Stop-Torture-Report

Another witness, herself later abducted in a white van, tortured and sexually
violated, described what it was like to deal with her husband once he was
released from detention after torture:
“My husband was a totally different man when he came out of the camp than
the man I knew from before. He looked and acted so differently. He did not
volunteer information about what had happened to him since I last saw him
and when I asked him specific questions he evaded them. It was like he was in a
daze. He had a lot of deep scars like from fingernails on both arms. I asked him
about the marks on his arms. He gave me no answer. I did not see any visible
new scars on the rest of his body. At times he would show his love and affection
then get angry rapidly for no apparent reason. He was not keen for any sexual
relations. We rarely had sex.”
(Witness 12)
There are several cases where a witness was picked up and tortured because
the authorities were looking for their sibling who had fled the country after
being tortured themselves. In addition we found four cases where our witness
was detained after their sibling had been detained first, which suggests these
were reprisal attacks.
“After I left Sri Lanka my sister was abducted by the military and held by them
for four days. They released her only after they had made her and my family
give them details of where I was, my passport and visa details and also some
money for her release… When I heard that news about my only sibling I could
not bear it. I felt so bad and so guilty that I tried to harm myself. I tried to
hang myself with a towel, but my cousin found me and stopped me doing this.”
(Witness 13)
“They last visited my parents a couple of months ago and asked about me.
They said I’d got married and lost touch. Soon after my escape, my sister was
taken to the XXX camp and detained for a day and interrogated.”
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