Sarathambal funeral | |
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Father and 3-year-old daughter during the last rites at the burial grounds in Colombo
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Born | 1970 Jaffna, Sri Lanka |
Died | 28 December 1999 Pungudutivu, Sri Lanka |
Occupation | Housewife and mother |
Parent(s) | Chandrasekara Sarma |
Sarathambal Saravanbavananthatkurukal or better known as Sarathambal was a minority Sri Lankan Tamil woman who was gang raped and killed on 28 December 1999. This became an internationally known incident of the Sri Lankan Civil War.
According to AHRC report on 28 December 1999, Mrs. Sarathambal Saravanbavananthakurukal, 29, daughter of a local Hindu temple priest was forcibly dragged out from her home, in Pungututheevu, near Jaffna Peninsula, allegedly by Sri Lankan Navy sailors.
According to the Amnesty International her house was situated at about 500 m from the nearest naval base and her father and brother were tied up allegedly by four security officers dressed in black. Her dead body was found on barren land about 100 m away from their home the next day.
After public protest at the village where the incident happened and in Jaffna her body was sent to the capital Colombo for post-mortem by a senior medical officer who indicated that the cause of death was "asphyxia due to gagging; her underpants had been stuffed inside her mouth, and that forcible sexual intercourse had taken place".
According to the pro-LTTE Tamilnet, her funeral was attended by a cross section of Sri Lankan activists from around the nation. Vasudeva Nanayakara, then Member of Parliament, S.Sivadasan, the then EPDP Parliamentarian, Maheswary Velautham, Attorney-at-Law and the Secretary Of the Forum for Human Dignity and Nimalka Fernando of the Movement for Inter Racial, Justice and Equality delivered funeral orations.