Sri Lanka: Clinton's "rape" remark - "Maybe she is confused with the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan"

The Sri Lankan government has strongly condemned Hillary Clinton's allegation that rape had been used as a weapon in Sri Lanka's successful war against the LTTE terrorists.

Speaking with media, a senior defence official said that such sadistic allegations are far from the existing realities: far from the truth. Refuting the allegation he said that there was no basis whatsoever even to suggest Sri Lankan forces had involved in such gross violence during its three-year humanitarian campaign.

Hilary Clinton targeted Sri Lanka at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday (September 30), where the Council unanimously adopted a resolution creating new tools to combat sexual violence against women and children in conflict situations. The U.S. Secretary of State said that 'rape had been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma, Sri Lanka and elsewhere and that in too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators had not been punished. She said that this impunity would encourage further attacks'.

"The government would like the US to reveal any specific allegations against the Sri Lankan military" Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary to the Human Rights Ministry said questioning the rationale on which the allegation was leveled against Sri Lanka.

"Maybe she is confused with the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan," he further said adding "a section of the international community is working overtime to discredit Sri Lanka".

Source: Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order - Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

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