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A high number of rapes, including of men, in <strong>the</strong> context of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict was<br />
also <strong>report</strong>ed to <strong>the</strong> UN special rapporteur on torture in 2002. These included <strong>the</strong> case of<br />
Subramaniam Kannan, a man from Vavuniya, who was taken into custody on June 20,<br />
2000, and held for 42 days in <strong>the</strong> 211 Brigade army camp in Vavuniya. During his detention<br />
he was beaten with batons and subjected to electric shocks, before he was allegedly<br />
handed over to <strong>the</strong> Counter Subversive Unit (CSU) of <strong>the</strong> police. At <strong>the</strong> CSU, his head was<br />
<strong>report</strong>edly covered with a petrol-infused plastic bag in an attempt to asphyxiate him, he<br />
was repeatedly beaten, and he had barbed wire inserted into his rectum. 32<br />
The victims of sexual violence in custody have not been limited to Tamil men and women.<br />
During <strong>the</strong> second JVP uprising in 1987-1990, <strong>the</strong>re were a number of alleged cases of<br />
sexual violence by state security forces against Sinhalese women. 33 <strong>Human</strong> rights<br />
organizations monitoring torture in Sri Lanka have documented over a thousand cases of<br />
torture of Sinhalese men and women in police custody over <strong>the</strong> past dozen years, many of<br />
which involved sexual violence and rape. 34 A government-appointed commission to inquire<br />
into enforced disappearances of persons during this period found disturbing instances of<br />
rapes and killings of women and noted that “violence against women was used as a tool of<br />
control of a community (family, village, peers).” 35<br />
Despite emerging <strong>report</strong>s of past and continuing sexual violence, <strong>the</strong> issue has remained<br />
outside public discourse. High levels of social stigmatization, fear of reprisal owing to<br />
Commission (AHRC), “Sri Lanka: A Report on 323 Cases of Police Torture,” June 24, 2011,<br />
http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-085-2011/ (accessed January 2, 2013); and World<br />
Organisation Against Torture, “State Violence in Sri Lanka: Alternative Report to <strong>the</strong> United Nations <strong>Human</strong><br />
<strong>Rights</strong> Committee,” January 2004,<br />
http://www.omct.org/files/2004/01/2444/stateviolence_srilanka_04_eng.pdf (accessed January 3, 2013).<br />
32<br />
UN Commission on <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong>, Report of <strong>the</strong> Special Rapporteur on <strong>the</strong> question of torture, Theo van Boven,<br />
submitted pursuant to Commission resolution 2002/38, UN Doc, E/CN.4/2003/68/Add.1, February 27, 2003,<br />
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/7B874EAB39CFFE5D85256E6F004B90D3 (accessed January 2, 2013).<br />
33<br />
See, e.g., “How security forces committed war crimes on innocent Sinhalese two decades ago?,” Sri Lanka<br />
Guardian, October 9, 2011, http://jdsrilanka.blogspot.com/2011_10_09_archive.html (accessed January 2,<br />
2013), which highlights an interview by Right to Life (www.right2lifelanka.org) with a woman allegedly raped by<br />
security forces in torture centers where JVP suspects were held.<br />
34<br />
Asian <strong>Human</strong> <strong>Rights</strong> Commission (AHRC), “Sri Lanka: A Report on 323 Cases of Police Torture,” June 24<br />
2011, http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-085-2011/ (accessed January 2, 2013);<br />
provides summaries of 323 of <strong>the</strong> most serious of some 1,500 police torture cases <strong>report</strong>ed to <strong>the</strong><br />
organization during that period.<br />
35<br />
Government of Sri Lanka, “Final <strong>report</strong> of <strong>the</strong> Commission of Inquiry into Involuntary Removal or<br />
Disappearance of Persons in <strong>the</strong> Western, Sou<strong>the</strong>rn and Sabaragamuwa Provinces, No. V,” 1997, p. 132.<br />
21 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | FEBRUARY 2013