Tsunami survivors now fear rape

Exhausted after barely surviving the Asian tsunami, 17-year-old Nelum was lying on the cement floor of a relief centre when she felt a hand on her knee.

It was her 62-year-old grandfather, who pushed himself on top of her, putting his hand over her mouth, recalled Nelum.

“I kept shaking my head and tried to push him off with all my might,” she said, tears rolling down her face.

Another refugee heard the scuffling and rescued the teenager, yanking her grandfather off her.

Already struggling to meet survivors’ basic needs, Sri Lankan authorities face a shocking new problem: sexual abuse of traumatised victims, including children.

At least three other cases of child sexual abuse in relief centres have been reported since the tsunami struck, said Sujeeva Amarasena, chief paediatrician at Karapitiya hospital, the main one in the country’s south.

Two gang rapes of woman survivors have been confirmed outside the camps, he said.

The cases have prompted officials to step up security at the island’s makeshift relief centres, many of them overcrowded and understaffed.

The tsunami killed more than 30,000 people in Sri Lanka, and left as many as one million left homeless.

DW Prathapasinghe, chief of police in the country’s south, said it was now mandatory that each centre has at least two police officers, including a woman.

“The situation is now under control,” he said.

The day after her assault, Nelum filed a complaint and police were called in to investigate. She and her 12-year-old sister, Ayesha, were then handed to child welfare authorities in the nearby town of Galle. Her grandfather was taken away by police.

“My biggest fear was that my sister will have had to face my same fate,” she said. “At least now she’s safe.”

In the days immediately after the tsunami, 335 people, including Nelum and her family, camped out in a single classroom in a schoolhouse in Batapola, 60 miles from Colombo.

A woman – who lost her 5-year-old daughter, husband and mother to the waves - said she had been repeatedly harassed at the camp on the way to the toilet.

“They were not inmates of the camp. They were from outside,” said the woman, who didn’t want to be identified. “We now go to the toilet in groups.”

Others have left the camp because they fear being abused.

“I have lost my husband and home,” said Enoka Pushpakumari, who was leaving the camp to make her way to the house of a distant relative. “I can’t face any more tragedy.”

Aid groups say Sri Lankan officials should have been better prepared for potential sexual abuse.

Rape was an aspect of Sri Lanka’s 20-year-long ethnic war. Activists said they had frequent reports of majority ethnic Sinhalese soldiers raping minority ethnic Tamil women, although few were prosecuted.

Tamil rebels fought for independence in the northern and eastern provinces, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese who dominate the government. A fragile cease-fire has halted fighting.

“What’s disturbing is that in spite of our years of experience handling the displaced, attention is paid only after incidents occur,” said Sunila Abeysekera the rights group Women and Media Collective.

Michael Copland, who’s heading relief efforts by the UN children’s agency in southern Sri Lanka, said his organisation has launched a survey with local authorities to identify unaccompanied children in camps, whose numbers are unknown.

Authorities fear many sexual abuse cases at the camps could go unreported.