Krishanti Kumaraswamy (), also spelled Krishanthi Kumaraswamy, was a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

woman in

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

who was raped and murdered on 7 September 1996 by six

Sri Lankan Army The Sri Lanka Army (; ) is the oldest and largest of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The army was officially established as the Ceylon Army in 1949, though the army traces its roots back in 1881 when Ceylon Light Infantry Volunteers was created; t ...

soldiers; the effort to bring her assailants to justice became a

cause célèbre A ( , ; pl. ''causes célèbres'', pronounced like the singular) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. The term is sometimes used positively for celebrated legal cases for th ...

as a part of the protest against atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Army during the Sri Lankan Civil War.

Background

Krishanti Kumaraswamy was student of Chundikuli Girls High School, studying

GCE Advanced Level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational a ...

, after passing the Ordinary Level exam with seven distinctions. Her mother Rasamma was the principal of Kaithady Maha Vithyalayam. Her father had died in 1984. Her elder sister Prashanthi was studying in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

. Pranavan her younger brother was student of St.Johns College Jaffna had given his G.C.E (O/L) exams. Her neighbor Kirupakaran had got married just 6 months ago. Her family lived in

Kaithady Kaithady () is a suburb in the northern district of Jaffna in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocea ...

Incident

On 7 September 1996, Krishanti Kumaraswamy went missing on her way home after

chemistry examination at Chundikuli Girls High School. She was last seen alive at 11:30 am at

Army checkpoint in

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

as she used to cross the checkpoint daily while returning from school. She had been detained while cycling back home which passerby saw and informed her mother. Her mother Rassammah, brother Pranavan (age 16), and family friend Kirupakaran (age 35) became concerned and went in search of Krishanti. They were also murdered.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

issued an Urgent Action Appeal (UA 222/96) on 20 September for her. According to pro-

rebel A rebel is a participant in a rebellion. Rebel or rebels may also refer to: People * Rebel (given name) * Rebel (surname) * Patriot (American Revolution), during the American Revolution * American Southerners, as a form of self-identification; ...

Tamilnet TamilNet is an online newspaper that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War. The website was formed by members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community residing in ...

, forty five days later, the bodies of the four were later found in shallow graves within the army base. A three quarter width rope was found tied round the neck of Rassammah’s corpse. Kirupakaran too appeared to have been strangled in the same manner since the rope was wound tightly round his body. The bodies of Krishanti and her brother Pranavan were cut in several pieces and haphazardly wrapped in black colored sheets. Later investigations revealed that she was abducted by five soldiers and another six

gang raped In scholarly literature and criminology, gang rape, also called serial gang rape, party rape, group rape, or multiple perpetrator rape,Ullman, S. E. (2013). 11 Multiple perpetrator rape victimization. Handbook on the Study of Multiple Perpetrator ...

and killed her at the checkpoint.

Government investigation

and other human rights organizations like

Women for Peace Women Strike for Peace (WSP, also known as Women for Peace) was a women's peace activist group in the United States. Nearing the height of the Cold War in 1961, about 50,000 women marched in 60 cities around the United States to demonstrate again ...

launched a sustained campaign to pressure the Sri Lankan government to arrest and prosecute the soldiers. Six soldiers who were directly involved in the raping were sentenced to death by the court of the government of Sri Lanka. In the court case about her rape and murder one of the accused informed the state about an alleged mass grave known as Chemmani mass graves that was investigated to contain 15 bodies.

Related to incident

According to pro-

, a local activist who worked to expose her case was killed by unknown gunmen on 1 February 2007. Her death anniversary is remembered in Chemmani and

the widowed wife of her neighbor whom she had married just 6 months before his murder also attended the event .

References

External links

The Rape and Murder of Teen Aged Krishanti Kumaraswamy by SoldiersFocus on Sri Lanka
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070207111129/http://www.brynmawr.edu/peacestudies/faculty/Keenan/human_rights_sacred_cows.html Human Rights and Sacred Cows {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumaraswamy, Krishanti 1977 births 1996 deaths Gang rape in Sri Lanka Sexual violence in the Sri Lankan civil war People murdered in Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Hindus Sri Lankan murder victims Sri Lankan Tamil people 1996 murders in Sri Lanka Violence against women in Sri Lanka