A female victim of alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan Military has been identified as a Tamil journalist, Isaippiriyaa. Video and photographic evidence which emerged last week showed Tamil civilians stripped naked, blindfolded and hands bound before being executed by Sri Lankan Military personnel.
There are women among the victims, and with the lewd sexual comments being made by the perpetrators on the video there are serious concerns that these women may have been victims of sexual violence before their execution. One of the women has been identified by family and close contacts living overseas as being Isaippiriyaa, a Tamil media reporter. Also known as Shoba, she was a member of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam but was never a combatant, and worked in their media division.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has already called for an independent investigation and Wikileaks documents recently revealed that the US believed that “responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka”.
"In light of all these mounting evidence, Australia's silence on this matter is very disturbing," says Dr Sam Pari, spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress. "It is high time our Prime Minister joins international calls for an independent international investigation into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka," she added.
Channel 4 News – Sri Lanka 'war crimes' video: woman's body identified
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