Sri Lanka: Women Development Society leader threatened by unknown group in Mannaar
Event- Country
- Sri Lanka
- Initial Date
- Aug 14, 2015
- Event Description
47-year-old Thavapalan Piriayatharsini, who is the head of Women Development Society at Theaththaa-vaadi, a village situated near Iluppaik-kadavai in Maanthai West division of Mannnaar district, says she and her three daughters have been subjected to death threats by an unknown squad. The family has been subjected to death threats since 11 August. A group of unknown men, who came in a white van entered her house that day and warned "rape and death' if she continued to give social leadership to the villagers. They were particularly angry about Piriyatharsini making demands from political parties. The threatening presence of a white van squad is still continuing, she told TamilNet on Thursday. Ms Piriyatharsini is a survivor of the 2009 genocidal onslaught on Vanni. Her husband, Balasubramaniyam Thavabalan, was a press worker at the Eezhanaatham daily in LTTE administered Jaffna before the mass exodus of Tamils from the peninsula to Vanni in 1995. The Sri Lankan military arrested him in 1999 during the military operation named Rana Gosha. Since then, there was no news of the whereabouts of her husband. During the final stages of the war in Vanni, her two sons recruited to fight against the advancing SL military had sacrificed their lives. One of her daughters, wounded in the shelling, has become disabled. Her family is dependent on agriculture in the resettled village. It is under these circumstances, Piriyatharsini, a former law student, who also has experience from NGO work in Vanni, came forward to give leadership to the resettled villagers of Theaththaa-vaadi. Piriyatharsini and her villagers, comprising around 23 families and 100 voters, have been demanding the political parties coming to the village seeking votes to prove their credibility by helping them to drill a bore well as the resettled families have been struggling to access potable water. The politicians, including those belonging to the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), who come to the village seeking votes during the times of the elections, forget their promises after the elections, the villagers under the leadership of Piriyatharsini were firm in passing their message. Their were firm in telling the politicians to prove their credibility by digging a borewell. Priyatharsini, her family and the villagers in Theaththaa-vaadi, who were once part of the de-facto Tamil administration with a noble cause and sacrifices are now reduced to the level of fighting for a borewell from the parties locked in the race for SL elections. TamilNet releases a video clip of Piriyatharsini, recorded before she was subjected to death threat by the unknown squad. In the interview, she describes the pathetic state of affairs in the village.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Death threat
- Rights Concerned
- Right to food
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Unknown
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Unknown
- Source
Tamil Net?catid=13&artid=37886)
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 14.058323999999992
Longitude: 108.277199
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
Since 11 August 2015, 47-year-old Thavapalan Piriayatharsini, head of Women Development Society in Theaththaa-vaadi, a village situated near Iluppaik-kadavai in Maanthai West division of Mannnaar district, and her three daughters have been receiving death threats by an unknown squad.