2014.

84 witnesses were asked about reprisals against their families.

Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge the contribution of our team of dedicated and

stalwart interpreters, especially P, E, S and N. They cannot be named here for

their protection and the protection of their family members in Sri Lanka. We

know how much they have suffered in this process, losing a little of their

innocence with every tale of horror they have to translate.

In addition there are many who have worked tirelessly to help us find witnesses;

they know who they are and the enormous contribution they have been quietly

making without expecting any public recognition. They have become good

friends and we hope to continue to work with them. Among these, especially G,

S, AA, AC and L. Others have helped us with research, especially B and K, and

we thank them as well as all the international law experts who kindly gave up

their holiday time to read drafts and make extremely useful comments that

greatly improved the analysis.

We would also like to recognise the many strangers who have helped individual

witnesses in different ways – fed them, looked after their children, interpreted

for them, visited them in detention, offered help finding doctors or lawyers,

supplied warm clothes, or who have just been a voice at the end of the phone

to calm them when they panic. They extend a helping hand to someone at their

most vulnerable time and they will not be forgotten.

Last but definitely not least, we thank our funders – the Sigrid Rausing Trust

and the Open Society Foundation. Without their generosity and foresight we

would have given up in utter frustration and despair.

I.Political Context

Total impunity for the wartime violations has enabled the Sri Lankan security

forces to continue to commit crimes against humanity during peacetime.

On 8 January 2015, President Maithripala Sirisena was elected in Sri Lanka,

heralding change after a decade of rule by the Rajapaksa family. The new

coalition, which came to power thanks partly to the Tamil vote, pledged to root

out financial corruption and restore rule of law.

Tragically as this report demonstrates, systematic and widespread crimes

against humanity have not ceased with the change of government. The new

coalition has made no attempt to take apart the structures of repression

entrenched by the previous regime. As a result state-organised abductions,

torture and sexual violence by the security forces have continued long after the

change of government and as recently as July 2015.

Initially there was huge optimism that the new government would credibly

address accountability for the past and end ongoing human rights abuses, even

though the coalition contained leaders who denied that war crimes and post-

war crimes against humanity or other serious violations of human rights had

taken place

. The new government quickly won international backing and

achieved a postponement of the presentation to the Human Rights Council of

the UN’s investigation into “alleged serious violations and abuses of human

rights and related crimes” from 2002-11 in Sri Lanka

The change of government did improve the atmosphere in the south of the

island, loosening controls over the media, NGO’s and travel to the north. Even

in the former conflict areas there was a little more public space and protests

For an examination of the statements by the new government on accountability see Annexure II.

OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka, accessed at

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/OISL.aspx

took place on a scale that had not been seen for at least a decade. In a break

with the past, the Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice was allowed to

visit Sri Lanka in March 2015 and the Working Group on Enforced and

Involuntary Disappearances is due later this year.

In advance of the September 2015 session of the UN Human Rights Council in

Geneva, Sri Lanka has said it will announce a plan for a mechanism to ensure

accountability for past violations. Politicians have ruled out the idea of any

justice process located outside the island, saying it is insulting to Sri Lankans

Sections of civil society are calling for a hybrid mechanism with a strong

international component based in Sri Lanka; others mistrust anything other

than a completely independent international accountability mechanism. The

failure of past initiatives, such as the International Independent Eminent

Persons Group (IIGEP), shows how conflicts of interest and a total absence of

witness protection undermined hybrid mechanisms.

The Sri Lankan government is currently discussing a US$3m technical

assistance plan for human rights with the UN Office of the High Commissioner

for Human Rights, as well as assistance from ICRC on the issue of the

disappeared. The OHCHR project envisages consultations prior to the setting

up of a domestic accountability mechanism. The project targets government,

conflict victims, law enforcement and the National Human Rights

Commission

. Given law enforcement officers are the perpetrators of on-going

crimes against humanity, this initiative raises some very obvious witness

protection concerns.

So far the victims of the war have not yet been consulted during this process of

transition, including the thousands driven outside the island after 2009

Survivors of the war and victims of post-war violations say there is no tangible

basis on which they, their families or the wider Tamil community could trust a

domestic accountability mechanism established in this fashion, even with

international oversight or technical assistance.

For example the Prime Minister said: “I said no International inquiry”, Ranil Wickramasinghe’s interview to Thanthi TV, 7 March 2015,

The Hindu

. For more information see Annexure II.

The outcome of the project is: “the development of an inclusive, participatory and transparent process, aimed at the establishment of

credible effective mechanisms to address human rights violations and accountability to provide redress and effective remedies to

victims and conflict affected groups in line with international standards.”

5 TCSF et al, Joint Letter to OHCHR on OISL, 3 July 2015, accessed at http://cl.ly/bqPV

Meanwhile Sri Lanka faces parliamentary polls on 17 August 2015, in which

former President Mahinda Rajapaksa will contest in the hope of returning to

power, based on substantial support that he still commands among the Sinhala

majority and in his party.

The OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL) will present its much-awaited

findings at the September 2015 session of the Human Rights Council, shortly

after the parliamentary elections. This session in Geneva will be key for Sri

Lanka, with Sinhala nationalists hoping to bury the issue of war crimes once

and for all. There is still little domestic enthusiasm in the south of the country

for a justice process that would see senior military or political figures on trial

for war crimes or crimes against humanity or other serious violations of human

rights.

The international community will have failed the victims of this conflict if it

does not push to address the ongoing impunity. Those responsible for war

crimes and crimes against humanity during and since the end of the war should

be held accountable, putting a stop to the on-going arbitrary detention,

torture and sexual violence. Previous UN reports on Sri Lanka have estimated

that 40,000, or even as many as 70,000, civilians may have been killed in the

final phase of the civil war in 2008-9, the majority of them by government

forces. The UN Panel of Experts said the conduct of the war challenged the

entire regime of international humanitarian law and human rights law

Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka. 31 March 2011.

II.Methodology

This report is based on 180 statements from witnesses, virtually all of whom

were subjected to periods of detention and repeated torture and sexual

violence inside Sri Lanka. This report also includes testimony from witnesses

who are security force/government insiders who provided valuable eyewitness

evidence about how “white van” abductions - as well as other abduction teams

and detention camps - operated. Of these witnesses, 115 were interviewed by

ITJP investigators; the remaining 65 witnesses supplied medical legal reports of

examining international doctors and psychiatrists who are experts in assessing

allegations of torture and/or detailed witness statements recorded by solicitors

or investigators.

The witnesses were interviewed in five different countries with the assistance of

qualified interpreters. The statements were taken in a secure environment by

investigators having many years of experience of war crimes, conflict and post

conflict zones, including Sri Lanka.

Witness protection was paramount with the confidentiality of witnesses and

their families in Sri Lanka being protected.

Witnesses came through referrals as well as being sourced through networks of

law firms, social workers, human rights activists, aid workers, doctors and

other trusted contacts. The witnesses do not know who else testified. Some

have refugee status; others had asylum applications pending at the time we

met them.

Witnesses have permitted us to attach as exhibits to their statements their

medical legal reports, photographs, records of interviews with government

agencies, medical records and other evidence corroborating their testimony.

All witnesses interviewed by ITJP were asked if they had given statements to

other human rights groups documenting torture or war crimes in an attempt to

ensure the originality of the findings and where possible to avoid

contamination of evidence.

Of the 115 witnesses we interviewed, the vast majority resulted in lengthy sworn

statements, taken by our investigators. Most statements took on average

three days to complete. In each case, the witnesses' credibility was carefully

assessed. Each of them was considered to have provided credible evidence

which was in most cases specifically corroborated by photographs, official

documents, scars on their bodies, medical legal reports of experts in torture

and sexual abuse survivors and security force and government insider

witnesses. Their narratives were internally consistent and externally consistent

when compared to other evidence, which in itself was found to be credible and

corroborated.

Over and above the 115 witnesses we interviewed, we also interviewed a handful

of other persons who alleged that they had been tortured and/or sexually

abused by the security forces since the end of the war. Either because there

was no corroborating evidence of their allegations or because we did not

accept their credibility, we discounted their evidence and have not relied upon

it for this report.

Witnesses who were survivors of the 2008-9 war were asked about their

experiences to assess their general credibility and the level of unique evidence

they might have pertaining to allegations of war crimes. In 54 of the cases we

showed witnesses photographs depicting at least 100 alleged perpetrators (and

their accomplices) of post-war abduction and torture. These photographs were

mixed with general photographs of other members of the security forces, not

identified as perpetrators. This investigative step was helpful in identifying a

witness’s credibility, placing them in a specific location, as well as on occasions

matching perpetrators with victims.

This phase of our work was aimed at determining whether arbitrary detention,

torture and sexual violence - which we submit constitute crimes against

humanity and human rights violations – is still on-going. We also intended to

identify locations and individuals involved in the sexual and non-sexual torture,

as well as assessing the extent of reprisals against witnesses’ families in Sri

Lanka.

III .Narrative

180 cases of post-war torture:

The findings in this report are based on 115

witness statements recorded by ITJP (and the corroboration thereof) of post-

war torture and/or sexual violence against unarmed young Tamils detained by

the security forces in Sri Lanka, including cases that occurred after 8 January

2015. In addition, we have considered statements and other supporting

evidence (medical legal reports and/or photographs) regarding 65 other cases

of torture and/or sexual violence that occurred post-war in Sri Lanka. These 65

statements did not contradict the 110 statements and indeed, were consistent

with them.

An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka 2009-14

In March 2014, we documented on-going torture and sexual violence in Sri

Lanka for a ground breaking report,

An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual

Violence in Sri Lanka 2009-14

It was based on 40 lengthy detailed sworn

statements from Tamil survivors in the UK, all of whom stated they had been

repeatedly tortured and sexually abused while detained by various branches of

the security forces of the Government of Sri Lanka. All statements were found

credible by our experienced international war crimes and sexual abuse

investigators. Almost all of these sworn statements were corroborated by the

physical scarring on the witnesses’ bodies and other residual and permanent

physical disabilities. Almost all of their accounts were corroborated by the

examination of and resulting medical legal reports of international medical

experts with a peer recognised special expertise in assessing the legitimacy of

claims of refugees from many countries in the world, including Sri Lanka, of

torture and/or sexual abuse. Several of their examinations and medical legal

reports were done

pro bono

Available at www.stop-torture.com

Fifty percent of the abuse we documented in our 2014 Report had taken place

within the previous year in Sri Lanka and one case in 2014. The report examined

patterns of abduction, violence and extortion that targeted men and women

suspected of some involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

(LTTE), which was defeated in May 2009 after decades of civil war.

After a careful analysis of the facts presented by the survivors, the domestic

law of Sri Lanka and International law, we concluded, amongst other things:

1. That these post-war violations by the security forces painted a chilling

picture of the continuation of the three decade long conflict against the

Tamil community with a purpose of sowing terror and destabilising those

Tamil community members remaining behind

2. That the similarity of the torture, rape and sexual violence experienced

by each of the witnesses indicated a pattern and that the practices of

the security forces were systematic and institutionalised, not the least

because ill-treatment and torture became the method of interrogation

and were used to punish and humiliate detainees

3. That this widespread similarity over the five years since the end of the

war in multiple security forces locations confirmed a well-organised

pattern of systematic abuse on the part of the Sri Lankan government’s

security forces

4. The systematic and widespread use of torture, including rape and sexual

violence, is part of a well-coordinated policy, devised and planned at the

highest level of the Government of Sri Lanka and its security forces,

which would constitute crimes against humanity

5. That the continuation of abductions, arbitrary detentions, torture, rape

and sexual violence perpetrated against Tamils for over five years since

An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka 2009-14, Page 62.

Ibid, Page 64.

10 Ibid, Page 64.

11 Ibid Page 69.

the end of the war had been furthered by the State, not only by their

active involvement in the continuation of the system of mistreatment,

but also by the failure of the Government of Sri Lanka to hold its security

forces accountable, to investigate allegations and to bring to trial those

responsible. Accordingly, the Government of Sri Lanka has failed in its

domestic and international legal obligations and has created a climate

of impunity such that those responsible for these violations behave as if

they have the approval of the government at the highest levels

. They

are able to act in the knowledge that the government will not take

appropriate measures to stop the abuse by bringing those responsible to

justice through prosecution and the imposition of penalties

commensurate to the office.

6. That the failure of the Government of Sri Lanka to take adequate steps

to prevent the continuation or repetition of these violations or to bring

those responsible to justice was not a matter of a lack of capacity or will

to do so. The only reasonable inference was that the highest levels of the

government are complicit in these abuses and the climate of impunity

that had been created

7. That domestic solutions such as Presidential Commissions of Inquiry in Sri

Lanka, when dealing with allegations of serious violations of human

rights committed against Tamils by the security forces, even when

overseen by internationals, are an abject failure, thus unnecessarily

exposing witnesses to danger should they testify

8. That there was no effective witness protection program in Sri Lanka.

Even if a draft bill became law, one needs to be very cautious of domestic

remedies. Witness protection requires more than a stated intent.

Victims of the type of abuse set out in our 2014 report must be protected

and must feel confident that there will be no retribution against them or

their families. This is particularly so when the allegations are that the

abuses were committed by the security forces. Protection and the trust

12 Ibid, Pages 66 and 67.

13 Ibid, Page 108.

14 Ibid, Page 107.

of witnesses will be hard to come by when those tasked to protect them

are members of the security forces - on short term secondment or

otherwise

9. That Sri Lanka needs an independent investigative and prosecutorial

office given the complicity of the current Attorney General’s office in the

ongoing impunity in Sri Lanka.

Response to our 2014 Report

We are not alone in a number of our findings. The evidence presented in our

2014 report was cited on numerous occasions in the US State Department’s

2014 report on Sri Lanka, which found, “widespread impunity persisted,

particularly for cases of torture, sexual violence, corruption, human rights

abuses, and attacks on media by police, military, and pro-government

paramilitary forces”

The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, Zainab

Bangura, immediately raised the findings of our March 2014 report in person in

a meeting with Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the United Nations at

the time, Palitha Kohona

Ms Bangura then for the first time listed Sri Lanka as one of the post-conflict

countries of concern in her March 2014 report to the UN Security Council. Her

report for the Secretary General said:

“I urge the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that such a transitional justice

mechanism explicitly seek accountability for sexual violence crimes and that

15 Ibid, Page 108.

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Country Reports

on Human Rights Practices for 2014,

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2014&dlid=236650#wrapper

17 “On Sri Lanka, ICP Asks UN's Bangura about Rapes, She Says Is "Worried," Raised to Kohona, YouTube, 24 April 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSmiYAZjFDw

national authorities put in place the necessary services, remedies and

reparations for survivors.”

In response, the Sri Lankan representative at the UN debate on the report, Ms.

Varuni Muthukumarana, First Secretary, Permanent Mission, asserted that her

government had a firm policy on sexual violence and had taken action on

reported cases of violence against women and girls. She went on to say the

security forces were only accused in 5.6 per cent of the cases brought in the

conflict period and 3.3 per cent in the post-conflict period. Since none of our

180 witnesses has reported the abuse they suffered to the authorities in Sri

Lanka, these figures are meaningless given the authorities have created an

atmosphere of total impunity for the perpetrators – and given the fact that the

perpetrators

are

the authorities. Most Tamils, especially former LTTE members,

would never dare bring a case against the security forces so this statistic, if

accurate, is hardly surprising. In addition, when there are complaints of rape

committed by security forces, including rape of children, activists on the

ground report that there are no proceedings because the police, army or navy

do not produce the relevant suspects for the victim to identify. As far as we are

aware, there has only been one Tamil woman in the post-war period who

complained to the courts of being raped by the security forces and she is not

one of our witnesses

Instead of taking the allegations in our report and raised by the Special

Rapporteur seriously and initiating a genuine investigation, the Government of

Sri Lanka went on the offensive. In media interviews and articles on the

Ministry of Defence website, the Sri Lankan government has alleged that

medical experts who testify to the UK Home Office on Tamil asylum cases are

being fooled, and that victims who are really just economic migrants tortured

themselves or paid others to torture them to obtain asylum

The country’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, Major General

Shavendra Silva, responded, despite allegations raised by the then UN High

Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, that he had committed war

18 “Conflict-related sexual violence, Report of the Secretary-General”, 13 March 2014, UN Document Number S/2014/181, UN.

19 See page 85, Appendices, Section B, An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka 2009-2014, ITJP, March 2014.

20 Torture 'Clinics' in UK as Pathway to Asylum, 1 November 2014, Sri Lanka MOD website.

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=Torture_Clinics_in_UK_as_Pathway_to_Asylum_20141014_01

crimes while a top military commander in 2008-9

. Major General Silva told

the United Nations Security Council in April 2014:

“Certain organisations are involved in propagating false reports against the Sri

Lankan military of sexual violence. A recent report was authored by Ms Yasmin

Sooka. That report made accusations, often with disturbing details, without

providing sufficient details, such as to the time, place and the identity of

victims, to enable investigations and prosecutions. Those accusations were

subsequently repeated in further publications of various organisations, thereby

contributing to forming an opinion that is propagated without evidence. None

of those allegations have been substantiated by verifiable data in any of the

documents. Significantly, no credible evidence has been directly brought to the

attention of Government authorities by any of the parties. The Government has

not been provided the evidence — which is claimed to be in the possession of

the authors of these reports — in order to investigate and respond.

”

Major General Shavendra Silva made the same request for the identities of

victims to be handed over to his government at a closed-door meeting with

diplomats in New York in May 2014, where Ms Sooka presented her findings.

Given the evidence documented in this current report regarding reprisals and

continuing persecution of victims’ families in Sri Lanka, handing over such

evidence to the Sri Lankan authorities would be utterly irresponsible because it

would undoubtedly lead to further abductions, torture, rape, murder and/or

disappearances.

In addition, it would also be irresponsible of us to hand over the identities of our

witnesses to those alleged to be the perpetrators of the violations. Several

witnesses and security force insiders have clearly identified Major General Silva,

and two other Major Generals, as being present at the frontline in the final

days of the war when troops were involved in executing surrendered LTTE

suspects and sexually violating them and/or sexually mutilating their corpses.

One cannot but draw an inference of complicity and approval given that these

top Sri Lankan military figures did nothing to prevent this behaviour or

21 UN body bars Sri Lanka diplomat Major General Shavendra Silva, 23 February 2012, BBC News Online,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17137224

22 Statement by Ambassador Major General Shavendra Silva, Deputy Permanent Representative and Charge d'Affaires, UN Security

Council Open Debate, "Women and peace and security", 25th April 2014, New York. Also 7160th meeting, Friday, 25 April 2014, New

York, UN Security Council, UN Document number S/PV.7160.

apprehend the perpetrators, while clearly having the legal obligation and

power to do so.

General Jegath Jayasuriya was in overall command of army offensives against

the LTTE in the Vanni. Several witnesses place General Jayasuriya and Major

General Shavendra Silva at the Wadduvakal Bridge on 18 May 2009 accepting

the “white flag” surrenders of the LTTE political wing leaders, who were

subsequently executed in army custody

. One security force witness says he

saw the two generals walk across the bridge southwards with the LTTE leaders,

who were killed shortly thereafter. Again the presence of the top leadership of

the Sri Lankan military compels one to draw the inference that they were fully

aware of the intended extra-judicial killings and indeed responsible for the

unlawful execution of the LTTE political leadership. The leadership of the Sri

Lankan military must be held accountable for perfidious conduct as those

surrendering did so under the stated commitment to protection including the

white flag they carried.

Further Corroboration of our March 2014 Findings by Independent

International Bodies

The UN Secretary General’s 2015 report on conflict-related sexual violence

found, “one of the major unaddressed issues is impunity for conflict-related

sexual violence” in Sri Lanka. It went on to corroborate our findings by saying

there were:

“…indications that abduction, arbitrary detention, torture, rape and other

forms of sexual violence have increased in the post-war period. Notably, Tamil

women and girls have reported sexual abuse in the context of the on-going

militarization of their areas of residence. Allegations of sexual violence by the

Sri Lankan security forces against members of the Tamil community in the

closing months of the war and in the post-conflict period have been extensively

documented, but rarely addressed. Testimony of women released from

detention in 2014 indicates that acts of sexual torture were accompanied by

23 For more details see ITJP’s report,

http://white-flags.org

racial insults and specifically directed against individuals perceived as having

been linked to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

”

It is also expected that the OHCHR investigation into Sri Lanka (OISL)

mandated by a March 2014 resolution at the UN Human Rights Council will

have examined the issue of conflict and post-conflict torture and sexual

violence in some detail in its report due in September 2015.

In addition, the accounts of those of our witnesses who have completed their

asylum procedures have been found credible by Immigration Tribunals and

High Courts in the UK - as well as by immigration authorities and courts in

France and Switzerland - and they have been granted asylum on the basis that

they have been repeatedly tortured and sexually abused by the security forces

while in their detention. This means their allegations regarding “white van”

abductions or “rehabilitation camp” torture and/or sexual violence have been

further corroborated by international legal bodies in countries where the rule of

law prevails, unlike in Sri Lanka.

Lack of Action by the Authorities

Despite the findings expressed in our March 2014 Report, the findings of other

international independent persons mentioned above, and the mounting

evidence, neither the Rajapaksa government nor the Sirisena government has

taken any effective steps to investigate, prevent, punish, or explicitly prohibit

widespread and systematic torture and sexual violence targeting Tamils, and

others, connected to the LTTE. This is in spite of acknowledgements by several

figures in the new government that a “white van” culture of abduction and

torture by the security forces did indeed exist, at least under the Rajapaksas.

There is only one on-going case pending in the courts pertaining to “white van”

abductions of 10 Tamil school children for ransom in 2008-9, allegedly carried

out by 9 naval officials based in Colombo Fort and Trincomalee Naval Base

. As

24 UNSC, Conflict-related sexual violence, S/2015/203, 23 March 2015.

25 Sri Lanka Navy deployed White-Vans to abduct school children for ransom, 3 March 2015, Colombo Mirror, Accessed at

http://www.colombomirror.com/?p=2649#.VZWTQWAmVUQ

the case study in this report on the secret site in Trincomalee Naval Dockyard

demonstrates, that investigation into the navy should be far more wide

reaching.

This Report

What is documented in this report is not only the torture and sexual violence

towards victims who ultimately escaped the country, but the continuing

persecution of their family members in Sri Lanka by the security forces

afterwards. As recently as May 2015, a Tamil in exile, who gave a number of

media interviews abroad about the final phase of the war, reported that his

last remaining relative in Sri Lanka – his father - was beaten by the security

forces and died as a result of his injuries.

We have taken statements from 8 cases of young Tamil men and women who

were detained by the security forces and repeatedly tortured and sexually

abused after the change of government. These new cases fit the same pattern

of conduct by the security forces as occurred during 2014 and prior years. In

two cases this was not the first time the victim had been detained and tortured

by the security forces.

The evidence gathered here shows that the pattern of illegal state-organised

abduction in “white vans” by the security forces, torture, sexual violence, and

release on payment of a ransom, has continued well into 2015. Indeed, our

latest survivor was detained and tortured in early July. This is despite the

change of government after the 8 January 2015 presidential elections and all

the political rhetoric of reconciliation.

Experienced international war crime and sexual abuse investigators have taken

lengthy, detailed sworn statements from 75 new witnesses who are young

Tamil men and women survivors of repeated torture and/or sexual torture

committed by members of the Sri Lankan security forces between 2009-2015

while they were detained.

The focus of this phase of our work was not just about the continued pattern of

sexual and non sexual torture which has been taking place after the war, but

about trying to identify the locations of these crimes and perpetrators involved

in torture and sexual violence in the post-war period and the extent of any

reprisals against victims or their families. In addition, after the government

changed in Sri Lanka in January 2015, we also looked for any changes in the

system of repression that was rampant under the Rajapaksa brothers.

The new witnesses we have interviewed are now in a variety of geographical

locations in Europe and Asia. Despite being in five different countries, the

accounts they give of detention, repeated torture and sexual violence by the

security forces are disturbingly similar and fit the patterns already analysed

and established in our 2014 report. Once again, in most cases their sworn

statements were corroborated by medical experts, by scarring on their bodies,

physical disabilities and post-traumatic stress disorder consistent with the

trauma they narrated in their statement; for those whose asylum cases have

been completed, their account has been accepted by the tribunals and high

courts of those countries.

We have added to these first hand survivor accounts by taking sworn

statements from a number of Sinhalese security force or government insiders

who have given first hand direct evidence which parallels the survivors’

accounts of organised systematic “white van” abductions, illegal detention,

torture and sexual violence, and in a number of cases, murder of unarmed

former combatants and non-combatants in their custody and control. These

insiders have provided photographs, telephone numbers, names and ranks of

alleged perpetrators who committed torture, sexual violence and murder. Many

of our survivors, when shown a photo line up, have identified their perpetrators,

and/or identified others at the locations depicted. Some perpetrators have

been identified by multiple witnesses.

In addition to the previous government’s denial that these crimes against

humanity occurred and the fact that no effective and proper investigation has

commenced, it is also of great concern that the widespread and systemic

torture and sexual abuse of Tamils in custody of the security forces continued

even after our report in March 2014, the commencement of OISL work in August

2014 and the UN Secretary General's Report in March 2015.

Where possible, we have avoided taking detailed statements from witnesses

who have already testified at length to another international human rights

group. It is worth noting that the UK charity, Freedom From Torture, has

forensically documented more than 160 Sri Lankan post-war torture cases in

the UK

apart from the patients it treats for trauma. In addition, Human

Rights Watch also interviewed 75 Sri Lankan sexual violence survivors from

various countries, including the UK, for their 2013 report, with the vast majority

of cases occurring from 2009-2012

. Alongside our 115 witness statements, we

also have 65 medical legal reports from other survivors of post-war torture in

the UK. Very few of these cases overlap, which indicates there are now

hundreds, if not more, of Sri Lankan survivors of post-war torture in the UK

alone

The new witnesses who have given us statements generally report, as did the

earlier witnesses, that they or their families have been obliged to find ways to

pay large ransoms in order for the witnesses to escape illegal detention and

torture and, in some cases, that their families have also had to pay bribes in

order to avoid a similar fate. This should be of great concern to the security

establishment since the new government in Sri Lanka has vowed to stamp out

corruption. This amounts to state-sponsored organised crime, persecutory

kidnapping, torture, and ransoming by the security forces as a means of

terrorising and punishing Tamils with any presumed affiliation with the LTTE,

and creating a climate of complete control and fear.

It is part of an on-going pattern of corruption by the Sri Lankan security forces

and some government officials, which peaked in 2009 in Manik Farm where

thousands of former LTTE cadres, supporters and their families supposedly

detained in the name of national security, paid bribes to escape or be released.

Thus it seems that the detention and torture had little to do with the witnesses

being a threat to society or in need of rehabilitation. Among others, they paid

26 Freedom From Torture blog, 24 September 2014, Accessed at

http://www.freedomfromtorture.org/news-blogs/8068

27 “We will teach you a lesson”, HRW, February 2013.

28 We know the cases do not overlap because Freedom From Torture’s cases all have one of their expert medical reports and we collect

medical legal reports where available for each case we document.

money to the various wings of the Sri Lankan military, the police including CID

and TID, Tamil paramilitary groups and Sri Lankan immigration officials who

worked with human smugglers to hide the escapees in Vavuniya and Colombo

or elsewhere in Sri Lanka, before obtaining legitimate or false passports and

visas for them and escorting them safely through the passport control counters

at the airport.

This sort of persecution is an extremely effective way of securing a global web

of silence of victims, which ensures the crimes remain hidden, so that the long-

standing culture of impunity in Sri Lanka continues unabated and others

continue to be victimised. Long lasting peace can never exist in such a caustic

climate of human indignation and abuse.

It is not just those on the island who are silenced. Thousands of Tamils have

fled the island since the war ended for exile in Europe, North America, India,

South East Asia and Australia. Many would like to speak openly about what

they witnessed in 2008-9 and the aftermath of the war but are gagged by fear

of what could happen to their close relatives back home or to them if they fail

in their asylum applications and are returned. It is quite extraordinary that six

years after the civil war ended, so few Tamil war survivors abroad have spoken

out in public about what they saw.

Significantly, the continuing torture, sexual violence, intimidation and

persecution documented in this report utterly undermines any trust in a

domestic accountability mechanism to investigate war crimes and post-war

crimes in Sri Lanka alleged to have been committed by members of the Sri

Lankan government and its security forces. Indeed it appears that deterring

witnesses and victims from coming forward regarding serious crimes and

human rights abuses is one of the motivations behind the on-going surveillance

and attacks. In this environment, a domestic accountability mechanism can

have little hope of delivering truth, justice and ultimately reconciliation.

It is a testimony to their courage - and perhaps desperation too - that anyone

has dared raise their voice to demand answers or justice. We feel privileged to

have come into contact with young men and women who exude the most

extraordinary spirit of survival in the face of past and on-going human

depravity.

IV.Findings

A. New Torture Cases

“White van” abductions continue well into 2015.

115 cases of post-war torture documented; evidence regarding 65

additional cases.

Survivors interviewed in 5 countries.

Evidence from Sinhalese security force insiders or government officials.

Accounts corroborated by forensic medical experts.

Accounts corroborated by physical scarring and disabilities.

Muslim and Sinhalese Victims

It is worth noting that while the vast majority of victims of torture and sexual

abuse in Sri Lanka are Tamils, there are also a few Muslims and Sinhalese

among our witnesses. These were people the security forces suspected of

assisting the LTTE in the past and they have been rigorously hunted down and

punished extra judicially in the post-war period. For witness protection reasons,

details of their cases cannot be given lest we identify them.

Child Victims

Some witnesses described being detained, tortured and/or sexually abused by

the Sri Lankan security forces while under the age of 18 years. In addition, a

large number said they had been forcibly recruited by the LTTE in the final

phase of the war. At least 12 of the torture and sexual abuse survivors we have

taken statements from joined the LTTE (under duress or voluntarily) while

under the age of 18 years, some as young as 15 and 14.

2014 Arbitrary Detention, Torture and Sexual Violence Post-election: 14 Cases

We have statements from fourteen witnesses who were illegally detained and

tortured during 2014, following exactly the same pattern as in previous years

described in our earlier report

. They all have physical scars. All but one of

these witnesses has an expert medical legal report and/or psychiatric report to

confirm they were tortured. In all but two cases, the witness reported that their

torture involved sexual abuse.

Three of the witnesses had been detained and tortured on prior occasions. For

one this was the third exposure to a period of torture; for two others this was

the second exposure to a period of torture. Six of the 2014 cases involved former

forced recruits to the LTTE – in two cases children.

Two of the new 2014 cases we documented involved people kept in detention

for many years but the rest of the new 2014 cases were state-organised

abductions, generally in vans or military vehicles, conducted by approximately

4-5 security force officers in plain clothes. The detainees were transported

blindfolded and handcuffed to an unknown site where they were tortured in

similar ways. Typically they were beaten and kicked, nearly asphyxiated inside

a plastic bag soaked in petrol, had their heads held under water, burnt with

cigarettes, beaten on the soles of the feet and elsewhere on their bodies with

sticks and wires and/or branded with hot metal rods. All of them were sexually

tortured in some manner including rape, buggery, forced felatio or otherwise.

Sexual torture is likely more prevalent than we are recording – stigma and

shame makes it very traumatic for witnesses to reveal the details, especially in

Sri Lankan Tamil culture. This woman raped in 2009 described the very public

nature of the shame she endured as a rape survivor:

“Other army people and those who abducted me were laughing and made fun

of me as I was walking back with my head down in shame. As I made that long

and painful walk back to the hall, I could only manage to button the top two

Available at www/stop-torture.com. In our March 2014 report we only documented one case of repeated torture and sexual abuse that

had occurred in 2014 itself because of the time lag of several months between being detained, freed, escaping the country and reaching

Europe and the cut-off date for the publication of our 2014 report.

1983

Male is born.

1990 (aged 7)

Displaced.

Prolonged

Suffering:

a typical case

1995 (aged 12)

Displaced.

2005 (aged 22)

Arrested.

2006 (aged 23)

Forcibly recruited by LTTE.

2011 (aged 28)

Deserted LTTE - tortured

by Sri Lankan security forces.

Hides in Sri Lanka and

goes abroad.

2012 (aged 29)

Rejected for asylum.

Tried to go to a 3rd country

but is arrested in transit

& returned to Sri Lanka.

2014 (aged 31)

Tortured and sexually

violated in Sri Lanka by

security forces.

His parents are visited by

security forces so feeling

guilty he tries to kill himself

and is hospitalised in UK.

buttons of my blouse. My breasts were exposed and even though I was so

ashamed I could not mentally or physically button the rest. My entire lower

skirt was soaked in blood. My long hair was totally dishevelled. To anyone, I

looked like a young lady who had been raped”.

(Witness 110)

One witness described some of the very brutal sexual torture he endured in 2014

after he was abducted in a white van:

“They took my underwear off and made me lay on the floor on my back and

they took a plastic pipe about 1.5 to 2 inches in diameter and forced it up my

anus. They put it in and out 2-3 times. They took a wire about l/4 inch in

diameter. The one end was sharp. They forced it up my penis. I was screaming

in pain. They pulled the wire out once. They took my penis and twisted like one

would to wring out wet cloths. I was screaming in pain. They put petrol in a

polythene bag and put it over my head. I lost consciousness.”

(Witness 77)

Another witness tortured in 2014 in Sri Lanka stated:

“I pleaded with him to please leave me but he did not listen. He pushed me on

the floor on my back. He rubbed his penis on my penis. I could not stop him as I

was weak and frightened. He made me to lie on my stomach and he inserted

his penis in my anus. It caused me severe pain. I screamed. I pleaded with him

to leave me. He continued to thrust his penis into my anus until he reached the

point of ejaculation. He turned me over and ejaculated his sperm on my face.”

(Witness 36)

In several cases the Tamil victim is someone who has suffered at the hands of

both the LTTE and the Sri Lankan security forces. During the final phase of the

war the following witness was forcibly recruited by the LTTE and when he

escaped, the LTTE had arrested his father and held him until the witness agreed

to return. When he went back to the LTTE, the witness was kept with his ankles

shackled and chained. After surrendering to the army the witness did not

identify himself as an LTTE member because he had spent only a month with

the organisation and that too against his will. He was later caught and

tortured in late 2014 in an unknown army camp in a remote jungle location,

which he believes was in a Sinhalese area:

“They interrogated and tortured me in another room, not where I slept. I

experienced sexual abuse from the guards and people working there and

sometimes they poured water on me at night to disturb me. The guards and

people working there wore green vests and trousers. The torturers and

interrogators wore on the first occasion civilian clothes, but at the second

interrogation one wore army uniform. At least 2-3 times per month I was

interrogated. They accused me of being an LTTE member and failing to

surrender to them and hiding, of trying to regroup the LTTE and asked if I knew

anyone else was hiding like me. I told them I was forced to join but they didn’t

believe it. So they said why didn’t you surrender or register. They showed me

photos of other Tamils to identify. They were photos of young men. I didn’t

know them… I was kept alone in a small room, with no windows; it was dark. I

heard the screaming of Tamil men from other cells.”

(Witness 115)

The witness said his genitals were squeezed until he fainted. He also described

being raped with objects, including a bottle and what he called “tools”. In

addition he states that a pipe was inserted into his anus with a piece of barbed

wire inside it and then the pipe was removed, leaving the barbed wire inside.

This witness has a medical legal report from an expert in assessing torture

victims that corroborates his physical and mental symptoms and diagnoses

him as suffering from PTSD and depression.

In a number of cases the sexual torture involved multiple perpetrators from the

security forces being present at the same time, which indicates there is nothing

clandestine or covert about the abuse. One witness described his torturers

standing in a circle and making him kneel in front of each of them in turn. He

was forced to take their penises in his mouth one by one and they would

ejaculate in his mouth. Then in a group they took turns to rape him anally

30 Witness Statement 64.

Post Presidential

Election 2015 Cases

“This election came in Jan 2015. We were hoping for a big

change to the Tamils after the change of power in Sri

Lanka but it did not happen. They are telling they are not

prepared to withdraw the troops from north and east.

Nothing happened after the change of power. I was very

frustrated and disappointed over this.”

Witness 120

“They asked the same questions again and again and if I denied

what they said, they beat me. They said, ‘Are you giving

information to LTTE or other media. The other media have sent

you back here’. I was hit with a belt all over the body, with fists,

and kicked. I was whipped with something like a wire or rope

or cable, which they coiled in their hands to hold it tight…

They touched me also in a sexual way but it wasn’t as bad as

2009 when I was raped…they pushed me to the wall and were

touching my breasts. They touched my stomach and genitals

and put their hands there and pinched me. They would take my

hand and put it on their penises.”

Witness 119

“Sometimes I pass urine without knowing, I have chest pain,

insomnia, headaches, I feel numb in the head, I get easily startled

and scream. I don’t want to go back to Sri Lanka. I will be arrested.”

Witness 121

2015 Arbitrary Detention, Torture and Sexual Violence Post-election: 8 cases

The new Sri Lankan government led by President Sirisena has repeatedly

warned people that they do not want the “white van culture” of their

predecessors to return. The Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, stated in a

speech to the Sri Lankan parliament on 3 June 2015 that these abductions were

a thing of the past:

“Today there are no white vans and as such we are happy that most people can

express their views freely

”.

Several other politicians and officials in Sri Lanka have confirmed the past

existence of “white van” abductions by the security forces. Among them are

even some figures who were members of the Rajapaksa government when the

crimes occurred. Like the Prime Minister, they give the impression that the

practice has stopped, which is not the case:

The current State Minister of Defence Ruwan Wijeyawardene, claimed his

government had put an end to “the white van culture” in Sri Lanka

The former President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, told an interviewer that if

she had spoken out under the previous regime, both she and the

interviewer would have been “white vanned”

The former deputy Minister of Mass Media and Information and then

deputy Minister of Highways under the Rajapaksa government, Mervyn de

Silva, stated, “It is Gotabaya Rajapaksa who was behind the white van

culture in the country”

31 PM comes out all guns

blazing, Sunday Observer, 7 June 2015, accessed at http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2015/06/07/pol03.asp .

Also he current Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremasinghe observed that, “bringing Mahinda Rajapaksa into politics would mean the

return of the “white van” culture to Sri Lanka”, Mahinda’s re-entry is revisit of white van culture”, Omlanka, 29 June 2015, accessed

at http://www.omlanka.net/news/2163-mahinda-s-re-entry-is-revisit-of-white-van-culture-ranil.html

32 No more white van culture in Sri Lanka, Ruwan Wijeyawardene, Lankasrinews, 26 February 2015, Accessed at

http://www.lankasrinews.com/view.php?22YOln2acd5YA34edKMMa020AmB4dd3fBm4203ogAO2e4AY5T3caclOoe3

33 In a 75-minute television interview, Ms Kumaratunga said she could not and dared not disclose what she was revealing now because

both the interviewer and she might have faced death after a notorious white van abduction”. Editorial: CBK Breaks Silence with a

Bang, Daily Mirror, 6 February 2015, accessed at https://thinkworth.wordpress.com/2015/02/07/cbks-disclosures/

34 Video: Mervyn goes to CID against Gota and Basil, Daily Mirror, 17 January 2015, Accessed at

http://www.dailymirror.lk/61493/mervyn-goes-to-cid-against-gota-and-basil

Media reports said a special police unit in Sri Lanka would investigate

“white van” abductions under the previous regime

. A former Sri Lankan

police spokesman also talked of “the white van culture’

MA Sumanthiran MP (TNA) said in parliament, “We are mercifully, only

now, beginning to emerge from the shadows of the white-van culture.”

However, we have taken statements from 8 survivors who state that they were

detained, tortured and sexual abused by the security forces in Sri Lanka in 2015

after the change of government on 8 January. Some were tortured and sexually

abused as recently as June and July 2015. These 2015 incidents occurred in the

north as well as in the capital. All of the witnesses abroad state that their

families have been questioned or harassed after they left the country as a way

of punishing the family members for the fact that one of them got away.

Two of the eight cases have corroborating medical legal reports. In two

additional cases we have a letter from a doctor who has done an initial

examination of scars arising from torture, such as cigarette burns. In two

further cases we have taken photographs of extensive wounds that appear to

be still healing, such as multiple lacerations and branding marks from hot irons

across their backs and/or visible wound marks around the ankles or genitalia.

Though we have documented 8 new cases, from our past experience, we

reasonably believe that there will be more cases coming to us given (a) the

time it takes a survivor to reach a safe country, (b) we have not surveyed other

countries, (c) some victims cannot leave Sri Lanka and are too frightened to

speak out and (d) it is reasonable to assume that some victims are still in

detention and being repeatedly tortured and sexually abused until such time as

their families pay a large ransom.

The witnesses tortured in 2015 describe a familiar pattern of abduction in

“white vans” as those referred to in our March 2014 report and the new

35 Police to investigate previous regime white van culture, Digatha News, no date, Accessed at http://digathanews.com/police-to-

investigate-previous-regime-white-van-culture/

36 Ex-Police Spokesperson returns to tell his story, Deepal Warnakulasuriya, 1 March 2015, The Nation, accessed at

http://www.nation.lk/edition/feature-issues/item/38774-ex-police-spokesperson-returns-to-tell-his-story.html

37 Speech made in Parliament by Hon. M.A. Sumanthiran M.P., 17 March 2015, accessed at http://www.globalnewscentre.com/sri-

lanka-hon-sumanthirans-speech-on-the-17th-of-march-video/#sthash.x5zlrGwz.dpuf

statements we have taken from others since that report. In the following case

this was the witness’ second period of exposure to torture.

“There were 4-5 men in civil dress and speaking in Sinhala. They asked for my IC

[National Identity Card] card and name. I gave them my IC card. They

blindfolded and handcuffed me and stuffed a cloth in my mouth. In the back of

the van one person held me. We drove for 45 minutes; first on a smooth then a

bumpy one then a smooth road. They took off my blindfold in the room. It was

a dark room and there was a pot with water in the corner of the room for

drinking. There was no furniture. There was no window. I am unable to say

what kind of building it was. For interrogation I was taken to another room.

During the interrogation they introduced themselves as CID.”

(Witness 116)

This witness was released from the unknown detention site on payment of a

ransom of five lakh rupees (US$4,000 approximately) to the security forces by

his family. He was driven to a remote place while blindfolded, all the time

fearing he was being taken for execution. The CID team did not bother to

handcuff him on the way out because he could hardly walk after the torture.

The witness arrived in the UK about a week after he was released. His wounds

were inspected by a UK doctor while he was under police custody, who wrote a

letter saying there were healing scars and soft tissue injuries and marks that

appeared to be cigarette burns on his lower back. The witness’s scars were also

photographed while in UK police custody on arrival at the airport. Days after

this witness fled Sri Lanka one of his parents was taken into custody by the

security forces and questioned about his whereabouts. The surveillance and

intelligence regime among the Sri Lankan security forces is still in tact and

operating as a tool of continued oppression and collective punishment on

grounds of ethnicity and political affiliation.

In May 2015 this young Tamil man was abducted in a white van and tortured in

an unknown location by men who introduced themselves to him as military

intelligence. The security forces had previously detained one of his siblings now

abroad. In his case the pretext for abducting him was that he had briefly been

a child soldier, forcibly recruited by the LTTE in the final months of the war

before he had managed to desert. In total of the 8 cases of torture in 2015, half

had been forced to join the LTTE while children.

“I was beaten on the soles of my feet while lying face down on the bench with

my hands tied in front. I was petrol bagged twice – it was a terrible burning

sensation. I became unconscious. My head was submerged into water; when I

was standing on the floor they dragged me on the floor and put me in the

water. I became unconscious after the water torture... I was also sexually

abused in the room where I was kept after the torture. They were drunk. They

were in civilian clothes. Two men were involved. There were two incidents each

with two men. They touched me on my private parts – they forced me to have

anal and oral sex with them. They were using filthy words and said, ‘Why did

you join Prabakharan? He killed all these people’. While beating me they were

using filthy words like ‘son of a bitch and bastard’. I don’t know how to say

those things but they were talking about Tamils in a very bad way. They said

‘Tamils are dogs, and Tamil women are bitches’.”

(Witness 122)

The witness’s family secured his freedom by paying a ransom to the Sri Lankan

security forces through the Tamil paramilitary group, EPDP. Since this witness

left Sri Lanka, his family has been questioned and asked to hand him over. As a

result he no longer has direct contact with his parents.

Another former child soldier, forced by the LTTE to join them in the final phase

of the conflict, similarly described being abducted in a white van by four men

in plain clothes and taken to what he thought was an army camp:

“The interrogation room had table and couple of chairs. I saw pipes, rope and

batons in the corner of the room. I was asked to sit on the chair. They asked

me, ‘You were in LTTE and we know about your family and you. You should tell

us the truth otherwise you will have to face severe consequences’. When I said I

wasn’t in the LTTE they punched me in the face. Then they asked me which unit

of the LTTE I was in? When I denied this, they beat me with pipes filled with

sand till I became unconscious due to the beating. They removed my clothes

and I was photographed at different angles completely naked.”

(Witness 121)

This young and very traumatised Tamil witness was also abducted in the north

of Sri Lanka well after the presidential elections:

“I was driven about 2-2.5 hours on a smooth and then bumpy road. They

blindfolded and handcuffed me from the beginning. I have no idea where they

took me but maybe towards Vavuniya. It was a building and I was kept in a

room. I was blindfolded on the way in and out. I did not have a window in my

room. The door was made of metal. It was like a cell. I didn’t see anyone but I

heard men speaking in Sinhala. I never heard any Tamils. The person who later

interrogated me spoke broken Tamil. I was slapped, punched, kicked, beaten

with sticks, wire, plastic pipes and cables, beaten on soles of feet, submerged

in water, petrol bagged, burned with cigarettes, hung upside down and beaten,

and my penis and testicles squeezed.”

(Witness 102)

The above witness has an independent expert medical legal report that

corroborates his account of being burned with cigarettes, branded and beaten

on the soles of his feet. It further states that he suffers from PTSD and

depression and is at a high risk of committing suicide if returned to Sri Lanka.

Indeed the doctor found him too fragile to be questioned in court about his

account.

Another witness, who has a medical legal report with scar map showing

multiple cigarette burns and branding marks on his body, listed the torture he

endured but was too distressed to go into the details of the sexual abuse he

suffered:

“I was kicked, slapped, punched, beaten with batons and plastic pipes filled

with sand, beaten on the sole of the feet, burnt with hot cigarettes butts,

beaten with batons, my head was covered with a plastic bag sprayed with

petrol, my head was submerged in water, and I was sexually assaulted”.

(Witness 117)

His expert medical report, which differentiated between war injury scars and

torture scars, stated, “the scars on the chest, back and thighs are typical of

the events described by the claimant of being intentionally burnt and beaten”.

The sexual violence described by victims is brutal and often involves more than

one perpetrator at a time:

“They squeezed my penis and testicles. One man raped me anally and I bled

after. Two to three times the same man raped me anally in the cell. He wasn’t

wearing uniform – civil dress. While I was made to lean down the same men

inserted his penis into my mouth while in the cell. He forcibly opened my

mouth.”

(Witness 121)

The anal rape reported by male survivors of 2015 abduction and detention also

involved objects:

“On the second day they tortured me in the interrogation room again and they

put a plastic bag soaked in petrol and another one covered in chilli powder over

my head. When I became semi conscious they dragged me and put me back in

my cell…The torture got worse, I was burned with cigarettes, sexually tortured,

and they inserted a plastic pipe with a broken edge into my anus.”

(Witness 120)

It is disturbing that these cases occurring under the new government in Sri

Lanka demonstrate the continuation of the practice of “white van” abductions

by the security forces from 2009 until January 2015 under the Rajapaksa

government. Four or five men in plain clothes abducted the witnesses as they

were returning home, asked for their ID cards to ascertain whether they had

found the correct man. They were blindfolded and handcuffed for the journey

in and out of the detention site, so they never saw the location in which they

were held. They were driven for a couple of hours and kept in a windowless cell

on their own, never encountering other detainees but often hearing voices

screaming in Tamil. In interrogations they were asked about their involvement

with the LTTE, even if that was only a few weeks as forced recruit or child

soldier at the height of the war. They were forced to sign confessions in Sinhala

– a language they could not understand and were fingerprinted and

photographed. Release was secured after a relative paid the ransom to the

officials holding him. The interrogators wore a mixture of army uniforms and

plain clothes; sometimes they introduced themselves as CID, sometimes as

members of other branches of the security forces. None of the perpetrators

made any attempt to hide their own identities from their victims.

The connection between the security forces and the human smugglers who

arranged false passports, exit from Sri Lanka and travel abroad, often through

multiple transit countries, can be blatant, as in this case:

“…the TID [Terrorism Investigation Division] man told me how to get to Europe;

he said to get me out of Sri Lanka. If I went back to Northern Sri Lanka he said

he would arrest me again. They were all in it together. My father paid 25 lakhs

just to get me out. The police, the agent, the TID officer all shared it.”

(Witness 119)

Two witnesses tortured in 2015 described the experience of transiting multiple

countries with the agent as very frightening. Witness 120 said he was kept

indoors, hidden in a room, by the agent for two months without knowing where

he was. Witness 122 had a similar experience with the smuggler:

“The agent gave a contact number for emergencies so I contacted him and he

asked me to wait in a place and after some hours he picked me up and took me

to France and kept me there for many days and I was not allowed to contact

anyone. He was very hard towards me. I was kept in a room in a house and not

allowed to go out. I asked him many times where are we and where are we

going. He threatened me that if I didn’t cooperate he would send me back to

Sri Lanka.”

(Witness 122)

On arrival in the UK all but one of the witnesses was detained in the UK by

immigration authorities; the one who had not been detained had arrived so

recently that he was in the process of claiming asylum. These recent torture

survivors describe the experience of being incarcerated again as deeply

traumatising:

“Sometimes sounds of walkie-talkies or the sounds of boots trigger me. The

police or guards in the detention centre reminded me of detention in Sri

Lanka.”

(Witness 120)

“I was taken into detention. At least it was a decent jail. It didn’t look like a jail

to me because the jails I have seen are all different… At night I am scared and I

can’t sleep. When it’s dark I am frightened. I am mentally affected.”

(Witness 119)

One witness (Witness 102) was immediately hospitalised and then detained by

the UK police for five hours because he had no ID card. This experience severely

disturbed him. He is suicidal, wakes in the night after nightmares, sweating,

his pulse racing, shaking and breathless. In addition his medical records

indicate he still has shrapnel in his chest from the war in 2009.

Typical torture

scar map

“I am unable to sleep properly,

eat, difficult to cope with day

to day activities. I have these

memories and horrible dreams

about the torture and sexual

abuse. I didn’t even talk to my

parents about what happened

to me in detention. I told my

brother in law everything.

I have body pain and insomnia.

I scream at night sometimes.”

Witness 122

“I can’t sleep properly, I have

nightmares, I have flashbacks.

I turn the lights on at night as I

am frightened of the dark. I sleep

a couple of hours – maximum

two to three hours. I also have

suicidal thoughts and have

bleeding while passing stool…The

people I stay with here are aware

of my torture and detention.

I have not told them this

information in detail though.”

Witness 120

Prolonged Suffering

Witnesses are still fleeing abroad from Sri Lanka six years after the end of the

fighting. They have endured not only starvation, bombardment, displacement,

injury, bereavement of close family members, loss of worldly possessions and

unimaginable trauma in the final phase of the conflict in 2009, but also years

of arbitrary detention after the war, with phases of extremely brutal torture

and sexual violence and threats or attacks on family members. Their prolonged

suffering is hard to imagine and their bravery in testifying is all the more

admirable, especially when many are not safe themselves and fear for their

close families back home.

Several witness have been abducted, detained and tortured on more than one

occasion – some on three different occasions in different years. Some fled

abroad after the first detention and torture but returned home later thinking

they would be safe, only to be tortured once again. There are also sporadic

reports by the witnesses of forced abortions and sterilisation after women were

raped by the security forces and became pregnant.

Asylum

Witnesses in Europe and Australia have often suffered intensely during the

asylum process. They are left in limbo for many years, unsure if they will obtain

status. They will suffer repeated rejections that cause them to despair until the

international authorities can accept, not only their accounts, but also that they

remain at risk if returned to Sri Lanka and grant them asylum. In a number of

cases they attempt suicide or even succeed

. Freedom from Torture, which

runs therapy groups for Tamils who make up their largest caseload, describes

the challenges well:

38 The life and awful death of a Tamil asylum seeker in Australia, Olier Laughland, The Guardian, 5 June 2014, accessed at

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/05/the-life-and-awful-death-of-a-tamil-asylum-seeker-in-australia

“They are trying to come to terms with the terrible things that have happened,

battling the physical pain and emotional scars that are the legacy of their

torture. The combination of trauma symptoms - flashbacks, nightmares,

intrusive thoughts, panic – mean that each one of them has a battle to fight

every day. They are constantly in a state of restless, sleepless anxiety about

what may be happening to the people they love, whom they cannot reach or do

anything to help. Every day is challenging. Sometimes life can seem almost

unbearable.”

An increased practice in the UK of detaining asylum seekers on “fast track”

has caused great distress to those torture and sexual violence survivors from Sri

Lanka who find themselves disbelieved at first instance by the authorities,

sometimes because they are so traumatised they struggle to give coherent

accounts. In detention they find it difficult to hire lawyers, collect evidence,

obtain medical legal reports and receive counselling and other support.

However, the UK courts have recently suspended this system

pending a review

of proper safeguards to protect victims of torture and trafficking.

This culture of disbelief is in spite of the UK government championing a global

initiative to Prevent Sexual Violence in Conflict. There were 13 cases

documented by Human Rights Watch in 2012 of Tamils in the UK who alleged

they were tortured after being returned to Sri Lanka

. Media reports said a

Tamil torture survivor in Switzerland was also returned to Sri Lanka in 2013 and

detained on arrival, resulting in criticism that the immigration screening

process there was also not thorough

In addition we have taken statements from other witnesses who sought asylum

after the war ended in Norway, Holland, Australia, France, Finland, Tanzania,

another unknown African country, the UK and several in Switzerland who were

39 LEAVING SRI LANKA DIDN'T END THE SUFFERING OF OUR TAMIL GROUPS' MEMBERS, 12 February 2015, Accessed at

http://www.freedomfromtorture.org/fundraising-feature/8274

40 For an explanation of the Detained Fast Track procedure see the website of Liberty, accessed at https://www.liberty-human-

rights.org.uk/human-rights/asylum-and-borders/fast-track-system

41 100 asylum seekers to be released as detention system is suspended, Alan Travis, The Guardian, 2 July 2015, accessed at

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/02/asylum-seekers-release-fast-track-detention-ruling

42 United Kingdom: Halt Deportation Flight to Sri Lanka, 15 September 2012, HRW, Accessed at

http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/09/15/united-kingdom-halt-deportation-flight-sri-lanka

43 Deported Sri Lanka returns to Switzerland, Swissinfo.ch, 27 April 2015, Accessed at

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/controversial-

decision_deported-sri-lankan-returns-to-switzerland/41401130

rejected and then, when they returned to Sri Lanka, detained, tortured and/or

sexually abused, and had to pay a ransom to escape abroad a second time.

In Asia, the situation for asylum seekers is even worse. In Thailand, Malaysia

and India, Tamils face a very real risk of being rounded up by the local

authorities and sent back to Sri Lanka before they have even made an asylum

application. Registration with the local office of UNHCR does not seem to offer

any protection whatsoever against forced return. One female Tamil torture and

sexual violence survivor, hiding in Asia and unable to access medical care,

described her life in this environment:

“I live in fear that I will be found by the police in this country and be sent home

where all the physical and sexual abuse will start all over once again. I live with

this fear all the time. I am longing to live in a peaceful environment. I live with

recurring thoughts of ending my life. Perhaps it would have been better for me

to have died in the war or on that day I swallowed something that I had hoped

would kill me rather than to go through this agony that keeps disturbing my

mind. Yet I have a desire to live, but I do not know how to.”

(Witness Number Withheld for Protection Reasons)

B. Identified Torture Sites, Commanders & Perpetrators

41 known sites of torture in Sri Lanka.

15 survivors of torture at Joseph Camp interviewed, perpetrators &

commanders identified.

Manik Farm rape accounts.

Secret torture site in Trincomalee Naval Dockyard, perpetrators &

commanders identified.

Types of Detention Post-War

At the end of the war in May 2009, thousands of LTTE members surrendered to

the security forces, many after hearing loudspeaker announcements saying

even if they had been with the organisation for one hour they should hand

themselves in. Some of those who surrendered as combatants had actually

been forced by the LTTE to join in the final months, including many children.

They were victims of the LTTE, but that was not how they were viewed by the Sri

Lankan military. Many of them ended up spending more time in military-run

“rehabilitation” than they had spent with the LTTE in the first place. Our

witnesses, including our insider security forces and government insiders, state

that these “rehabilitation” camps were places where multiple witnesses

endured brutal torture and repeated sexual violence; a better name would be

punishment camps.

A large number of people suspected of involvement with the LTTE were also

identified by informers at the front-line during initial screening, or at

Omanthai check point where they were processed, or in Manik Farm IDP camp.

LTTE suspects were sent for “rehabilitation” to special camps but there was no

transparency about how long they would be held, and no right of appeal for

wrongful detention or proper safeguards to prevent torture

. There was no

procedure for determining who was a former combatant and who was a

civilian, and the camps were clearly not being run as Prisoner Of War centres

44 “Several former LTTE combatants released from rehabilitation

centers reported torture or mistreatment as well as sexual abuse by

government officials while in rehabilitation centers.” From Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Country

Reports on

Human Rights Practices for 2014, accessed at

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2014&dlid=236650#wrapper

either. A number of ITJP witnesses who were released from “rehabilitation”

were also later abducted in “white vans” and tortured yet again.

Those LTTE members, forced recruits and supporters (including non-Tamils),

who managed to hide in the civilian IDP camps or elsewhere were often picked

up months or years later after being identified by an extensive network of

Tamils working as informers for the security forces.

In addition, a substantial number of individuals accused of being connected

with or supporters of the LTTE have been apprehended in “white vans” after

being identified or returning to Sri Lanka from abroad, erroneously thinking it

was safe to return after so many years, or else having been deported after

failed asylum applications. The previous Sri Lankan government, meanwhile,

told the UN Human Rights Committee in October 2014 in Geneva that,

reference to “white vans” as a means of disappearances was a “sensationalised

allegation”

. It said:

“… the GoSL [Government of Sri Lanka] wishes to state that twenty one (21)

criminal abductions using white colour vans have been reported in the six year

period from January 2009 to August 2014. Each and every case reported has

been investigated by the Police and 17 victims have been found and reunited

with their families”

We have documented 100 cases of abduction in “white vans” or other types of

vehicles since the war ended. Not one of those cases has been investigated by

the police – some were tortured and raped by police or branches of law

enforcement. The victims are all outside the country, unable to reunite with

their families; and their family members are often being targeted for abuse as

a result.

45 112 Session of the Human Rights Committee, periodic review, accessed at

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/LKA/INT_CCPR_AIS_LKA_18459_E.pdf

46 112 Session of the Human Rights Committee, Consideration of Sri Lanka’s Fifth Periodic Report under the International Covenant on

Civil and Political Rights, 7-8 October 2014, accessed

at http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/LKA/INT_CCPR_AIS_LKA_18459_E.pdf

From our evidence, it is clear that torture and sexual violence took place near

the frontline, in Manik Farm camp, in army or navy camps, in “rehabilitation”

camps, in police stations and in a multitude of unknown camps – some of

which could be army sites or captured LTTE camps.

Climate of Impunity for Sexual Violence During the End of the War

The treatment by the military of surrendering Tamil civilians and combatants

at the end of the war set the tone for what was to come. One insider witness

described seeing soldiers mutilating the corpses of Tamil women and men

behind the frontline in a sexual way. Commanding officers did nothing to stop

this sort of behaviour:

“What shocked me is that the clothing on all the bodies had either been fully

removed or at least such that the private parts on all of them were exposed… I

saw army soldiers continue to drink arrack and dance. They were dancing

because they were very happy after the victory. They were kicking and stepping

on the dead bodies of the LTTE fighters or civilians. There were officers there

but they did not do anything... Two captains just stood there talking while their

men were doing that. Some of the solders then came and stomped on some of

the bodies with their boots then posed for photographs with a boot on a body

and and holding their rifle up posing like a hunter standing over a trophy with

smiles on their faces. One girl had a stick about 4 feet long sticking into the air

from her vagina. One of the soldiers yanked it out and rammed it into her

vagina again. I saw one female with a fresh knife cut on her bare breast…I saw

some of the men saying things like ‘bloody LTTE dogs’, ‘We teach you a good

lesson’ - all the while using filthy sexual swear words.”

(Witness 69)

Videos and photographs have emerged online of mutilated naked and half-

naked bodies, images sometimes sold by the same soldiers who took the

pictures.

The same witness described how civilians who surrendered in May 2009 were

taken along the A9 Highway to Omanthai checkpoint, via Kilinochchi Hospital:

“The Security Forces used the front of the Kilinochchi Hospital as a transit area

for these civilians. The transit point was on the main road, about 200 metres

from the hospital. The whole area of Kilinochchi was under Security Forces

control at this time. I heard from many people in the camps that, whilst they

were waiting outside Kilinochchi Hospital for transport to Vavuniya, loud noises

could be heard coming from inside the hospital. These were female noises of

pain and fear. Others told us that while they were waiting in front of the

Kilinochchi Hospital for the bus to Omanthai, with some of them waiting

overnight, they would hear these terrible noises throughout the night, including

sexual noises.”

(Witness Number withheld for Witness Protection Reasons)

This is not the only account naming Kilinochchi Hospital as a site where sexual

violence may have taken place, though we have yet to interview a survivor from

this site.

Senior Military Leaders Fail to Act

Several insider witnesses saw soldiers mutilate bodies, but this one saw two

Major-Generals take no action to stop the acts:

“I saw them mutilate the bodies with small sticks and stones being forced into

their vaginas along with small knives. They used knives to cut their breasts. I

saw many female cadres get captured and then killed and after that is when

they would be stripped and bodies desecrated. I never saw a captured female

cadre raped. As I said, these actions occurred on the 16-19 May on the north

and south side of the bridge. While I witnessed these things on the south side, I

was standing with Shavendra Silva and XXX. They looked and went back to

their command centre. They said do not do these things but they did not take

any action to identify or punish those who did. The actions of this nature were

not deterred by the inaction of Shavendra Silva and XXX.”

(Witness 70)

The Forward Maintenance Area, just behind the frontline where LTTE suspects

were taken after capture, was run by the now Commander of the Sri Lankan

Army, Lt General Krishantha de Silva

. The same security force insider witness

told ITJP:

“During the war, General Krishantha de Silva did not command a regiment but

he was very close to Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Gotabaya in the last days of the war

would give orders to de Silva who would then pass them on to General

Jayasuriya to be carried out. Though de Silva was stationed in Colombo I saw

him on a number of occasions near and at the end of the war in army camps in

Vavuniya and near Omanthai. He was not on the frontlines but in the secured

area behind the frontlines and was in charge of the Forward Maintenance Area

and was in charge of dealing with all the surrendees and captured former LTTE

cadres.”

(Witness 70)

It is our understanding that the Forward Maintenance Area also included the

“rehabilitation camps” and Manik Farm camp.

Allegations Against the then Secretary of Defence

When the ex-President’s brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, assumed office as

Secretary of Defence he took over control of the Special Task Force (STF),

previously under the control of the Inspector General of Police. Three witnesses,

two of them insiders, testified that Gotabaya Rajapaksa used the STF to

intimidate and silence any opposition, including several journalists who were

not sufficiently sycophantic

47 In 2014, he was also appointed Deputy Chief of Mission at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Moscow.

48 Security force insiders and other eyewitnesses have also testified that it was the STF that murdered the students at Trincomalee and

massacred the ACF workers in Muttur prior to the final phase of the war.

In addition, another of our witnesses, a “white van” abductor, testified that his

director received orders to threaten, torture and kill suspects directly from the

former defence secretary, Gotabaya Rajapaksa:

“We reported directly to the Director. The Director reported directly to

Gotabaya. The Director met on a weekly basis with Gotabaya to receive orders.

These orders were very sensitive and secret and only entrusted to our small

specially selected group. When the director returned from his weekly meetings,

or otherwise, and had received instructions from Gotabaya, he would give

those assignments to [me]. He would always say these were Gotabaya’s orders,

or they were from the big man, which was another name for Gotabaya.”

(Witness 47)

This white van operator described his team’s “white van” victims, whom he said

numbered several hundred:

“When we abducted people, they were taken to a number of secret locations

that our group had in or near XX. They were then treated according to the

instructions from Gotabaya. These included beatings, interrogations and

physical torture. In all cases when a person was arrested/abducted by our

group they were killed - either immediately or after a prolonged torture. Often

persons would die during the torture… The youngest I can recall was a 15 year

old Tamil boy sent by the LTTE and the oldest was 60 years old. They would

include both men and women. On occasions, if we could not abduct the actual

person, we would disappear a family member to send the same message.”

(Witness 47)

In two detention centres we know of, interrogators would boast that they

worked directly under the Secretary of Defence, as this witness testified:

“The officers causing me to suffer told me there was no use in complaining

because they were part of a special team that worked for the Secretary of

Defence and they can do what they want. I cannot and will not say more at

this time because if the Government of Sri Lanka found out that I was providing

evidence against the CID and the Secretary of Defence, harm would surely

come to my family who are still in Sri Lanka.”

(Witness Number Withheld for Witness Protection Reasons)

In the Trincomalee Naval Dockyard secret site (see case study below) detainees

were also told by guards that they were “under Gota’s surveillance”, by which

they understood that this site was maintained by officers who reported directly

to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the then Secretary of Defence and President’s brother.

Perpetrators identified by Tamil Survivors and Security Force/Government

Insiders

ITJP has collected the names and many of the ranks or locations of 62 people

alleged by victims of torture and/or sexual abuse to have been involved in one

or more of the following acts: abduction/kidnapping, illegal detention, torture

(sexual and non-sexual), sexual abuse, extortion/ransoming and human

smuggling.

Known Torture Sites

When we conducted our investigations for our 2014 report, only 12 of the 40

witnesses could identify the sites in which they were tortured. Several of the

known sites were “rehabilitation” camps for suspected former LTTE members.

The vast majority of witnesses had no idea where they were taken; great care

was taken to blindfold them on the way in and out of the sites and to release

them somewhere secluded after their families had paid a ransom to the

security forces. This practice of blindfolding detainees to obscure the location

where torture and sexual violence occurs has continued throughout 2014 and

2015.

ITJP now has a list of 41 known sites, identified by torture and sexual violence

survivors now abroad, as the places where they were abused post-war. This list

is based on sworn testimony. This is by no means a comprehensive list – it

reflects locations identified by the witnesses we have taken sworn statements

from, or locations identified in the sworn statements of Sinhala insiders from

the security forces or government, not the totality of the multitude of sites

where torture took place in the post-war period. Many of the survivors were

detained and tortured by the security forces in multiple locations. A number of

people who underwent the “rehabilitation” process were also abducted in

“white vans” after being released or in other detention places. The dates of

detention are not given to protect the identity of the witnesses and security

forces insiders. This list does not include the names of several well-known

prisons, such as Boosa (Galle) and New Magazine Prison (Colombo) where our

witnesses were also held and tortured.

Generally speaking, the known sites of torture of detainees by the security

forces post-war that we have identified were:

Military camps: 15

Police stations: 15

“Rehabilitation Camps”: 10

Manik Farm, which was referred to as an “IDP camp”, but was in reality an

internment camp.

In addition, seven army or police camps have been identified as transit points

for “white van” abductions.

Jaffna

Torture sites:

Military sites

Police sites

Elephant Pass

Kilinochchi

Rehabilitation camps

Military Camps or

Police Stations used

as transit points for

white van abductions

IDP camp

Vavuniya

Trincomalee

Batticoloa

Ampara

Colombo

19 22

Military sites

Chavakachcheri Army

Camp, Jaffna Peninsula

Uduvil Army Camp

(near Uduvil Girls College),

Jaffna Peninsula

22) Kotahena Police Station

23) Bambalapitiya Police

Station 2008

24) Hettiyawatte Police station

25) Nugegoda CID office

26) CID Offices in Amapara

27) Mt. Lavinia Police Station

28) CID in Kalmunai Town,

Ampara District

29) CID in Kaluwanchikudy

on the Ampara/

Batticaloa border

30) Iniyabharathy’s office

in Thambiluvil,

CID operated here

Rehabilitation sites

31) Nellukkulam Technical

College, Vavuniya District

32) Pampaimadu,

Vavuniya District

33) Poonthottam Cooperative

Training School,

Vavuniya District

34) Rambaikulam H/F Convent/

Girls’ School,

Vavuniya District

35) Welikanda/Senapura Camp,

Eastern Sri Lanka

36) Kovilkulam Maha Vidalaya,

Vavuniya District

37) Maradamadu,

Vavuniya District

38) Dharmapuram Welfare

Centre, Vavuniya District

39) Vellikkulam Muslim Girls

College, Vavuniya District

40) Pothanichchur Muslim

Maha Vidalaya Youth

Rehabilitation and Training

Centre, Vavuniya District.

Military Camps or Police

Stations used as

transit points for white

van abductions

41) Thanthirimale Army Camp,

Vavuniya District

42) Iranaipalai Army

Camp, Vanni

43) Kanagapuram Army

Camp, Vanni

44) Kurumankadu Camp,

Vavuniya District

45) Ampara – a military building

next to the terminal on Air

Force Road

46) Plantain Point

in Trincomalee

47) Tellipillai Police Station,

Jaffna Peninsula

IDP camp

3) Urelu Army Camp,

Jaffna Peninsula

4) Kilinochchi Army

Camp (in Ex LTTE

police HQ

), Vanni

5) Orr’s Hill Camp,

Trincomalee

6) Veppankulam Army Camp

Vavuniya District

Army Camp near Omanthai

School, Vavuniya District

48) Manik Farm Camp

8) Palali Army Camp,

Jaffna Peninsula

9) Achchuveli Army Camp,

Jaffna Peninsula

10) Iyakkachchi Army Camp,

Elephant Pass

11) Joseph Camp,

Vavuniya Town

12) Sampath Nuwara

Camp, on the border

of Trincomalee and

Mullaitivu Districts

13) Trincomalee

Naval Dockyard

14) Urumpirai Army Camp,

Jaffna Peninsula

15) Camp near

Paranthan Junction

Police sites

16) TID/CID Headquarters

(‘Fourth Floor’) and

also a naval compound

across the street

17) Nelliady Police Station

18) Borella CID Building

19) Colombo Harbour

Police Station

20) Welawatte Police Station

21) Dematagoda TID office/

Police station

513 Brigade is stationed here according to http://www.

defseminar.lk/defseminar2012/news.php?id=112.php.

This ITJP witness describes the location: “At the entrance

to the camp there were barriers that were raised for the

truck to enter. There were sandbags on the sides of the

entrance and barbed wire. Sentries were posted by the

entrance. Metal sheets painted green covered part of the

wall, with barbed wire on top. There seemed to be one

main building, while the rest of the structures seemed

covered with metal sheets - some painted, some not. The

truck stopped in front of a building. I was told to get off.

I got down using the one step at the back of the truck.

The building was a single storey open building. There was

no front door.”

This ITJP witness explains the location: “I was then taken

to a camp in Kilinochchi Town. It had been a former

LTTE camp. It was behind the former Police Head Office

building.”

This is described as an old school used as a detention

centre in Puthukulam village. Same location cited by one

of HRW’s victims, 2013.

Media reports say a Major Panditharatne was the

Commandant Officer-in-Charge (OIC)- Omanthai

Detention Camp until June 2010. See http://www.

sundaytimes.lk/110306/News/nws_16.html; and http://

www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/03/04/sri-lanka-

sightless-detainee-be-released-within-2-weeks-ag-sc-

gives-undertaking

An ITJP witness said: “I was abducted at the bus stop

at Paranthan Junction and taken to an Army intelligence

camp, 10 minutes from the bus stop. It is on 4th street. It

was a former LTTE Camp”.

An ITJP witness explained: “I was taken to another jail.

It was like a dungeon. It was across the street from the

4th floor and we entered into the Navy compound. It

was very hot, all cement, and the ceilings were not high

enough to stand. It was dark.”

The HRW (2013) report also has a witness whose husband

was arrested by Mt. Lavinia police and then she was

abducted and believes she was taken to Panagoda Army

Camp where she alleged torture.

A list of some of the sites is available from the

Government of Sri Lanka at: http://bcgr.gov.lk/

establishment.php#

An ITJP witness described the location thus: “The college

is nearly 6 kilometres west of Vavuniya beside the road

to Mannar on the left hand side if going to Mannar.

There was a sign on the gate saying Nellukulam Technical

College. Prior to the end of the war it was a college.”

Multiple ITJP witnesses and Witness GV in the HRW report

were tortured here.

This is described by an ITJP witness as about 15

minutes driving from Kilinochchi Town police station.

Kanagapuram Camp (also written Kanakapuram) is home

to the 7 Sri Lanka Light Infantry according to http://

www.army.lk/detailed.php?NewsId=9564.

Note on Iniya Bharathi’s office in Thambiluvil in Ampara District,

Eastern Sri Lanka

K Pushpakumar, known as Iniya Bharathi, is a Tamil paramilitary leader who

was initially part of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Poolikal (TMVP) or Karuna

Group, after Karuna split from the LTTE in April 2004. Later Iniya Bharathi

joined Mahinda Rajapaksa's UPFA and become the President's Coordinator for

Ampara District. Iniya Bharathi’s office in Thambiluvil in Ampara District had

torture cells in the basement where CID took people and tortured them, and in

some cases killed them. Iniya Bharathi also had camps in Kaluwanchikudy on

the Ampara/Batticaloa border and in Ampara Town. His paramilitary forces

were protected by the Special Task Force (STF) and he worked closely with the

CID, which was involved in accepting ransom for the release of detainees.

Iniya Bharathi is said by witnesses to have commanded a force of 200 men.

With impunity from apprehension and prosecution, his group was involved in

extortion, torture and murder, as well as the abduction of hundreds of ex-LTTE

members, businessmen and contractors from 2005-7; these were mostly Tamils

but included some Muslim businessmen as well. His involvement in

disappearances is well known locally; mothers of the missing held a protest in

Ampara in February 2015 asking for Iniya Bharathi to be held to account.

The ITJP is in possession of evidence, including that of an insider security force

witness, that the former President’s brother and adviser, Basil Rajapaksa,

controlled the Iniya Bharathi group, arranging for them to be given unmarked

weapons and organising to pay them from the Treasury through the STF. Iniya

Bharathi’s paramilitary group was expected by the Sri Lankan government to

fund the remaining costs of running a force of 200 armed men through

extortion. The insider, who was in a position to know, states that Basil

Rajapaksa also knew about and ordered the use of torture and execution by

Iniya Bharathi’s men and gave them protection from the police. The witness,

being in a position to know, states that then president Mahinda Rajapaksa

authorised the funding to Iniya Bharathi's group in this manner. The insider

witness also provided corroborating photographs of meetings between

Mahinda Rajapaksa, Namal Rajapaksa and Iniya Bharathi. We have the names

of several members of Iniya Bharathi’s group allegedly involved in murder and

extortion, according to eyewitnesses.

“The man removed all my clothes by force.

He lit a cigarette and burned me with

the cigarette in several places on my thighs

and along my arms. Then he raped me….

When I was released, my father was there with

my children. He said he had to pay a lot of

money to senior people to obtain my release.

My father said I had been held in the ‘Fourth

Floor’, which is notorious in Sri Lanka.”

Witness 30

(“Fourth Floor”, CID Headquarters, Colombo)

“A second man in army uniform came into the room with a large plastic bag

and a substance like petrol inside it. I smelled alcohol from both men. The

second man put the bag over my head and upper body and held it tightly

around my ribcage. I heard the man saying ‘LTTE’ and saying in Sinhalese

that I was an LTTE member. I struggled to breathe and fainted. When I

woke up I was lying on the floor in the same room with no clothes on. There

was no one in the room, the door was closed and all my clothes were lying

on the floor. The plastic bag was not there. There was a lot of blood coming

out of my vagina.”

Witness 9

(Poonthottam “Rehabilitation” Camp, Vavuniya)

“An army officer came to my tent in the night. He had

on a solid green uniform with coloured cloth lapels on

the shoulders. He spoke Sinhala and motioned me with

his hand to come out. I went out. He took me to the

same room. I could smell alcohol on his breath. There

was another man in the room. He had the same kind

of uniform. They were both drunk. The door was closed,

as were the shutters on the windows. There was a tiny

light in the room and I could still make out the faces.

One was pulling my clothes to take them off. I pushed

him back. They got angry and they each took one of

my arms and ripped my clothes off. They grabbed and

scratched my breasts, chest and back. They forced

me onto the floor. My hands were above my head.

One of them was standing where my hands were and

stood on them so I could not do anything. The other

raped me. They would switch positions and the other

one would rape me. They were talking to each other in

Sinhala but I did not understand them… I do not know

how many times they raped as after the second man

raped me I started bleeding very bad from my vagina

and I eventually lost consciousness and awoke later in

Vavuniya hospital.”

Witness 68

(Pampaimadhu “Rehabilitation” Camp, Vavuniya)

Case Study 1: Joseph Camp, Vavuniya

Joseph Camp, or the Joint Operational Security Force Headquarters, is a vast

garrison in the heart of Vavuniya Town.

“The camp itself is in the main built up area of Vavuniya town. I knew it was

Joseph Camp because I have been past before in peacetime. It is located about

350 metres from the centre of Vavuniya. It had a sign at the gate saying Joseph

Camp. It was a former Air Force camp. It still had a runway for planes and

helicopters. Once we got to the to the perimeter gate and bund at Joseph

camp, the gate was opened up and they put a blindfold on me. It was a cloth

that went over my eyes and tied behind my head. My hands were free. We

drove into the camp and the vehicle came to a stop. They removed the

blindfold and I saw that it was a bunker. They took me down cement steps. I

was placed inside a cell with iron bars. I could hear Sinhala voices coming from

somewhere in the bunker. Whoever was talking was threatening to whoever he

was speaking to.”

(Witness 18)

Key to Map of Joseph Camp

Male Interrogation Rooms

Female Interrogation Rooms

Military Intelligence Commander officers

Cells for Male Detainees Held by Military Intelligence

Military Intelligence Quarters

Major Gamage’s office

Cells for female Detainees Held by Military Intelligence

General Jegath Jayasuriya’s office

Quarters for Informers

Joseph

Camp:

Vanni Security

Force Headquarters

(SFHQ-W)

2015 Major General K.A.D Amal Karunasekara,

Military Secretary of the Army Headquarters

was appointed as the Commander. He had

commanded the 53 Division and also served in

the UNPKF in Haiti.

2012-14: Maj. Gen. Boniface Perera

He took part in almost all major offensives

against the LTTE and was the commander of the

East during the war and then the Competent

Authority for displaced war survivors in the

northern region. IN 2015 he was appointed

Director General General Staff , Office of the

Chief of Defence Staff.

2011-12 Major General Sumedha Perera

He served under the current defence secretary

in the Gajaba Regiment in Matale in 1989

(alongside Shavendra Silva and Jagath Dias).

He was Brigadier General Staff SFHQ-W in 2009.

He was a member of the Military Court of

Inquiry set up to investigate allegations raised

by Channel 4 news.

2009- 2011 Major General Kamal Gunaratne

In charge of the 53 Division during the last

phase of fighting. In 2012 he was sent as deputy

Ambassador to Brazil. In 2015 he was appointed

Master General Ordnance of Army Headquarters.

He is part of the Gajaba Regimenet and also

Special Forces.

Sources: Security Forces

Headquarters Wanni website;

Promoted as General, Sunday

Times Lanka, 1 August 2010;

Major General Sumedha

Perera Appointed Wanni

Commander, The Nation,

19 December 2010; Army

Court of Inquiry on Channel

4 Allegations Referred to in

the LLRC Report Submits its

Findings to the Commander

of the Army, defence

website, 15 February 2013;

Who Are Sri Lanka Army’s 53

Division, Channel 4 Website,

8 December 2010; General

Jegath Jayasuriya profile,

Several Key Appointments,

MOD website.

2007-2009 Major General Jagath Jayasuriya

After the war he went on to become the

Commander of the Army and the Chief of

Defence Staff and in 2015 was appointed

Ambassador to Brazil.

Joseph Camp Organisation

Joseph Camp is home to the Vanni Security Force Headquarters, which

comprises the following battalions according to its official website

: 21

Division, 54 Division, 56 Division, 61 Division, 62 Divisions and the Forward

Maintenance Area. It had both the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)

and the Military Intelligence Corps (MIC) operating from within its premises.

Witnesses say that MIC and CID operated independently and under separate

command, with their own respective detention cells and white vans, however

they did have dealings with each other from time to time.

MIC operatives based in Joseph Camp were responsible for intelligence

gathering primarily in the north of the island during and in the aftermath of

the war. According to a security force insider, the MIC is still actively on the

lookout for LTTE suspects returning to Sri Lanka after the change of

government in January 2015, and two security force insiders have stated that

they still have operatives abroad

During and since the final phase of the war, MIC in Joseph Camp has been

involved in carrying out “white van” abductions, torture and rape, as this

security force insider explains:

“At Joseph Camp we had about four such vans. These vans did not have

license plates and all the side and back windows were tinted. No one could see

inside. All of our vans were Toyota Hiace models. When were ordered to abduct

a specific target we never wore uniforms. We always looked like ordinary

civilians…When we abducted a person they would immediately be tied up and

blindfolded. This was so they did not know where we were taking them. We

were never masked. We were not afraid of being identified or later tried in a

court for what we did.”

(Witness 67)

49 Organisation Chart available at

http://www.army.lk/sfhqwanni/

50 According to W118.

Detainees were removed from their cells to interrogation rooms that were

equipped with instruments to torture them, as the insider witness explains:

“There were many - over five of these types of detention rooms in Joseph camp

- which had the same kinds of torture instruments in them. In the interrogation

room, they had all the objects of torture in the room before the detainee was

brought in. This included barbed wire that was put in a hollow pipe that would

be inserted into an anus, hammers, and pliers to pull out finger and toenails.

There would be a table and chair in the room, handcuffs and chains, pulley and

rope to hang people on the ceilings.”

(Witness 67)

Torture

ITJP has 14 male and female survivors who testify that they were repeatedly

tortured by a number of different means and/or sexually abused in Joseph

Camp during the period 2008-2014. In three of the cases the detention in

Joseph Camp was not the first time the witness had been detained and

tortured in Sri Lanka.

The periods of detention in Joseph Camp for victims ITJP interviewed ranged

from approximately 10 days to many months. Many detainees were shown

photographs by their torturers to identify and some were forced to identify

other people being held in Joseph Camp, Manik Farm and elsewhere. They

describe being photographed and fingerprinted and being compelled to sign a

confession in Sinhala, a language they did not understand.

The typical torture endured was being beaten with batons, pipes filled with

cement, kicked, punched, being asphyxiated in a plastic bag soaked in petrol,

having their heads held under water, being hung upside down, being beaten on

the soles of the feet, being burnt with cigarettes and/or branded with hot

metal rods or wires – to the point of being rendered unconscious.

Sexual Torture

Of the 14 witnesses from Joseph Camp, five are female, of whom four said that

their torture in Joseph Camp included rape. This is the account of one such

survivor:

“It was dark but I think there were two or three men. One came on top of me

and started raping me. At the same time another man put his penis into my

mouth. I could not understand his language but I understood that he wanted

me to suck his penis. I did not do that at first and I tried to defend myself but I

didn't have the strength to fight. As he came closer to my mouth I turned my

face to the side and he slapped my face. I kept my teeth clenched very tightly

and as I didn't let the man put his penis in my mouth, he opened my mouth by

force and put his penis in my mouth. After that I don't know exactly what

happened. I don't think I actually passed out. … During my time in detention I

was subjected to 6 or 7 gang rape sessions. I was naked almost all the time.

Two or three different men came to my room each time. They would rotate.

They did not wear uniforms. Sometimes during the interrogations they would

wear camouflage army uniforms but not during the rapes…. After a couple of

days they moved me to an even smaller room to sleep. They raped me in that

room. They also raped me anally. The room was very small so only one man

could fit in it at a time. They used to take turns to rape me, one after the other.

Usually each man would rape me at least once. Usually one would have his

penis in my mouth while the other one raped me with his penis below. One day

while interrogating me they also put a baton into my vagina.”

(Witness 32)

Several of the male detainees also reported sexual abuse that included being

forced to perform oral sex, forcibly submit to anal rape and having objects such

as batons or sticks or a rod of ice inserted in their anus.

Many survivors recall hearing male and female voices crying and screaming

while being locked up in Joseph Camp. Some were kept in solitary confinement

in dark underground cells with no windows that resembled bunkers. As one

detainee described it, “The room was very dirty and smelled of blood”.

At times, some were held in cells with other detainees. One woman was

detained with several underage girls in their teens; they were all kept naked

with their hands and feet tied. Several times a day one of the girls would be

taken out of the room by male security force officers to be raped. The witness

herself described being raped many times by many men.

A security force insider testified that the rape of Tamil women was something

his colleagues in MIC in Joseph Camp boasted about doing:

“They threatened and tortured them. If the girls said yes to sex the torture

would stop. If they said no, they were sent to rehabilitation camps. Some were

raped. I know this because the men would brag about it. The informants were

to identify not only cadres but beautiful girls for the MIC men to rape at nights

after they were drinking. This happened many times. I heard some MIC men

bragging about raping Tamil women in the camps. They would say that they

had raped 15 each or more.”

(Witness 67)

Commanders and Perpetrators

Military intelligence staff based in Joseph Camp were active in detaining and

interrogating suspects in the Vavuniya area, including in Manik Farm,

rehabilitation camps and checkpoints. Sometimes they went further afield.

ITJP is in possession of multiple photographs and more than 40 names and

ranks of military intelligence staff, many of whom were based in Joseph Camp,

and who have been identified in the sworn statements of survivors and insiders

who tortured or were complicit in the torture of detainees. We will not include

the pictures of the alleged perpetrators or name them all due to witness

protection concerns. We also possess the phone numbers of a multitude of

alleged perpetrators and those complicit in these crimes, and know where a

number of them and their families live or are now stationed.

In addition, ITJP is in possession of the names and photographs of the officer in

overall command of military intelligence at Joseph Camp, and his deputy at

the relevant times.

Rapist Identified

A witness who was gang raped in Manik Farm camp in 2009 identified one of

the captains in the military intelligence team based at Joseph Camp as one of

her four rapists. He was in military uniform at the time. We have his name and

his entire career history as he rose from cadet officer to second lieutenant to

Military Intelligence Corps and then was promoted to the rank of temporary

captain and then temporary Major. In addition he passed a Sri Lankan Foreign

Service Training Institute diplomacy course. We also have the alleged rapist’s

photograph and mobile telephone number.

In this case the witness reported that initially the interrogators started

touching her breasts through her clothes and insulting her. When she

complained they threatened to send her to a rehabilitation camp for many

years if she did not cooperate.

In this aspect, her account matches testimony from an insider witness who said

it was standard practice among his colleagues in the security forces who visited

Manik Farm and identified pretty girls to threaten rehabilitation or rape.

The same female witness describes how she felt after being raped by the four

interrogators on that particular occasion, though she was later raped and

tortured by other men:

“I was totally naked. I felt pain in my body. I did not know what I should do so I

screamed. The man standing beside me reached down and placed his hand

over my mouth. I was helpless. I was crying and I could not even cry for help.

He told me to shut up. He used bad words and said that “if you scream again

we will kill you”. He said that I was not to tell anyone of my interrogation and

if I did they would “kill me in the night”. He said that they won the war and

they wanted Tamil women to bear Sinhala children. They gave me my clothes.

They watched me dress. They were still in a happy mood. I do not know the

names of the four army officers who raped me. I never saw them again after

the day they raped me.”

(Witness Number Withheld for Witness Protection)

The witness subsequently identified one of the four rapists from a photo board

consisting of over 100 members of the security forces and civilians.

A security force insider witness also identified the man and told us he worked in

Zone 2 of Manik Farm, while stationed at MIC in Joseph Camp, as well as his

name and rank at the time.

Torturer Identified

A Major has been identified by a number of witnesses as being in a position of

command at Joseph Camp and elsewhere, and present and participating in

torture of detainees. ITJP is in possession of several photographs of this Major

and his name. A security force witness testified that he was formerly with an

engineering regiment during the war but was believed to be in charge of a

rehabilitation camp or detention centre after the war.

A male witness described seeing the Major in Joseph Camp on several occasions

in 2010 while he was being tortured. The witness described the Major cocking

his pistol and putting it to the witness's head a number of times. A female

witness testified that the Major was one of her team of interrogators in Joseph

Camp in 2010 and was present while she had a bag soaked in petrol tied around

her head. She was subjected to rape while in the camp but the Major was not

present at the time. Another female rape survivor saw the Major inside Joseph

Camp issuing orders to a female guard while she was reporting after being

detained there.

A female witness saw the Major when she surrendered to the army in April 2009

and says he did nothing to stop people being beaten in his presence. A male

witness places the same Major at the Wadduvakal Bridge on 17 May 2009 as

thousands of war survivors poured out of the war zone. An additional witness

saw him at a checkpoint in Vavuniya Town while a further witness reported

seeing him outside Oddusuddan Camp and in Mullaitivu speaking with Tamil

informers in the area.

A number of the survivors we took statements from either identified the same

man as their abuser or identified him as being in Joseph Camp at the relevant

times; the insider security force witnesses directly or indirectly corroborated the

survivors’ statements.

In other words, the victimisation of young male and female detainees at Joseph

Camp was blatant, repeated, and proudly boasted of by the perpetrators

amongst themselves in the camp, as well as widespread and systematic.

Despite persistent allegations over many years of torture taking place inside

Joseph Camp documented by various NGO’s, absolutely nothing has been done

by the Government of Sri Lanka to bring any of the perpetrators to justice

Joseph Camp was named as a site where torture took place in: Freedom from Torture submission to the Committee against Torture for

its examination of Sri Lanka in November 2011, and multiple other NGO reports.

Case Study 2: Manik Farm IDP Camp, Vavuniya District

Manik Farm is the generic name for several different internment camps in the

Vavuniya area used to detain survivors of the 2009 war. At its peak, Manik Farm

contained more people than all cities in Sri Lanka except the capital. The

conditions in the camp were appalling but physical insecurity was the greatest

problem for detainees. There are multiple reports of women being detained and

raped in the camps and of former cadres being identified by ex-LTTE informers

and then taken to other camps to be raped and/or tortured. ITJP has

photographs and names of some of the alleged rapists and Tamil informers

who worked in Manik Farm, as well as testimony from security force insider

witnesses that corroborate the accounts of victims.

The Government of Sri Lanka told the UN Human Rights Committee in October

2014 that:

“…there were no military controlled camps holding civilians during or after the

conflict. The IDP welfare centres were administered by the Government

authorities with the process being led by the District Secretaries.

”

However Manik Farm camp, like other internment camps for war survivors, was

a militarised site, guarded by armed soldiers and police, surrounded by barbed

wire, where the security forces could act with impunity.

The CID and military intelligence units operated out of special areas in the

camp, summoning IDP’s for questioning. A Tamil NGO worker, who was some

years later abducted in a white van, tortured and raped, described how the

security forces operated in Manik Farm while he worked there in 2009:

52 112th Session of the Human Rights Committee, Consideration of Sri Lanka’s 5 Periodic Report under the International Covenant on

Civil and Political Rights, 7-8 October 2014, accessed

at http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/LKA/INT_CCPR_AIS_LKA_18459_E.pdf

“I witnessed the security forces interrogating people in Manik Farm camp and

taking them away in vehicles. I saw people being beaten on some occasions,

especially by CID people who had their own tents for questioning people. I saw

masked informers operating in the camp who were to taken to the CID tent to

identify people. The officers involved in this were dressed in military uniform

and plain clothes. I also saw informers there who were not masked and whom

others told me were ex LTTE but I didn't recognise any of them from my time in

the Vanni. I realised they were informers from the way they operated with the

security forces and how others were frightened when they came.”

(Witness 90)

Another NGO employee who survived the war also saw people being arrested in

Manik Farm after informers came; he too was later abducted in a “white van”

and tortured and sexually abused:

“When in the camp, I saw people being taken away by the army after masked

men were brought into the tents to identify cadres. I did not know those taken,

there were about 4-5 of them that I saw taken in this manner. That is the last

time I ever saw them. They were all males. I heard that the men and women

were taken inside the buildings in the camp occupied by the army and tortured

and sexually abused. These interrogations took place in the daytime.”

(Witness 36)

A UN worker also described the interrogation areas in Manik Farm:

“I heard from IDP’s that the girls were generally taken away at night time but

returned during the day. Over the time I was working inside the camps, I saw

five or six young women coming out of these questioning areas alone. Their

family members would wait in the general area for their relatives to come out.

On those occasions that I saw women leaving the isolated areas of the camp, I

could see the women were crying and they appeared distressed.”

(Witness Number Withheld for Witness Protection Reasons)

The following survivors now living in different continents but gave similar

accounts of being raped by CID in Manik Farm:

“He lifted up my blouse and bra up over my chest exposing my stomach. One

man held down my legs and the other man was biting my neck. I struggled to

no avail. They started to get angry and started slapping me and kicking me in

my legs and hips and were using bad words to me. One of them pulled my skirt

and panties down on my thighs. He then started touching my vagina. He was

touching my breasts. The other man took a lit cigarette and started burning me

on the outside of my vagina. He did this two times. He forced my legs open

and raped me. He had intercourse with me for a few minutes. I do not know if

he ejaculated in me. When he was finished the other man raped me. He then

rubbed his penis on my face. He ejaculated all over my face. I still had the gag

stuffed in my mouth. When he was ejaculating on my face he was using bad

words. He was saying all LTTE and Tamils must die.”

(Witness Number Withheld for Protection Reasons)

“My pants were down to my knees as were my panties. My top had been raised

to my belly button. I noticed a lot of blood in my vaginal area. There was a lot

of pain from my vaginal area - both on the outside and deep inside of me and

in my lower abdomen and pain in my back. I also had a lot of pain in my

breasts. My bra was still under my top but it had been undone. Later I saw that

there were teeth marks on one breast but the pain was equal in both… I saw

that there were two or three other men in the room. I was still half conscious

and I do not remember what they were wearing. The men were not right next

to me and were standing up. They were speaking in Sinhalese. I could not

understand what they were saying but they were looking at me and were

laughing. Those men left and I was all alone. It took me a while to fully wake up

and be able to stand up and try and sort my clothes and hair. I walked out and

my mother was waiting for me outside the tent and helped me walk back to

our tent. She was not allowed near the main tent when I was in there. I walked

up to my mother and hugged her. I wanted to cry but I could not as there were

a lot of Tamils around and I did not want them to see me cry and think that

something bad had happened to me. In my culture, if a woman is raped we are

not treated as helpless victims and are looked down upon and shunned. Our

lives are ruined and we will have great difficulty find a new husband. Even

though I was extremely distressed, I tried not to show it.”

(Witness 42)

Some witness were detained in Manik Farm, identified by informer and then

taken elsewhere to be tortured. A young mother was taken from Manik Farm to

a nearby army camp; she described being sexually abused in front of her

toddler who was in the same room. Both of them had been stripped naked and

the child was screaming in terror:

“I did not tell the solicitor or the Home Office because they are men but there

was sexual torture. They were touching me all the time – every time they asked

me a question they had to touch. It was mostly touching my breasts as I was

forced to kneel on the ground. Sometimes they touched my breasts with their

guns. I was kicked with boots and my child was present all time and always

crying with hunger so they kicked him too. “

(Witness 98)

This constitutes torture of both mother and child. When asked if she’d been

raped, the witness was too distressed to answer but buried her face in her

hands. She said she was detained in the same cell for several weeks and

tortured, including sexually, every day in front of her child.

Other women also described being identified in Manik Farm and taken to a

nearby location to be tortured and/or sexually abused

. One, a former LTTE

member, said she saw 150 female and 150 male informers identified in Manik

Farm Zone 4 by informers on approximately 22 May 2009. They were divided

into groups according to how long they’d been in the LTTE. She and 4 other

women were identified as long serving members of the LTTE and were driven

about half an hour a way to a camp in the jungle where the buildings were

constructed from aluminum sheets on cement flooring. She was tied up, forced

to drink urine, raped and tortured during months of detention.

The victims in Manik Farm were not only women. This witness knows the names

of two of the men who tortured him:

WS36 and Witness D.

“I was physically tortured about three times a month. By torture I mean I was

taken to an interrogation room and tortured. They used instruments, plastic

pipes with sand, I was hung upside down and beaten, burnt with cigarettes and

hot irons. I have those scars. It was military intelligence that did this torture. I

was kept in a room with about 2-3 boys and a family. I was sexually abused

two times.

”

(Witness 96)

Aid workers have testified to meeting women who were raped while in Manik

Farm and who became pregnant as a result. One such witness assisted seven

young women who became pregnant:

“Two of them were 12-13 years old who had been brought from Manik Farm.

The others were about 18-21 years of age. All were too pregnant for abortions

and had their babies. They told me that almost all the young women called for

interrogation in their camps were tortured and raped. They were women from

the camps brought into Vavuniya Hospital… They told me that they in fact

were raped and impregnated by the security forces. They also said that they

were threatened that not to tell their stories to the authorities or anyone else.

They were threatened with death. They were ordered to say that they had been

raped by their fathers or family members or other Tamil villagers or the LTTE.”

(Witness 111)

In addition we have evidence of rape and torture of men and women in other

camps for war survivors. These accounts include the rape of at least one non-

combatant Catholic novice, or trainee nun, described here by another woman

also raped in the same displacement camp:

“She was a very beautiful young girl. She started crying and did not leave.

About 10 army men came. They grabbed and pulled her as she was holding on

to the Reverend Sisters and refused to go. The Reverend Father came and told

them not to take her and they slapped him for interfering. They took her about

1pm in the afternoon and said that they were taking her for an inquiry. They

dragged her to a small building. They brought her back about 8pm that night in

a vehicle and let her go on the road outside our hall. She had difficulty

walking. She was wearing a Punjabi dress, but the shawl she had been wearing

when she was taken was missing. Her clothes were totally wrinkled. She was

crying and in total depression. She would not talk even though we kept trying

to comfort her. She finally exclaimed, “Everything is over for me”. She

collapsed to the floor and was semi-conscious. In the morning when it was light

we saw cigarette burns on her legs and hands. As people were around I just

looked up to her knees there were many burns. I could also see her arms and

hands up to her biceps to the cuff of her blouse and there were many burns up

to the cuff. I did not look under her clothes… She would not take water or

food. She just wanted to lie there. She would not get out of bed from then until

I left the camp. We had to spoon feed her. She was always crying. Her mental

health was not normal at all. It was if she was in a daze – just staring straight

ahead and it is was like she was seeing nothing.”

(Witness number omitted for witness protection reasons)

Since its inception there were persistent and credible reports of sexual violence

and torture in Manik Farm and other internment camps run by the security

forces but the Government of Sri Lanka has taken no steps to investigate.

Artillery point

Secret camp

Trincomalee

Naval

D ockyard Secret

Tor ture Site

Case Study 3: Secret Torture Site: Trincomalee

Naval Dockyard

Background

The existence of secret torture sites in Sri Lanka has long been alleged by

human rights groups.

In 2011, Felice Gaer, Vice Chair of the UN Committee

Against Torture, called for an independent investigation into allegations of

secret torture sites in Sri Lanka.

The UN Committee’s report included a special

section on secret sites, which said:

“Notwithstanding the statement of the Sri Lankan delegation categorically

denying all allegations about the existence of unacknowledged detention

facilities in its territory, the Committee is seriously concerned about reports

received from non-governmental sources regarding secret detention centres

run by the Sri Lankan military intelligence and paramilitary groups where

enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings have allegedly been

perpetrated (art. 2 and 11). The State party should ensure that no one is

detained in any secret detention centres, as these facilities are per se a breach

of the Convention. The State party should investigate and disclose the

existence of any such facilities and the authority under which any of them has

been established. The State party should also ensure that the results of the

investigation are made public. It should abolish any such facilities and any

perpetrators found responsible should be held accountable.

”

Despite the request four years ago from the UN, the Government of Sri Lanka

has yet to initiate an effective investigation into allegations of secret camps.

54 “Agents of Sri Lanka’s security services routinely hold detainees in unofficial places of detention, including commandeered school

buildings, private homes and factories. Secret detention is rife”, Sri Lanka: briefing to Committee Against Torture, October

2011,Amnesty International, Accessed at

https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/.../asa370162011en.pdf.

Amnesty repeated

the allegation the following year in Reconciliation at a crossroads: Continuing impunity, arbitrary detentions, torture and enforced

disappearances, Amnesty International Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review, October- November 2012, Accessed at

https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/.../asa370082012en.pdf.

55 'Secret detention centres' in Sri Lanka, BBC Sinhala Online, 8 November 2011, Accessed at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/11/111108_torture.shtml

56 Committee Against Torture, “Sri Lanka, Concluding Observations of the Committee against Torture,” UN Doc. CAT/C/LKA/CO/3-4, 8

December 2011, para 8, Accessed on 26 March 2015 at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/co/CAT.C.LKA.CO.3-4_en.pdf

The term “secret site” has been used loosely with regard to Sri Lanka to

describe a situation where the detainee has been taken blindfolded to a place

that is unknown to him or her

. Considerable efforts were made by the security

forces to keep the location of the camps secret from the person being tortured,

while at the same time showing little or no concern over whether their own

identities were hidden from the victim.

An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka 2009-2014

, the

majority of detainees did not know where they had been held. However, some

of them gave detailed descriptions of camps that appeared to be military sites,

with check points and speed bumps at the entrance and multiple men in

military uniforms present. It is reasonable to presume that these are not secret

sites at all, but established army camps, whose identity is only kept secret from

the detainee being tortured.

The case of the Trincomalee Naval Dockyard is somewhat different, in that the

detainees knew where they were being held, but according to their accounts

considerable efforts were made to hide their location from their family

members, the authorities and other branches and members of the security

forces. However, no attempt was made to hide the location of the site from the

detainees themselves over the years they spent there.

This secret torture site run by naval intelligence was hidden in the jungle-

covered hills of the Trincomalee Naval Dockyards compound (GPS: 8’33’26’13 N,

81’14’32’87 E). The detention buildings were clustered around an old colonial

artillery point. One detention site included small cement cells in an

underground bunker and there was another area for holding prisoners above

ground.

The detainees were blindfolded on the way in and their families were never told

where they were being held, despite repeated requests to the authorities,

57 In the BBC Sinhala Service story on the Amnesty report it says the human rights group had named seven secret sites - Poonthottam

Maha Vidyalaya, 211 Brigade headquarters, Vallikulam Maha Vidyalaya, the PLOTE paramilitary detention centre (known as Mallar

Maligai) and Dharmapuram as five camps in Vavuniya while two camps were named from Mullaitivu. This is a misreading of the

Amnesty report, which is clear that Poonthottam and Vallikulam camps are “rehabilitation centres”. In addition 211 Brigade

Headquarters in Vavuniya is the Vanni Security Force Headquarters, also known as JOSEPH Camp (Joint Operational Security Force

Headquarters). JOSEPH camp is notorious in Sri Lanka as a torture site but it is not a secret site.

including to the navy who denied any knowledge of their whereabouts. The

secret site housed LTTE cadres and family members, some of whom were

captured at sea. Hooded informers were brought in to identify LTTE cadres

being held in the site.

Witnesses described being detained in the Naval Dockyard site along with

dozens of other people, however they said it was possible many more were held

in the area that they were not aware of because the site was a large area under

the control of naval intelligence and well hidden from outside view. The

witnesses interviewed were detained here from the end of the war in 2009 for

years.

We have additional evidence that other LTTE family members were held for

years in the main naval compound itself, rather than the secret location.

Torture

One witness described being interrogated and repeatedly tortured for many

months in this secret site. The witness heard the screams of men being tortured

and saw blood resulting from the torture of others. A witness said the methods

of physical torture used were: kicking, beating, hitting with plastic pipes while

seated or hung upside town and tied up, being beaten with cricket wickets,

being confined in a tiny box for days, burned with cigarettes, and toe nails and

teeth forcibly removed. One witness describes being tortured by various

methods over a long period of time and being sexually abused.

Witnesses described the men who tortured them as often being drunk. Their

interrogators asked where the LTTE weapons and money were buried and often

required detainees to turn informer, which some did. The detainees were never

charged or given access to a lawyer. They also had no access to their families or

ICRC, the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission or any other external

organisation.

Commanders

Witnesses say the naval intelligence officer running the site initially until 2010

was Lt Commander Welagedara. A Lt Commander Ranasinghe then took over

the running of the site, according to survivors. Lt Commander K C Welagedara

has been described in the local media in Sri Lanka as a staff officer of the

marine intelligence unit, allegedly involved in human trafficking to Australia

In August 2012 he was awarded a long service medal

. His officer number is:

NRX 1583.

In addition, ITJP has the names and ranks of 10 other navy members whom

survivors state were involved in torture in this site and the details of an officer

and other guards present who were fully aware of the torture going on.

Release

The detainees interviewed were released to a rehabilitation site only after their

relatives had paid large sums of money as a bribe or ransom to the navy. On

release the witnesses were given express orders by naval intelligence officer, Lt

Commander Ranasinghe, not to tell anyone, including other members of the

security forces or rehabilitation services, that they had been held in the Naval

Dockyard. Their official release documents do not mention that they were

detained for many years in Trincomalee Naval Dockyards.

Corroboration

Various witnesses have provided our investigators with a number of

photographs clearly depicting those witnesses, many of their captors and this

site during their detention.

58 Hendavitharana masterminded Australia human trafficking! LankaNewsWeb, 25 February 2015.

59 The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Number 1774/1, 3 September 2012, accessed at

http://www.documents.gov.lk/Extgzt/2012/PDF/Sep/1774_01/1774_01%20(E).pdf

Two recent media reports refer to a camp with underground detention cells

inside the Trincomalee naval site, which was referred to as “Gunside”. The

report said the site was sealed by police investigators

In addition, the Sri Lankan media has reported on a camp within the Naval

Dockyard in Trincomalee that reportedly held 35 families and 700 Tamils

. The

source for the story was TNA MP Suresh Premachandran, who mentioned the

issue in the Sri Lankan parliament in February 2015 and asked for an

investigation – a call that has been ignored so far. Reports in the media say the

Prime Minister and the Justice Minister cited the Navy Commander denying the

existence of such a camp

Another report on

TamilNet

said two survivors had been released from what it

called “Gota’s Camp” and had testified to the United Nations

. In March 2012,

Amnesty International cited the testimony of a former LTTE member detained

and tortured by naval intelligence and used as an informer by them. He told

Amnesty there was “a secret detention facility within the Navy dockyards – a

secured area that includes the ruins of British and Dutch fortifications.

” In

addition a Sri Lankan group,

The Social Architects (TSA),

independently of ITJP

recently produced this information in one of their reports:

“One eyewitness told TSA that the Government of Sri Lanka held 15 prisoners in

the Trinco Navy Head Quarters from April 2009 – June 2012. For three years, the

eyewitness and his fellow prisoners only had outside contact with the military

intelligence from Joseph Camp in Vavuniya. The Government did not send them

to a rehabilitation camp or tell their families that the prisoners were alive and

in detention. The Government finally informed the prisoners’ family members

about the detention in June 2012 and subsequently took the prisoners to

Maruthamadu, Chettikulam Rehabilitation Centre for six months before

releasing them. TSA cannot provide the eyewitness’s full account of this

Secret Detention Camps of Sri Lanka Navy in Colombo and Trincomalee, 11 July 2015, The Tamil Diplomat, accessed at

http://tamildiplomat.com/secret-detention-camps-of-sri-lanka-navy-detected-in-colombo-and-trincomalee/ and Underground secret

detention center found at Colombo, 10 July 2015, Lankasrinews, accessed at

http://www.lankasrinews.com/view.php?22KOllaacT5YY44e3yMC2022mmB3dddBBm4300MgAAee4eY55cca3lOO23

61 Secret camp operated in Trincomalee naval base, Sri Lanka Tamil party alleges, Colombo Page, 21 Feb 2015, Accessed at

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_15A/Feb21_1424503390CH.php

62 Evidence ready on Gota camp – Premachandran, 20 March 2015, Sri Lanka Mirror, Accessed at

http://english.srilankamirror.com/news/item/2889-evidence-ready-on-gota-camp-premachandran

63 OISL in acid test over witness submissions on ‘Gota camp’, TamilNet, 18 April 2015, Accessed at

http://tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=37732

64 Locked Away, Sri Lanka’s Security Detainees, 2012, Amnesty International.

unauthorized detention facility because the prisoners were threatened with

death if they exposed the truth”

As far as we can establish, these media and NGO reports in Sri Lanka are all

based on different witnesses.

All the witnesses we know of who were held in this secret camp were released

after some years of detention. It is not clear if the site is still operational other

than the statements of various witnesses, who state that other detainees were

still there on their release. If media reports are correct and the correct site has

been located and sealed then forensic tests should be done and evidence

secured. If at least dozens of detainees were held here for three years or longer,

there will also be detailed logs of food supplies and guard rotas, as well as

witness case files and records of interrogations, which can be secured for

future prosecutions if there is political will. In addition, there are credible

allegations against named naval intelligence officers who should now be

questioned.

65 Whose democracy is it anyway, 3 January 2015, Groundviews, Accessed at http://groundviews.org/2015/03/01/whose-democracy-is-

it-anyway/

At the Embassies in some overseas

countries the Government of

Sri Lanka has members of their

intelligence services. They collect

information. I am not aware if

they ever carry out threats and

intimidation of those who have

escaped or sought asylum. The

easiest way for the Government to

get someone who is living overseas

is to threaten or carry out actions

against their family members who

are still living inside Sri Lanka to

force them to return back where

they can then be disappeared.”

White Van Operator

C. Reprisals and Persecution

Surveillance and Intimidation of Witnesses

Families of Sri Lankan torture survivors who have fled abroad are

routinely harassed by the security forces.

Surveillance and intimidation has continued unabated after the 8

January 2015 elections.

Among survivors interviewed in 2014 and 2015, at least a quarter of

family members in Sri Lanka of witnesses abroad suffered violence

ranging from beatings to torture, gang rape, disappearance and even

death.

Revenge attacks occurred against those who protested about family

members when the UK Prime Minister visited Jaffna in 2013.

Warnings to Keep Silent

In many cases, survivors of torture have been expressly warned by the security

forces not to communicate with foreigners or provide outsiders evidence of war

crimes or the abuse they suffered in detention. However, they are encouraged

to tell other Tamils to spread the sense of fear, like this woman detained in

2013:

“One woman guard there would say 'Go and tell your people how you have been

tortured so that they will never be an LTTE, it should not even be in anyone’s

dream to form an LTTE, we will torture you again.' When I was released this

guard told me that if I told any foreigners about what happened she would

abduct my children. She said the only ones I should tell were other Tamil

women so that they would never rise up again.”

(Witness 32)

The US State Department 2014 report on Sri Lanka also stated that:

“There were reports that authorities released detainees with a warning not to

reveal information about their arrest or detention, under the threat of re-arrest

or death.

”

The very few survivors who have spoken out about post-war rape in public

abroad have had to endure extraordinary retribution. “Nandini” (not her real

name) who courageously spoke on BBC TV

in 2013 about being abducted in a

white van, tortured and raped has been repeatedly and publicly vilified by the

Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence website which accused her and everyone

connected with her case of lying

. “Nandini’s” account, which was backed up

by independent expert medical evidence, of brutal abuse at the hands of the Sri

Lankan security forces has however been accepted by the UK Home Office

which granted her asylum. Indeed, the UK Home Office or UK courts have

either accepted the evidence of the over 100 witnesses who have given ITJP

sworn statements and granted them asylum, or their cases are still pending.

The UK and other Courts have not rejected and deported a single witness that

we have relied upon in this report.

Shamed

The perpetrators are well aware that the particular stigma in Tamil society of

being a sexual violence survivor helps to deter witnesses from ever speaking of

what happened. A young woman who was one of many gang raped by soldiers

in a bunker in May 2009 while bound, blindfolded and gagged, tried to tell her

mother what had happened. Her mother responded by trying to change her

daughter’s torn clothes to hide the crime so as to avoid the stigma and shame

that would follow from the rape becoming known. “Nothing happened here,”

she told her daughter and silenced her. Sadly even amongst the victims, the

victims of rape and sexual violence continue to bear the shame.

An aid worker from Sri Lanka described the typical attitude in the island:

66 Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014, accessed at

http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?year=2014&dlid=236650#wrapper

67 Tamils still being raped and tortured in Sri Lanka, 9 November 2013, BBC Online, Accessed on 21 April 2015 at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24849699

68 Torture 'Clinics' in UK as Pathway to Asylum? Exposure of Nandani's Act in BBC Documentary hosted by Frances Harrison in 2013, 11

January 2014, MOD wesbite, Accessed on 21 April 2015 at

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=Torture_Clinics_in_UK_as_Pathway_to_Asylum_20141014_01

“In Tamil culture virginity is considered something higher than any other virtue

in life until a girl is married. That is drilled from an early age. It is so important

that if lost, suicide is considered as a solution. She feels she is a bad woman

and unworthy and no male would want to marry her. In our culture the

proposed in-laws demand that the brides to their sons are virgins. They will

inquire and if the girl says she is not a virgin then the family will not allow the

marriage. It matters not whether she lost her virginity willingly or was raped. If

she is raped after marriage, as so often happened in the war by the security

forces, in most cases she will be rejected by society, including in-laws,

husbands, neighbours and in many cases their own families. Even if a girl is

called into the local police for interrogation the community will assume that

she was [sexually abused], even if she was not, and she will be shunned. Even

the family of such a girl will be stigmatised. The victim is abandoned by those

whose support she most needs at the worst time of her life, hence the reason

not just for so many suicides attempts but actual suicides.”

(Witness 111)

Having said this, thankfully there are many honourable loving Tamil men who

have not shunned their wives because of their misfortune in being victims of

sexual violence. This witness described her faith in her husband, though there is

much about what happened to her she cannot bring herself to tell anyone:

“I was confident that if I told him he would understand and continue to love

me. There are a lot more details of the sexual abuse of me, and other incidents

that I could tell the investigator about but I do not feel strong enough now.

Perhaps someday in the future I will have the strength to do so. I have now told

my husband of all these things and he still loves and accepts me.”

(Witness 110)

In addition there are many Tamil men in exile who have married women whom

they know have been raped and had children together, defying the social

stigma prevalent in Tamil culture and brutality of the perpetrators.

However, in the majority of cases we found young men and women tell their

families about the torture in detention but do not tell them anything about the

sexual abuse.

“My uncle lifted my shirt, and pulled my jeans up and checked my injuries. This

was done in the lights from the street, and the lights in the vehicle. We stopped

on the way and he bought me some juice, and rolls and biscuits, and

painkillers. No one sought medical attention for me. They asked me what had

happened to me. I told them briefly that they tortured me and beat me but did

not tell them they raped or sexually abused me. I could not tell my uncle that I

was sexually abused because I was embarrassed. They did not say much.”

(W2 describing his escape from detention after his uncle negotiated a ransom)

The following young man described his escape from weeks of illegal detention

in an unknown site. His father paid a ransom to the security forces to obtain

his release. They hid in a safe house in [coastal location] before a smuggler

took the witness to India by boat.

“As my father was cleaning my body and putting medicine on my wounds he

started crying. I told him in general terms how the CID hurt me. I did not tell

him about the sexual abuse that I had also experienced because of the shame I

felt.”

(Witness 36)

In addition, the branding with cigarette burns and hot metal rods on arms, legs

and backs of female survivors ensures that the family and the wider

community will know that a woman has been naked in custody and will, at the

very least, suspect there has been sexual abuse. It is intended to humiliate and

hurt not just the woman but all around her. The repeated, widespread and

deliberate use of a method of torture that leaves permanent scarring also

reveals the total sense of impunity felt by the perpetrators. Sadly, it matters

not in traditional Tamil Hindu culture if the sexual conduct was consensual or

under torture.

In some cases women would be raped while their family members, who knew

what was happening, waited for them outside.

“My father would always stay outside the camp until they finished the

interrogation. My father would know in his heart what they would have done to

me in the name of investigation. But he was helpless and would not ask

anything from me about the investigation. We would go back home without

having any conversation. No father should go through this kind of appalling

experience.”

(Witness 103)

Exploiting this acute sense of shame over sexual torture, and demonstrating

their unabashed behaviour, some perpetrators have gone one step further and

filmed their victims being sexually assaulted in order to prevent them from ever

speaking out, as happened to this Tamil woman:

“He had a video of me. He showed it to me. It was a cell phone video. I saw part

of it… I saw my face. I saw one person doing something bad sexually to me. I

do not want to say more at this time because I am upset thinking about what

they did to me.”

(Witness 42)

Monitoring & Surveillance

Tamil survivors of the war – civilians and combatants – continue to be subjected

to pervasive and invasive monitoring and surveillance by the security forces.

The former conflict areas of Sri Lanka are geographically small, and that makes

it easy for the authorities to trace and monitor the family members of former

LTTE members and sympathisers who have been in detention and resettled in

their villages. Civilians and combatants who survived the last phase of the war

were generally photographed on surrender and the details of their National

Identity Cards, their address and their family members and addresses recorded.

This was a conscious decision by the Sri Lankan state at the end of the war in

2009 to document and keep tabs on all potential LTTE sympathisers. The

information gathered is maintained and shared among security forces, and

serves as the basis for the ongoing surveillance, which ensures an ongoing

climate of fear and oppression. In 2014 the government introduced electronic

identity cards for what it said were national security reasons

Furthermore, in each “rehabilitation camp”, where at least 11,000 suspected

LTTE cadres were detained for years, every inmate was photographed and

fingerprinted, forced to give all their family details including names and

addresses and were assigned a reference number; these were kept in files that

moved with the inmates to different locations.

In addition, almost all those abducted and taken to unknown, illegal or secret

sites, military camps and/or police stations report being forced to sign

confession documents that were written for them in Sinhala, a language they

could not read; it is likely these documents have been stored for future use. All

the indications are the Sri Lankan security structures have meticulous records

of everyone who was detained or who had any past connection to the LTTE or

lived under LTTE control, even (as with many of our witnesses) if they were not

members of the LTTE. This is information that the government and security

forces sadly refuse to share with the families of the disappeared who are still

desperately seeking answers six years after the end of the war.

Many released detainees who have provided ITJP with statements have been

required to report to local police stations and/or military camps to sign in, like

an attendance register. Many of them are sexually abused when they do so.

Others are repeatedly visited in their homes by security forces, which makes

the young women of the family especially feel very insecure. The security forces

have unfettered access to Tamil homes to inspect, monitor and record, with

the result that even one’s own home is not safe, especially when some are little

better than flimsy shacks with no locks on the door to prevent intruders at

night.

69 Sri Lanka’s new e-NICs collect personal data, family information, adoption details, Shania Smith, 26 August 2014, The Republic

Square, Accessed at http://www.therepublicsquare.com/tech/2014/08/sri-lankas-new-e-nics-collect-personal-data-family-

information-adoption-details/

Telephone Calls

Most torture survivors we interviewed said they feared calling home because

they believed the calls were monitored by the intelligence services in Sri Lanka.

They felt anything they said on the phone would put their families in danger.

Several have never called their families because of this fear. Others

communicated through a neighbour or used another person to pass on

messages. Conversations were very brief and covered general topics.

In this environment of terror, the connection with the family is disrupted. This

exacerbates the loneliness of exile and the asylum process and makes full

recovery from torture impossible. This is more so in a culture where the family is

a central support for coping with crises

. This witness is describing harassment

of her parents in June 2015:

“They are old, my parents, so they just harass them saying if I come back they

must hand me over. I don’t speak to my parents on the phone unless they are in

Jaffna because I don’t think it’s safe and when we speak it’s my brother who

initiates the call in such a way that it hides where the call comes from.

(Witness number obscured for protection)

The fear of telephoning home is so extreme that when this young asylum seeker

finally received the news that he had been granted asylum in the UK he was

unable to tell his mother straight away:

“My mother and younger sister are in Sri Lanka. I don’t phone my mum; I wait

for her to call. She doesn’t know I have asylum yet. I haven’t been able to tell

her the news. My mother has changed her address and is living in a different

place but she hasn’t told us on the phone where she is for security reasons.”

(Witness 3, speaking in 2015)

70 Professor Daya Somasundaram writes of the family being paramount in non-western 'collectivist' cultures. He says, “Tamil families,

due to close and strong bonds and cohesiveness in nuclear and extended families, tend to function and respond to external threat or

trauma as a unit rather than as individual members. They share the experience and perceive the event in a particular way. During

times of traumatic experiences, the family will come together with solidarity to face the threat as a unit and provide mutual support

and protection”. From: Collective trauma in northern Sri Lanka: a qualitative psychosocial-ecological study, Daya Somasundaram,

October 2007, International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2007, 1:5.

Many witnesses told us that the security forces ask their families in Sri Lanka

for their whereabouts and in particular their telephone numbers abroad. This

indicates the security services continue to take an interest in torture survivors

who have left the country.

“Since I came to the UK, they have visited my home seven or eight times. The

last time was about a month ago. On that occasion they asked for my photo

and phone number in the UK. My family said I had changed my phone number.

This was just before the elections.”

(Witness 76, speaking in 2015)

And with the UN investigation into Sri Lanka being announced in March 2014,

with their actual investigations beginning that summer, it appears the

authorities started to take a special interest in the whereabouts of witnesses to

key war crimes (like the white flag incident, which involved the killing of

surrendering LTTE leaders

), such as this one:

“Once my family were visited just after the UN Human Rights Council

announced its inquiry [March 2014]. My brother was told to come to a civilian

office of the army. They asked about me and my whereabouts. He said I was

abroad and they had no contact with me. I do not call often and when I do it is

very brief. I use a block so my number doesn't show up.”

(Witness 45a, speaking in 2015)

Witnesses also report their calls and movements being monitored while they

were still in Sri Lanka.

71 For more on the white flag incident see

www.white-flags.org

by ITJP-SL.

Reprisals for Participating in Political Activity: Outside Sri Lanka

In several cases witnesses mentioned that they or their family members had

been questioned about their participation in anti-government protests or war

commemoration events abroad. Some reported the Sri Lankan security forces

had showed them, or their families, photographs of themselves at these

protests. This indicates the Sri Lankan security forces are monitoring these

gatherings outside the country. In the UK at least, some Tamil diaspora

organisations have responded by banning cameras at annual Heroes’ Day

commemorations for the safety of the participants.

Reprisals for Participating in Political Activities: Inside Sri Lanka

One recent witness was abducted in a “white van” during the 8 January 2015

presidential election campaign and tortured and sexually abused. He was

kicked, slapped, punched, beaten with batons and plastic pipes filled with

sand, beaten on the soles of the feet, burned with cigarettes butts, his head

was covered with a plastic bag sprayed with petrol, his head was submerged in

water. He said he was also sexually assaulted but was too distressed to go into

the detail. His torturers warned him not to get involved in campaigning for the

Tamil National Alliance or TNA.

“They said I am trying to turn people against

the government and diminish its reputation internationally,”

said the witness,

“My detainers mentioned my TNA activity and said I shouldn’t do this”.

Several witnesses have testified that although children and spouses have

disappeared, they and other relatives are now too frightened to search for

them. One man said his parents-in-law were witnessed being abducted in

Jaffna in 2008 and since then have disappeared without trace. A witness to the

abduction was killed on his way to identify the suspects in court.

72 For further discussion of surveillance abroad see Page 63 of our March 2014 report, An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in

Sri Lanka 2009-2014.

“In every letter my mum has mentioned that the CID have gone to the

house and she said that they come quite often looking for me. One time

when they came they showed a photo of me at a demonstration in London

in 2013 with the LTTE flag. I was participating in the demonstration. I don’t

know where they took the photo from but they showed it to my mum. My

mother told them it was me. Another time the CID went to the house with

a photograph of me at the Heroes Day demonstration in London on 27

November 2013. They showed this photograph to my father. After he had

seen it he said it was me.”

Witness 31

“They were saying that I

escaped from the country

and I am involved in diaspora

activities and they have the

proof of me participating in

demonstrations. They showed

my parents some photographs

taken off the Internet. My

parents recognised me. After

this incident took place they

relocated. I don’t know where

they are now.”

Witness 19

“He said ‘until we get the truth from

you, you will be tortured’. I said ‘no,

I was not with the LTTE’. He said I

was and they had evidence I had

been in XXX, that I had attended

Heroes Day celebrations, that they

had photographs.”

Witness 29

“They put me on my stomach on the floor. One of them took his heavy

shoes and placed them on the back of my neck and pushed my face into

the floor. They wanted me to look at a picture of me and some strangers at

a protest that I had attended in the UK. I could not see the picture as my

face was being ground into the floor. One on them squatted down and put

the picture where I could see it. It indeed was a picture of me as they said. I

admitted that but they kept demanding the names of the others. I did not

know them and they did not believe me so they kept torturing me.”

Witness 33

Case Study 4: The Visit of David Cameron to Jaffna

5 cases of torture connected to the protests in Jaffna.

On 15th November 2013, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, visited

Jaffna during the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM).

His convoy was met by the families of the disappeared, pleading for his help in

locating their loved ones. This is how one of the organisers later described it:

When David Cameron came to Jaffna, we almost blocked the road and wanted

him to look at our situation. Some ladies went to the car and tried to show him

the photos of their missing children. The army removed us forcibly by pulling

and pushing them off the road. Even women were dragged away and pushed

down to the ground.”

(Witness 77)

Little did Mr. Cameron know at the time but several buses full of Tamils who

wanted to see him were stopped by the security forces and turned back before

they could get anywhere near the centre of Jaffna, like the bus on which this

young man travelled:

“I joined a group of people travelling by bus to join a demonstration about the

issue of the disappeared Tamils in Sri Lanka. We all had a photograph of the

missing people from our families. I had a picture of my XXX. The army boarded

the bus and made the driver divert the route.”

(Witness 41)

The British Prime Minister’s visit was well covered by international journalists

who accompanied him to Jaffna. The story made headline news that

overshadowed the formal opening ceremony of the Commonwealth meeting in

Colombo and caused further embarrassment to the Sri Lankan government.

This was after the meeting in Colombo had already been boycotted by Canada

because of concerns over human rights and several heads of state decided not

to attend the opening ceremony. The Sri Lankan security forces were quick to

threaten the organisers and participants afterwards, as these witnesses testify:

“I arranged the demonstrations during the visit of David Cameron to Jaffna

during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2013

and that put me at risk. I was threatened by CID who telephoned me and said

that I shouldn’t do things that damage the reputation of Sri Lanka.”

(Witness 102)

“About a week later the CID in civilian clothes and Army came to where we

were living and told me that I was not to be involved in this kind of activity any

more. They said if you do you know what will happen to you.”

(Witness 77)

“We arranged people to participate in the demonstrations when David

Cameron visited Jaffna in 2013 November. After that I had visits from CID but I

was not there as I was at work. The visits started maybe after a month. So then

I started to feel frightened. I gave up the job and moved…They visited my home

in XXX and asked for my contact details and whereabouts.”

(Witness 117)

“I was involved in the Cameron demonstrations in 2013 held by the families of

disappeared. I also worked with the Tamil National Alliance and gathered the

people in order to get the attention of the British Prime Minister by showing the

photos of the disappeared. When we tried to do this we were stopped by CID

and intelligence and threatened. They tried to disperse the crowd. The people

still gathered and shouted when his vehicle passed. I was there and involved in

organising the crowd along with my friends. I didn’t have immediate problems.

My family advised me to keep a low profile as we heard the news of others

involved being threatened and taken. Others were threatened and warned. My

friend called XXX left the country because of these threats and he was involved

in the Cameron demonstrations.”

(Witness 122)

The UK Foreign Office promised it would monitor reprisals against people that

Mr Cameron met. The likelihood of reprisals was considered high by the UK

Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, which wrote in its 2014 report on the

FCO’s human rights work in 2013:

“We recommended that the Prime Minister, prior to the CHOGM, should obtain

assurances from the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure that people who

approached him to talk about human rights would not face reprisals or

harassment by security forces. The FCO, in its response to our report, said that

it had emphasised to the Sri Lankan government that human rights defenders,

journalists and members of the public,who met with ministers during CHOGM

should not face any reprisals. It is not clear to us from this response whether

the people who spoke with the Prime Minister had faced reprisals or been

subject to harassment: we recommend that the FCO, in its response to this

report, outline how it monitored whether people who spoke with the Prime

Minister about human rights have faced reprisals, and whether the FCO has

any knowledge of reprisal attacks on people who met the British delegation

during its visit to Sri Lanka in November 2013.

”

A Freedom of Information claim was submitted to the Home Office by an ITJP

member, asking (a) if they had any information about reprisals and (b) how

many Sri Lankans had submitted asylum claims alleging reprisals connected to

the David Cameron visit and (c) the severity of the reprisal. The claim was

rejected on the grounds that it would cost too much to process. An initial reply

from the Home Office referenced Syria rather than Sri Lanka but was then

corrected. A similar Freedom of Information claim was submitted to the

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which replied:

“The British High Commission in Colombo remains in contact with many of

those who met the Prime Minister in Sri Lanka in 2013. High Commission staff

have also returned to visit places including Uthayan Press and the

Sapapathypillai Welfare Centre, to follow up on the PM's visit. We have no

knowledge that any of those met by the delegation have experienced reprisals

73 The FCO's human rights work in 2013 - Foreign Affairs Committee, accessed at

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201415/cmselect/cmfaff/551/55107.htm

as a result of the PM's visit, neither have we received allegations of reprisals,

credible or otherwise… We have consistently made clear to the current Sri

Lankan government, as we did to the previous government, the importance of

safeguarding freedom of expression and protecting human rights defenders.

The Sri Lankan government have committed to uphold their international

human rights obligations and to ensure that civil society, human rights

defenders and activists are allowed the space to act freely".

At least five Tamil men suffered torture after participating in or organising

these protests – three of them immediately after - and the other two later on

but still in connection with their involvement in arranging protests during the

Cameron visit. We have interviewed all five men who are now in the UK. Their

asylum applications are pending and the information is with the Home Office.

Apart from suffering torture, several of the five witnesses also have close

family members who disappeared at the end of the war and/or were abducted

and disappeared after the war. One of the men described how his family had

already been threatened to prevent them registering a disappearance

complaint.

“During that time we approached the Bishop of Mannar who was collecting a

list of the missing people. We gave my XXX’s name, entered a complaint and

requested help in finding him. The army discovered that we had made this

request and they came to our house and told us to withdraw the complaint.

About seven of them came in uniform and threatened to kill my mother unless

our complaint was withdrawn.”

(Witness 41)

For all five men the abductions took place in a similar fashion – being stopped

by approximately five men and bundled into a white van or jeep, blindfolded

and handcuffed and taken to a site where they were tortured and sexually

abused.

The torture methods included being hung upside down and beaten, cigarette

burns, branding with a hot metal rod and being suffocated by a plastic bag

soaked in petrol, as this witness describes:

“They held my head from behind and put a bag full of petrol on my head and

held it tight. This lasted about 10 seconds. It was burning and suffocating. The

fumes were burning my eyes and skin. Things happened to me on many days

after that but I can't be sure which ones. It was very hard to keep track of

which days were which. For the first week it was always the same three men

who tortured me. After that it was sometimes different people.”

(Witness 39)

In all five cases there was sexual abuse and in some repeated anal rapes. This is

how the men described the sexual torture they endured:

“They took my underwear off and made me lay on the floor on my back and

they took a plastic pipe about 1.5 to 2" in diameter and forced it up my anus.

They put it in and out two to three times. They took a wire about 1/4 inch in

diameter. The one end was sharp. They forced it up my penis. I was screaming

in pain. They pulled the wire out once. They took my penis and twisted like one

would to wring out wet cloths. I was screaming in pain. They put petrol in a

polythene bag and put it over my head. I lost consciousness. I woke up in that

room. I do not know how long I was unconscious. The bag was not longer on

my head. I was still naked. They gave me water and gave me my underwear to

put on. They then took me and put my head in a half barrel of water and

submerged it under the water two or three times causing me to choke but I did

not lose consciousness. ”

(Witness 77)

“I tried to stop him from coming near me but he pushed me. He made me lean

over and hold onto table and then he penetrated me with his penis. He didn't

talk or say anything while this happened. He ejaculated, there was a kind of

liquidly stuff there. Afterwards it was painful in my anus. That sexual assault

was repeated 3 or 4 times in the course of my detention. The torture did not

stop. The petrol bag was repeated two more times, and the submerging of my

head in water was repeated about twice a week. They frequently kicked me in

the body and stamped on me with boots on.”

(Witness 41)

The witnesses were given clear warnings not to take part in political protests,

including in one case campaigning for the presidential elections:

“They said I am trying to turn people against the government and diminish its

reputation internationally. Mainly they were asking about my involvement in

organizing demonstrations and in the LTTE. I was involved in the TNA’s election

campaign and that was public knowledge. I posted posters and distributed

leaflets. My interrogators mentioned my TNA activity and said I shouldn’t do

this.”

(Witness 117)

All the witnesses have close family members still in Sri Lanka who are at grave

risk of further reprisals if they are identified. One also had a friend involved in

political activity, who was killed in October 2014. The witness says his friend

was involved in organising the Cameron protests in November 2013 and told

him he had been threatened afterwards.

“In August 2014 my friend Nagulaswaran told me that he had been threatened

by the army that they would shoot him. He was doing the same kind of work

as me in Northern Sri Lanka. I came to know that he was killed by the Army in

his home in Velankulam in October 2014

.”

(Witness Number withheld for Witness Protection Reasons)

74 Mannar Bishop Condemns Killing of LTTE Cadre, 15 November 2014, UK Tamil News, accessed at

http://www.uktamilnews.com/?p=6266

reports on his death. Former Tamil Tiger rebel killed in Sri Lanka, PTI Nov 14, 2014, accessed at

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2014-11-14/news/56093092_1_tamil-tiger-liberation-tigers-tamil-eelam.

Another

version of the story suggests it is a dispute between Tamils: Naguleswaran killing not by Army, 23 November 2014, Ceylon Today,

accessed at http://www.bazeerlanka.com/2014/11/naguleswaran-killing-not-by-army.html?m=1

In addition at least one sexual violence survivor abroad reported that a family

member in Sri Lanka was physically attacked after the witness had taken part

in a protest around CHOGM in the UK:

“While in the UK I took part in several demonstrations against the Sri Lankan

government, including protests at the time of the Commonwealth Heads of

Government Meeting in Colombo in November 2013. Men from the CID went to

my parents' house and told my mother that they have evidence that I was

working against the Sri Lankan government abroad. My mother told me this

briefly on the phone. We do not speak much on the phone as we are concerned

about the phones being tapped. My father was attacked by unknown people

not long after.”

(Witness 35)

The reprisals after the Cameron visit are part of a pattern of intimidation of the

families of the disappeared and activists who work with them. These include

the well publicised arrests in March 2014 of Ruki Fernando and Father Praveen,

as well as Mrs Balenderan Jayakumari who herself had demonstrated in Jaffna

during the David Cameron visit

. Mrs Jayakumari was threatened afterwards

and then detained without charge for more than a year. Her son disappeared

after surrendering to the army and, like some other families, she has a

photograph of him in a “rehabilitation centre” for ex-LTTE members. The

photograph was printed in a government report. She says this is proof that he

was alive in government custody but has now vanished. She has yet to receive

any explanation from the authorities about the fate of her son. A witness ITJP

interviewed in the UK said he had seen Balenderan Jayakumari’s son alive in

mid-2012 in a rehabilitation camp in Senapura in the east of the island. The

witness said Mrs Jayakumari’s son was one of four young Tamils sent to the

nearby Minneriya Army Camp to cook for soldiers there.

Several other witnesses reported to ITJP that they experienced reprisals and

intimidation after they tried to search for missing family members from the

war. After being abducted, tortured and raped, this witness was freed but all

around her were too scared – and remain too scared – to search for the other

75 Arrests of Sri Lankan activists condemned by Foreign Office , 17 March 2014 Channel 4, accessed at

http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-arrested-activists-fernando-mahesan-human-rights

100

close members of her family abducted at the same time who have

subsequently disappeared without trace.

“My family has been threatened to not complain about or look for me or spouse

or son. They said that that they would be killed if they did. My family is afraid

and thus did not look for my missing spouse and son. “

(Witness 95)

Impunity is so entrenched that the authorities have actually told the families of

the disappeared that their relatives never existed, as happened to this torture

and sexual violence survivor:

“Recently one of the ex-LTTE members released from the rehabilitation centre

informed us that my brother is alive. He is in one of the detention centres. The

ex-member told my father it would not be safe for him if my father were to

give his name to the authorities but said if you want you can ask them about

your son. My father then went looking for my brother in that rehabilitation

camp. He was told they did not have my brother there and he should go to the

camp in Vavuniya. There he was told no such person was in detention.

Afterwards my father approached UNHCR and international organisations to

see if he could find my brother and he went to the police station to make a

complaint but they wouldn’t accept it. After he tried to make the complaint

the authorities came to our house, threatened him and pushed him and said

why are you making a complaint about a person who does not exist?”.

(Witness 5)

This degree of impunity does not bode well in a country that is still believed to

have the second highest number of unresolved disappearance cases in the

world

and where the UN has reportedly recorded 5,671 reported cases of

wartime-related disappearance, not counting people who went missing in the

final phase of the war

76 Sri Lanka’s Disappeared Thousands, 29 March 1999, BBC online, accessed at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/306447.stm

and Scandal of Sri Lanka’s disappeared, The Daily Telegraph, 17 October

2013, accessed at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/srilanka/10387036/Scandal-of-Sri-Lankas-disappeared.html

77 SRI LANKA: Thousands missing three years after war ends, 18 May 2012, IRIN, accessed at http://www.irinnews.org/report/95477/

101

There has been a domestic Disappearances Commission, which received 19,000

complaints of disappearance from soldiers’ families and Tamils. Some of the

Tamil families have started boycotting its hearings in protest

. A Tamil MP

complained that all the Commission did was offer women chickens:

“It is in this background that this Commission on Missing Persons was

appointed and I wish to categorically state that this Commission, the

Paranagama Commission, has been a farce... This Commission has received

nearly 20,000 complaints, but there is a great selectivity in the way that

witnesses are called to give evidence here. I have seen personally, the moment

a witness comes close to identifying the perpetrator in her evidence,

immediately, the Commission intervenes and stops that evidence and starts

asking about whether they have received some chicken or some goats for their

livelihood, and invariably the mothers of the disappeared scream and say, ‘I do

not want a goat, I want my son back because I handed over my son to the

security forces. I am an eyewitness to this. I, myself, handed the person over. I

do not want your chickens, I do not want your goats’. That is the pain that they

suffer and this Commission has done more to inflict pain on them than it has

done to ease it.

“

Furthermore one of ITJP’s witnesses had to flee Sri Lanka after a wife testified

to this Commission that our witness had seen her husband in army custody on

the last day of the war. Our witness was hunted down – not to testify to

ascertain the truth but to silence him – and he had to go into hiding and then

escape abroad to save his life.

78 Numbers of people disappeared in Sri Lanka conflict exaggerated: Head of probe panel, 12 August 2014, PTI, accessed at

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report-numbers-of-people-disappeared-in-sri-lanka-conflict-exaggerated-head-of-probe-panel-

2010083

79 Speech made in the Sri Lankan parliament by Hon. M.A. Sumanthiran, 17 March 2015.

102

The Extensive Use of Informers

Many witnesses who lived abroad returned home because of family funerals or

family weddings, or because they were told that President Rajapaksa had

declared it safe for Tamils to return home. Some who had participated in

Heroes Day celebrations honouring those LTTE killed in combat, or who had

participated in lawful protests abroad, came to the attention of the security

forces and were apprehended on their return to Sri Lanka, and severely tortured

and sexually abused.

A security force insider testified since the presidential election in 2015 that

military intelligence officials from Joseph Camp were actively looking for any

Tamils returning home from abroad in order to interrogate them

. The witness

stated that the intention was to abduct, detain and torture them. We have

obtained multiple photographs of informers and from showing these to

witnesses who have recently arrived in the UK we know several informers are

still active in the Vanni. This makes this period of apparent openness and

reconciliation generated by the change of government one of great risk,

especially when there is no demilitarisation or reduction in surveillance.

In addition to detailed state intelligence records, multiple accounts from

witnesses and local activists in the North and East make it clear there are still

informers in every village who report any movements in or out to the security

forces:

“The most recent visit to my parents was in early February [2015] by military

intelligence. They asked about my brother and me and they asked my dad to go

to XXX army camp and interrogated him for three hours. My dad was

hospitalised afterwards as he has high blood pressure. Before this incident the

security forces visited four or five times. My parents would go to stay with

relatives elsewhere to escape it – they were almost in hiding. As soon as they

return home, someone informs the army and they appear the next day.”

80 Witness 118.

103

(Witness 90)

However the informers are not just villagers who report on their neighbours’

movements. Hundreds of former LTTE cadres have been coerced into becoming

informers for the security forces, after being tortured or threatened with

torture. They have now been released into the community – and some sent

overseas – to spy on their fellow Tamils for the Sri Lankan state

“The Army and CID were using cadres they had captured and they put them

back into the Tamil community to identify other cadres. Then they would round

them up. I did not personally see this but it was accepted as common

knowledge.”

(Witness 12 discussing aftermath of war and resettlement from Manik Farm)

Informers undermine the cohesion of a community already traumatised by

decades of conflict and senseless violence. They spread fear, distrust and

betrayal at a time when gaping and festering divides need to be healed.

Informers also hack at the fabric of the community, heaping trauma upon an

already traumatised community.

Many witnesses who surrendered at the end of the war at the Wadduvakal

Bridge or at Omanthai Checkpoint report being identified by informers, like this

forced underage recruit to the LTTE, who was then forced to work for the Sri

Lankan military as an informant himself:

“I was given sunglasses and a hat for a disguise so that the cadres would not

identify me.”

(Witness 18 on being forced to work as an informer)

The extent of the Sri Lanka security forces’ use of Tamil informers in the post-

war period does not appear to be widely known. Many victims have assumed

81 ITJP-SL has the name and photograph of one such active Tamil (ex LTTE) informer for the Sri Lankan security forces now in Canada.

104

the Tamil collaborators they encountered in detention were members of the

Karuna faction of the LTTE, which split from the LTTE in 2005 and joined the

government. However a large number of informers were actually LTTE cadres

from the mainstream movement active in the Vanni until 2009. These former

cadres have been used as interpreters during interrogations and spotters

brought into Manik Farm camp and the “rehabilitation camps” to identify and

betray their former comrades. In some cases they have been actively involved in

violence against other Tamils, including torture and sexual violence.

One witness reported 30 such Tamil informers being brought on a bus into his

“rehabilitation camp” to screen the inmates. They were looking for leaders or

detainees who might supply intelligence or had lied about the extent of their

involvement with the LTTE. Another witness described informers being brought

into his “rehabilitation camp” to be issued with false release papers so they

could pretend to be released and return to the community to spy on others.

In the huge sprawling security force headquarters in Vavuniya, known as

Joseph Camp, we now know there were at least 60 former LTTE members

working for military intelligence near the end of the war and in its aftermath.

CID had their own dedicated Tamil informers, as did other wings of the security

forces. Several of the informers there were subjected to brutal torture

themselves, including rape and threats to hurt their family members, in order

to force them to cooperate. At least one informer was murdered by the security

forces.

The use of masked or hooded informers has long been a notorious practice in

Sri Lanka with one of the most potent images described in the book,

The

Broken Palmayrah,

where a Tamil is forced to be an informer for the Indian

Peace Keeping Forces in the late 1980s. The informer’s eyes are visible through

the holes cut out in the hood through which he can be seen weeping. The

image encapsulates the pain of the informer. There is even a special word in

Tamil for informers: “nodders” or

Thaliyadi,

who are expected to nod to confirm

that a suspect is LTTE.

105

“They brought in a person with a mask on. His face was completely covered

with a long piece of cloth with gaps for eyes. I was brought in front of him and

they asked him whether he knew me from the LTTE and he nodded his head.”

(Witness 5)

Multiple witnesses report seeing their former comrades working as informers at

the passport office in Colombo and at the airport from 2009 onwards. One such

informer is the Jaffna Sports organiser of the LTTE, known as Papa, who was

last seen at the airport in 2013 by a witness who was as a result abducted,

tortured and sexually abused:

“I have come to learn that after the war Papa began working for the security

forces. I came to hear about that by reading it in the news. It is also common

knowledge amongst the Northern Tamils. It is seen by me as a big betrayal

especially after he convinced so many young people to join who then gave their

lives for freedom and then for money he works with the security forces, those

that harmed us, to identify cadres.”

(Witness 36)

What has particularly upset witnesses is that Papa had recruited some of them

in the first place for the LTTE and in the final months of the war he was heavily

involved in forced and child recruitment in the Vanni, before he switched sides.

“At Colombo airport I landed and was walking to the immigration counter from

the gate. A man called out my LTTE name "XXXX". I turned around to see who

was calling my name. It was Papa, the Sports Leader of the LTTE. Our eyes met

for a few seconds. Before, when I was in Kilinochchi, our paths crossed. We

were in different units. We knew each other. “

(Witness 26)

Several of the witnesses we interviewed have been asked to identify other

former cadres, either from photographs or in person. There is a huge degree of

guilt and shame in admitting exactly how far they went in cooperating with

106

these orders. Several have given tragic accounts of randomly betraying

completely innocent people to avert further torture, such as this man:

“There were four different occasions when they tried to make me identify

people as members of the LTTE. They would take me out of the camp in an

army vehicle to a residential place, a village for example, and point someone

out and ask if I used to work with them in the LTTE. They would hood me to

take me there, take the hood off and they would point at someone and I had to

nod if I knew them. My hands were tied behind my back. The first time I said I

didn't recognise anyone, but they beat and kicked me hard so after that I said I

did recognise people because I knew I would be beaten if I said no. This

happened 4 or 5 times in total.”

(Witness 41)

Forced to inform on others – whether the suspects had some connection to the

LTTE or not – informers have to live with the terrible burden that they caused

others intense suffering – and in some cases it did not stop the rapes the

witness was being subjected to. In one such case the witness stated:

“I ended up pointing out some people as former cadres. I did not know if those

persons were or were not former cadres. I would point them out and the army

would take them into custody. I later heard them in the army camp screaming.

I knew that they were being tortured and likely sexually abused. I feel very bad

about that. I feel ashamed and am full of guilt for their suffering. The pain I

caused to those 10 -15 people I pointed out still troubles my peace and my

sleep. Despite my pointing out suspects to the army they continued to sexually

abuse me.”

(Witness 103)

Sexual violence and torture – or the threat of them - are used to coerce former

LTTE cadres to turn informer. The videoing of rape has also been used to coerce

victims into becoming informers rather than have the video released in public

to expose them:

107

“

They did tell me on one occasion they took a video of me being raped and they

could show it to people. They threatened that if I did not become an informant

for them to identify former cadres, they would show the video. Indeed, they

held up the phone and click to the video section and brought up a symbol of a

video with an arrow to hit to play it. But they did not hit play. I believed that

they indeed had a video of me being raped. Because of that threat I agreed to

do so.”

(Witness 103)

108

Persecution of Family Members

One of the questions we have asked Sri Lankan asylum seekers and refugees in

Europe and Asia is about reprisals against family members back home.

Worryingly the answers suggest the change of government in January 2015 has

not significantly altered the harassment and intimidation by the Sri Lankan

security forces in the former conflict areas. Indeed they point to on-going

persecution. The government may have changed, but the Sri Lankan security

forces are still very much in control of the north and east.

Of the 80 witnesses we specifically asked about reprisals, who had families

remaining in Sri Lanka, 23 had a close relative who had suffered arrest and/or

physical harm. The physical harm ranged from severe beatings to detentions,

more severe torture, including gang rape, disappearance and killing. In other

words, more than a quarter of torture survivors reported that their close family

members in Sri Lanka had been badly hurt after they had escaped abroad.

Of the 80 witnesses, the majority also reported that their relatives had been

visited, intimidated and questioned in their homes by members of the security

forces after they had left Sri Lanka, most on multiple occasions. The

intimidation of family members is, among other things, part of an on-going

system to deter witnesses to crimes committed by the security forces from

coming forward. Significantly, it is also eroding any vestige of trust in a future

domestic accountability mechanism.

It might seem easy to dismiss the surveillance activities of the security forces as

part of “normal security precautions” in a post-conflict area. However it goes

way beyond acceptable security measures when a quarter of the witnesses say

not only that they have been tortured, but their family members have also been

detained, or beaten or tortured or raped, disappeared or killed afterwards.

Less visible is the emotional damage the reprisal attacks have on families,

many of whom have already survived the last phase of the war. It is dreadful

109

enough that a parent should have to cope with a child being tortured and

raped, or have to sell remaining family assets and means of livelihood or

borrow money in order to ransom their child out of detention and send them

abroad. It further compounds the trauma that they can no longer talk on the

phone safely to their children alone in a foreign country to provide loving

support. Worse still is when those remaining in Sri Lanka have themselves to

live in fear, go into hiding or face physical violence fearing for their lives. This is

a form of further and on-going persecution.

For the torture survivor abroad, the threat to their families back home makes it

much more difficult to recover from their ordeal. Guilt that they are responsible

for causing unending suffering to those they love often appears to be the

trigger for suicide attempts once survivors have reached safety.

In one of the most shocking cases we have documented, the witness’s father,

suspected of being an LTTE supporter, was beaten to death after she had

already been detained and raped, and then her remaining relatives were killed

and she was detained and raped yet again:

“My mother telephoned me and told me that the authorities had said to her if

she did not tell them where I was hiding she and my brother would be killed.

She told me that I did not need to worry and that she would never tell them

where I was. She assured me that somehow we would be able to look after

ourselves. The next day, I was contacted by my mother’s sister, my aunt, who

told me that my family’s home had been set on fire and my mother and brother

died in the fire.”

(Witness 38)

In another case, a torture survivor said his father was beaten by the security

forces days after he had given an interview to the media about the civil war for

the anniversary in May 2015. His father, who was otherwise healthy, died a few

days later; a death certificate and medical records were supplied. The witness

had tried to kill himself on learning the news. He said he had no idea that the

consequences of his actions could be so drastic for his family:

110

“Around 4 people on a motorbike came to my house and took my father and

assaulted him saying ‘Your son is actively involved against the Sri Lankan

government: we already warned him and he is still actively working against the

government’. When he was beaten he screamed and some people rushed there

and the assailants fled. Due to the assault he was injured on his head and

body. They left him. My father was taken to hospital in XXX. He was treated

there however he died on XX May 2015. My dad was strong and healthy.”

(Witness 114)

In addition to the suffering of the individual survivor, it is important to look at

the ordeal of their family as a whole. Among the 8 witnesses tortured and

sexually violated in 2015, two had a close relative whom they said had been

killed or disappeared while the relatives were in state custody, five had a close

family member they said had been detained previously and two had siblings

who had disappeared. In two cases they themselves had been detained and

tortured or raped in the past. This small sample gives a glimpse into the fact

that these are not isolated incidents pertaining to an individual but are part of

an on-going continuum of suffering of Tamils since the end of the war.

Witnesses who are arriving in the UK in 2015 also report high levels of

surveillance and monitoring in the north of Sri Lanka. Significantly, the

intimidation and harassment does not appear to have stopped or diminished

after the change of government in January 2015.

Thirteen of our 80 witnesses reported that their families had gone into hiding

as a result of threats and harassment. In some cases female torture and sexual

violence survivors said they had lost touch completely with their husbands who

have been forced to move many times to protect themselves. It is not the case

that the husband has rejected the wife after she has been subjected to sexual

abuse, but rather that he has been forced to save himself. This is particularly

difficult for mothers with children who ask where their father is and why they

cannot speak on the phone.

111

“I spoke to my brother three or

four days ago. He confirmed

that they continue to watch

our home on a regular basis

- daily or every other day.

They drive by and visit…I do

not call my family on their

home number but through a

third person for fear that my

family will be harmed if the

army is monitoring our calls.”

Witness 95 (speaking in 2015)

“Since the

presidential election

in January 2015 they

have been back

to my home two

times. The last time

was men wearing

army uniforms. The

first time after the

elections they were

in civilian clothes

but didn’t say who

they were… The last

time they visited

my family someone

in the vicinity took

photos of the men

who questioned my

father. I have those

photographs here.”

Witness 88

(speaking in 2015)

“The CID visited my home in Jaffna recently to harass

my mum and dad. A month ago they came - after

the presidential elections. They visited my parents

before too - it’s up and down. They asked about my

whereabouts and for my contact details. My parents

said they had no clue where I was. My family speaks to

me through my cousin - passing messages and once I

spoke to them on my cousin’s phone.”

Witness 25 (speaking in 2015)

112

“Military intelligence has come to my home five or six times. The last time

was after the election. They demanded to know where I was. My family

said they hadn’t heard from me and didn’t know where I was. The army

said if they don’t produce me, they would take my wife instead and detain

her. My wife and children had to go into hiding.”

Witness 96 (speaking in 2015)

“Four or five months ago the CID

interrogated my parents about

me. My mother has moved away

from her house and even the

relatives staying in her house

don’t know where she is now. “

Witness 2 (speaking in 2015)

“They visited many times. Soon after my escape

they started visiting my home twice a month

on average. I don’t have much contact with

my family due to this. Even when they call me,

my family is frightened to talk to me. The most

recent time they harassed my family was at

the end of 2014. Although my family went into

hiding, they harass them still and know where

they are and visit them in person.”

Witness 28 (speaking in 2015)

113

“I have been told that after I left Sri Lanka the CID and army have been to my

house looking for me. They asked my parents where I am. They came several

times so my parents and sister have moved to another address. My husband is

not with them. I do not know where my husband is at the moment.”

(Witness 23)

“My uncle said that my husband told him that it would be better for my safety

for me to leave the country and he could look after himself. I have not seen or

communicated in any way with my husband since I was abducted XXX 2013.”

(Witness 12)

Many asylum seekers are men who travel abroad first in the hope their families

can follow once they are granted status. Some torture survivors abroad have to

live with the knowledge that their wives are being threatened. This adds to the

pressure of not knowing if they will be granted asylum or returned to Sri Lanka

where they fear they will face further interrogation and abuse. Some male

torture survivors report that their families have paid bribes to the security

forces to prevent their wives being detained and hurt. Others describe how

their parents or in-laws have had to move at night to stay with their wives in

the hope of protecting them.

Multiple Members of Same Families Tortured

Shockingly, in a surprising number of the cases, both husbands and wives had

been tortured - and often sexually violated too - during separate periods of

detention.

“My wife’s uncle told me not to contact my family after I was released because

it might cause them trouble. I learned from him about a year later that on the

day following my escape from detention my wife was arrested by military

intelligence and detained for a month at an unknown place. They beat her so

114

much she had to be taken to hospital. She’d been hit with the butt of and AK47

rifle and it knocked out two of her teeth.”

(Witness 89, speaking in 2015)

“My wife was questioned about my whereabouts on three occasions; the

second time they beat her so much she was hospitalised. My wife and child had

to move. I haven’t spoken to my wife recently for her own safety – only to my

uncle - whom I last spoke to in mid-2014.”

(Witness 82, speaking in 2015)

Couples typically found themselves unable to discuss their ordeals with one

another, the abuse creating a vast gulf in otherwise loving marriages.

“About one month later they came back looking for me and when I was not

there they abducted my wife. She did not know where they took her. My wife

later told me that she was ill-treated and beaten and raped during the

interrogation by the CID. About two hours after the abduction CID brought her

home and dropped her off and left. I was hiding outside the house but I could

see her being released. Once they left, I went into the house and saw my wife. I

saw that she was very upset and near collapsing. She was wearing a dress. She

took off the dress and I saw many scratch marks and bite marks on her hands,

breasts, arms, shoulders and back. She was bleeding from some of the wounds.

She told me that she had been raped. I asked her how many times but she did

not answer other than saying that she was raped by three CID men. I took her

to the XXX hospital immediately. They took her into intensive care right away.

The local police did not come. When I asked my wife for other details she told

me that she did not want to talk about it anymore. She has not spoken of this

since.”

(Witness 77 speaking in 2015)

While compiling this report, we received evidence that the wife of this witness

cited above had been called to report to the local army camp again – this was

after the change of government in January 2015.

115

Another witness, herself later abducted in a white van, tortured and sexually

violated, described what it was like to deal with her husband once he was

released from detention after torture:

“My husband was a totally different man when he came out of the camp than

the man I knew from before. He looked and acted so differently. He did not

volunteer information about what had happened to him since I last saw him

and when I asked him specific questions he evaded them. It was like he was in a

daze. He had a lot of deep scars like from fingernails on both arms. I asked him

about the marks on his arms. He gave me no answer. I did not see any visible

new scars on the rest of his body. At times he would show his love and affection

then get angry rapidly for no apparent reason. He was not keen for any sexual

relations. We rarely had sex.”

(Witness 12)

There are several cases where a witness was picked up and tortured because

the authorities were looking for their sibling who had fled the country after

being tortured themselves. In addition we found four cases where our witness

was detained after their sibling had been detained first, which suggests these

were reprisal attacks.

“After I left Sri Lanka my sister was abducted by the military and held by them

for four days. They released her only after they had made her and my family

give them details of where I was, my passport and visa details and also some

money for her release… When I heard that news about my only sibling I could

not bear it. I felt so bad and so guilty that I tried to harm myself. I tried to

hang myself with a towel, but my cousin found me and stopped me doing this.”

(Witness 13)

“They last visited my parents a couple of months ago and asked about me.

They said I’d got married and lost touch. Soon after my escape, my sister was

taken to the XXX camp and detained for a day and interrogated.”

116

(Witness 91, speaking in 2015)

There are also cases where a parent, child or other close relative has been

threatened, physically abused, abducted, disappeared or even killed. In one

case an adult child was abducted and money extorted for his release. In

another case, a mother was threatened that if she did not agree to have sex

with a senior military officer, her young daughter would be raped instead. In

one instance a baby’s life was threatened by soldiers who forced its mother to

go to be raped by their superior officer.

Sometimes a reprisal attack is triggered when a witness asks about the

whereabouts of a disappeared family member or when they have witnessed the

killing of a family member. Often it is the elderly parents of young torture

survivors who are beaten, detained or in some cases disappeared or killed in

retaliation attacks.

Implications

These findings clearly raise serious concerns for diaspora groups, human rights

organisations, NGO’s and journalists who purposefully or inadvertently identify

a Sri Lankan torture survivor in public. Even if the survivor is considered to be

safe abroad, this research makes it clear his or her family inside the country is

still very much at risk. Witness protection in this context is not just about

removing the names of survivors from documentation. The authorities likely

have detailed records of the dates of every detention and place of abduction as

well as the background life and identifying details of each torture survivor. The

fact that they released the detainee on payment of a ransom does not mean

that the security forces will delete these records because the corruption is not

the action of one individual officer who needs to cover his tracks but rather

part of a systemic institutionalised corrupt system involving multiple wings of

the security forces.

117

“The CID visited and searched our home and

burned a motor bike in the garage. They asked

about me. They hit my dad with steel rod. They

came a couple times and threatened them each

time. The most recent time was about one year

ago. My family now lives elsewhere. I do not call

them because I am afraid that my call will be

traced and harm will come to my family.”

Witness 75 (speaking in 2015)

“After I left Sri Lanka my

mother and uncle were

harassed and threatened.

My mother was taken into

custody after I went abroad

and I lost contact with my

mother. I could not find

her. My uncle did not know

where she was. I do not

communicate with my uncle

because of fear that I may

cause problems for them

with the security forces.”

Witness 74 (speaking in 2015)

118

“Since I left Sri Lanka the CID and army officials have been

looking for me. They visited my parent’s home on a number

of occasions asking for me and then on XXXX date army

officers took my father from home. My mother informed

me about this only some weeks after it had happened.

When I heard this in the UK, I became frustrated and

desperate and felt my life was not worth living. I took an

overdose and tried to jump out of the upstairs window to

end my life. The people I was staying with prevented me. I

was taken by ambulance to hospital. “

Witness 4 (speaking in 2014)

“Last year the CID went to my house and asked my father to come for

interrogation. They threatened my father and asked about me and my

brother. Then he was beaten by them. A friend of the family told me

what had happened. When I heard this my mental health worsened. I feel

so depressed and worried and I feel guilty that my parents are suffering

because of me. I wanted to end my life. In December I tried to kill myself by

taking an overdose and cutting my wrist. I was taken to hospital. “

Witness 5 (speaking in 2014)

“The Sri Lankan authorities arrested my father

after I left. I felt so bad that everything

is because of me. The security forces had

visited on more than ten occasions before

they arrested him – they were looking for me.

Court summons came to my home twice. I

felt so embarrassed. I felt so ashamed. I took

an overdose of thirty or forty paracetamol.”

Witness 17 (speaking in 2014)

119

V. Conclusions

The Sri Lanka government has spent years hiding the extent of torture and

sexual violence perpetrated by its security forces behind claims of having a

“zero tolerance policy on sexual and gender based violence” much as it once

claimed to wage “ a zero civilian casualty war”.

Our first report,

An Unfinished War: Torture and Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka

2009-2014

, concluded that the abduction and arbitrary detention of witnesses

by the Government of Sri Lanka and its agencies were a clear violation of

Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Articles 9; 9(1);

9(2); 9(3); 9(4); and 9(5) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political

Rights (ICCPR), which contain provisions to safeguard against arbitrary

detention and abuse in detention

. It also concluded that the evidence we had

gathered then pointed to the security forces of the Government of Sri Lanka

having violated the rights of the witnesses through torture, rape and sexual

violence, cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment.

This further study has added more evidence on which to make the same

conclusions, namely a larger base of victims spread out in more countries, as

well as several key security force and government insider witnesses including,

informers, soldiers and a “white van” operator to corroborate their accounts.

The evidence demonstrates a pattern of widespread and systematic torture,

rape and other forms of sexual violence, cruel and inhuman and degrading

treatment, terrorisation, illegal detention, killings and enforced disappearance,

and persecution, which continue to be committed six years after the end of the

war by the security forces of the state of Sri Lanka against civilians in Sri Lanka.

82 112th Session of the Human Rights Committee, Consideration of Sri Lanka’s 5th Periodic Report under the International Covenant on

Civil and Political Rights, 7-8 October 2014, accessed

http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/LKA/INT_CCPR_AIS_LKA_18459_E.pdf

120

This pattern, as set out in detail in the 2014 report, suggests the commission of

crimes against humanity which is planned and coordinated by the state and by

individuals who operate as part of the state security forces. It is

institutionalised and systematic.

Command Responsibility

Those in positions of authority who ordered that these crimes should be

committed and whose orders were followed in committing these crimes would

be individually criminally responsible for the commission of these acts as crimes

against humanity.

Those who facilitated, solicited, induced, or aided and abetted in the

commission of these crimes would be individually criminally responsible for the

commission of these acts as crimes against humanity.

A military commander (any commander of any branch of the security forces

could qualify as a military commander) whose subordinates under his effective

authority and control commit these acts, who knew or should have known that

his subordinates were committing these crimes, and who failed to prevent or

punish or submit these allegations to the competent authorities, and as a

result of his failure in his duty the acts were committed, would be individually

criminally responsible for the commission of these acts as crimes against

humanity through the theory of command responsibility

Similarly, any superior whose subordinates under his effective authority and

control commit these acts, who knew or consciously disregarded information

which clearly indicated that his subordinates were committing or were about to

commit such acts which were within the effective authority and control of this

superior, and who failed to take all necessary and reasonable measures within

his power to prevent or repress their commission or to submit to the competent

authorities for investigation and prosecution, would be individually criminally

See,

Rome Statute of the ICC, Article 28.