taken into custody on suspicion of being members of the LTTE or in order to force a member of their family to hand him or herself over. In October 1997, the JMO in Colombo who examined Sinnarasa Anthonymala, a girl from Jaffna who had been arrested by the navy in July 1995 when she was 15 years old, found evidence of 56 wounds on her body. When Amnesty International interviewed Anthonymala during a visit to Sri Lanka in 1996, she explained how she was held naked and taken for interrogation by the navy up to three times per day throughout the period of her stay at the Kankesanthurai navy camp….. Amnesty International has received other reports of torture of children, including by members of the People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), an armed group fighting alongside the security forces , in Vavuniya in May 1996 and by the police in Colombo in November 1997.749 5.4. The methods of torture (physical and psychological) [T]he facts of this case has [sic] revealed disturbing features regarding the third degree methods adopted by certain police officers on suspects held in police custody. Such methods can only be described as barbaric, savage and inhuman…750 In this instance, the extreme torture perpetrated on Yogalingam Vijitha was to cover the victim’s face with a shopping bag containing chilli powder mixed in petrol, suffocating her. She was made to lie flat on a table and whilst four policemen were holding her, four other policemen had pricked paper pins under the nails of the fingers and toes. She was assaulted with a club and wires and when she fell down, she was trampled with boots. On another occasion, she was hung and assaulted with a club. Most heinously, when she had refused to sign statements prepared by the police, a plantain flower soaked in chilli powder was introduced into her vagina.751 This was not an isolated case. Methods of torture commonly resorted to have been described in the following manner: …beating with various weapons, beating on the soles of the feet (falaqa), blows to the ears (telephono), positional abuse when handcuffed or bound, suspension in various positions, including strappado, “butchery,” “reversed butchery,” and “parrot’s perch” (or dharma chakara), burning with metal objects and cigarettes, asphyxiation with plastic bags with chilli pepper or gasoline, and various forms of genital torture.752 Examination of reports of judicial medical officers as disclosed in fundamental rights applications before the Supreme Court reveals the extent and methods of torture as stated below:753 Handcuffs were applied around the wrists and suspended from a rafter by the wrists… S-Lon pipe inserted into the rectum. A piece of barbed wire was inserted through the pipe hole. The wire was moved around after the pipe was removed partially. Chili powder was also introduced through the pipe… Burned with a hot iron… Assaulted on elbows, shoulders, knees and ankles with batons… Positive medical evidence of vaginal penetration… Vaginal penetration by the insertion of plantain flower is possible… Abdominal examination revealed distended tender bladder… Amnesty International, Children in South Asia, Securing their Rights, AI INDEX: ASA 04/01/98 of April 1998. Yogalingam Vijitha v. Mr. Wijesekara and others, SC (FR) App. No. 186/2001, S.C.M. 23.08.2002, (citing Amal Sudath Silva v. Kodituwakku, [1987] 2 Sri LR 119. 751 ibid. 752Special Rapporteur on Torture Concludes Visit to Sri Lanka, 29 October 2007, http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/ F493C88D3AFDCDBEC1257383006CD8BB?opendocument. 753 Pinto-Jayawardena, Kishali and Kois, Lisa; in ‘Sri Lanka – the Right not to be Tortured; A Critical Analysis of the Judicial Response’, op. cit, at page 26. 749 750
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