[TamilNet, March 20, 2001 18:12 GMT]
Young mother stripped, tortured by Mannar CSU
A young mother arrested by the Counter Subversive Unit
(CSU) of the Mannar Police Monday night was stripped naked, assaulted
and tortured by five men in her cell, sources said. The woman's
five-year-old child is also detained with her at the CSU. The young
woman, Sivamani Weerakon, was arrested from the Aasika Lodge in
Uppukkulam, a suburb of the Mannar town. Her husband was away in
Vavuniya at the time of her arrest, the sources said. Policemen from
the CSU had arrested her and her child around 11 p.m. Monday night.
They had also arrested Wijayakala Nanthan, another young woman who was
at the lodge. Both are being held at the CSU in Mannar town.
Sivamani had come from the Vanni with her child to find
her husband who was living in Vavuniya with a mistress. When she met
her husband he had persuaded her to go with him to Mannar where they
had booked into the Aasika Lodge in Uppukkulam on 13 March. Sivamani's
husband had gone back to Vavuniya two days ago.
Wijayakalaís husband too is away in Vavuniya, the sources
said.
Young women who come to Mannar town from the Vanni are
frequently subjected to harassment and, when arrested, to torture by
the CSU, a human rights activist in Mannar said.
[TN/2001032002] ©TamilNet 2001