“Estimates reveal that there are more than 89,000 war widows in the North and Eastern provinces and more than 25,000 of these widows are in Batticaloa district in the Eastern province,” Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Batticaloa district parliamentarian P. Selvarasa said in a meeting of the War Victimized Women Association in Batticaloa. “Women have been victimized by war even more than by natural disasters and Sri Lanka government has failed to do anything constructive to improve their miserable living conditions though thirteen months have passed since the end of the cruel war,” Selvarasa said.
“Sri Lanka Army (SLA) is mainly to be blamed for the victimization of these women. Their husbands had been killed, disappeared without trace and imprisoned. Young women have been sexually violated and many women arrested on suspicion are still languishing in prisons,” the MP further said.
“Even mothers detained with their children have not been released or any legal actions taken against them by Sri Lanka government so far,” he said.
“The Provincial Councils are not given the power to make use of the so called devolution of power related to land, police, agricultural service, government schools and government teaching hospitals under the 13th Constitutional amendment though 23 years have passed since the signing of Indo-Sri Lanka Accord which claimed to solve the problems of the Tamils,” Selvarasa said.
“Sri Lanka government effectively strips the powers of the Provincial Councils overnight by gazette notifications instead of devolving powers to them,” he added.
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