US Army raped a large number of women during Vietnam war, says Sri Lankan Minister

(October 07, Colombo - Lanka Polity) Udaya Prabath Gammanpila, a federal Minister of Sri Lanka government, accused that the US Army raped a large number of women during Vietnam war. He recalled that rape took place right inside the White House as Bill Clinton, the husband of US State Secretary Hilary Clinton was the President.

Western Provincial Council Minister Udaya Prabath Gammanpila made these comments to state-owned Dinamina Sinhala daily participating a petition campaign against US in Colombo. His party, National Heritage Party (JHU), a coalition member of the Sri Lanka government, is collecting a million of signatures for a petition to be handed over to the UN General Secretary denying a recent statement of US State Secretary Hilary Clinton.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, addressing the UN Security Council, on September 30, noted that rape has been used as a weapon of war in the Balkans, Burma, Sri Lanka and elsewhere and that in too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence are not punished, and so this impunity encourages further attacks.

Sri Lanka government member of parliament, Athuraliye Rathana Thero, a member of the JHU, said that Sri Lanka is considering Clinton's statement as government policy and not as one made in her individual capacity.

U.S. officials called for a possible war crimes investigation for the last leg of the government's military operation to crush the decades long fight of the minority Tamils for an independent state in the northern and eastern parts of the island. 

(Photo: JHU Ministers Patali Champika Ranawaka and Udaya Prabath Gammanpila)