RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Women Demand Security Against Crimes

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Nov 22 1998 (IPS) - Outraged by the brutal gang rape and murder of a newly-married woman, activists are pressing for quicker punishment for sex offenders as statistics show a rise in the number of rape cases in Sri Lanka.

Rita John, a young Indian woman who had only days before arrived in the country with her Sri Lankan husband, was killed by four men on a beach in Colombo last month.

Police arrested four suspects, three of whom were beaten up in prison by fellow inmates angered by the rape incident. The men were hospitalised and their case is before the courts which could take years to give a verdict.

The tragic rape case has drawn intense media and public attention on the growing crime rate in the country, particularly against women and children.

Police figures show that the number of rape cases had risen to 900 last year from just 47 a decade ago in 1987. While no official figure is available for the current year, news reports speculate the numbers have only risen.

On Oct. 22, slogan-shouting women’s groups who took to the streets here in the capital city, asked “Will Rita’s death be just another death” and said, “Every violated woman is a sister.”

According to Sunila Abeysekera of the Women and Media Collective Group, women were no longer prepared to wait for the authorities to give them justice. “We want to make the authorities aware that enough is not being done,” another protester said.

The graph of crimes against women – violent sexual offences, incest and harassment – has been rising in recent years. According to a 1993 study by the Conference of Public Service Independent Trade Unions, 81 percent of women have been sexually harassed on buses, the most common problem faced by women.

Women In Need (WIN), a women’s non-governmental organisation that runs a shelter for abused women, says at least 60 percent of women are victims of domestic violence.

While police figures of rape show alarming trends, WIN spokeswoman Savithri Wijesekera believes there are countless more cases including of children. “There must be countless cases, particularly that of incest,” she said.

A 1996 report from the Women and Children’s Bureau in the Police Headquarters shows that only 25 percent of incidents of domestic violence are reported to the authorities.

Punishment for rape was increased in 1995 – the minimum sentence is seven years and the maximum 20 years. In the case of gang rape, rape of a minor, rape of a pregnant or physically disabled woman, the minimum and maximum sentences are 10 and 20 years.

In addition to the jail term, mandatory fines and mandatory compensation for the victim are included in the laws.

But the tightening of the laws against sex offenders doesn’t appear to have any impact on the rising crime wave in the country, and many – including judges and state attorneys – are pinning the blame on police inaction or poor investigation in rape cases.

Police say that they are severely understaffed and are compelled to focus attention on the security situation in the country, where Tamil rebels are fighting for a separate state, and so have little time for other work.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police, H. M. Kotakadeniya says that the force needs at least another 10,000 men to take care of a growing crime wave which includes crimes against women.

“We are unable to convict the offenders because of poor police investigation,” said a Sri Lankan High court judge, who declined to be named. State Solicitor General Upawansa Yapa argued that a shortage of policemen was a weak excuse against crime.

He said in most cases the criminal is identified but it took a long time for police to initiate action and subsequently the case dragged on in courts for many years. “There is a need for a combined effort of judges and law enforcement officers to speed up the process.”

Laws, however, mean nothing if the attitudes of the police, prosecutors and the judiciary don’t change. Unlike other crimes, women who are raped are ostracised.

“They are disbelieved, accused of having ulterior motives and subjected to degrading questions with often pornographic overtones,” writes says Cat’s Eye, the pseudonym of a woman columnist in the ‘Island’ newspaper.

Much of the reason for the escalating violence against women has been attributed to the easy availability of drugs and alcohol and the presence of hard core pornography, even on television or in cinemas.

But women’s activists say these are only contributing reasons. It is more society’s failure to put women on an equal footing as men, and their continued exploitation even within the family, that have increased their vulnerability to sexual crimes.