AP: Sri Lankan Teenager Raped by Rescuer

[truthpusher]

(note: this story is not easy to read, but it helps bring to light what some of these people are having to go through.)

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050108/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_rape_9

AP: Sri Lankan Teenager Raped by Rescuer

1 hour, 49 minutes ago World - AP Asia

By SHIMALI SENANAYAKE, Associated Press Writer

GALLE, Sri Lanka - She survived the tsunami, only to suffer the brutality of her rescuer. On a pilgrimage to a temple, the 18-year-old and her family stopped for a picnic by the beach. That's when the tsunami struck.

Flailing in the water, the teenager heard a voice. "He told me to grab his hand, that he will save me," she said.

She and the stranger were swept into a muddy river. When they reached a bank, he pushed her into a bed of brambles and raped her.

"I screamed and told him not to hurt me," the shy teenager told The Associated Press. "He put his hands around my neck and told me that even if he kills me right there, no one will know."

more to this story:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050108/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_rape_9

[NVMojo]

1. true evil ....

[susanna]

16. You called it correctly.

Evil.

[vs the introvore]

23. judge judy not and ye shall not be judge jew deed.

Abuse of power. that's all. still frikkin heinous, though.

[susanna]

24. Abuse of power IS evil.

Christ spoke eloquently of what those in power SHOULD do.

This situation is nowhere near. Therefore, it is evil, at least in my book. YMMV.

[vs the introvore]

26. i know, i know but I try not to declare or describe evil;

but it does smell pretty bad.

[elshiva]

2. I call forth the righteous rage of

all enlightened beings and saints on her attacker!

[Maat]

4. I send comfort, healing and blessings to her.

Somehow, she will heal and prosper! He who harmed her will be held fully accountable!

[elshiva]

10. Yes, Maat

Pray for her healing. She is loved by God and she is a sister to me and all women, the rapeable class of this planet.

[alexisfree]

3. no words can communicate my anger.. ..

:grr:

[lavenderdiva]

5. this just breaks my heart... n/t

[vixengrl]

6. In the breakdown of secular authority

that indeed must accompany such disaster--I hope justice works with more alacrity--more swiftness--by any witness--than modern "justice" oft allows--to do this to one already ravaged is horrible and sick-making. It screams for repayment.

[susanna]

17. Maybe he'll be the victim...

of instant karma. One can hope.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. This is truly sad.

Instead of this guy being a hero and save someone, all he had on his mind was raping her. He is the scum of the earth.

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. I hope, very hard, that she will heal

If she can heal completely both from what the natural disaster did to her and her whole world AND from what this deranged monster did to her AND having it in the global news, she will become such a beacon of compassion to other people who have greatly suffered. I hope she can find a way to rise out of all this suffering without becoming hardened rather than wise. Hard to think of a much bigger challenge than this, unless she's pregnant too. I didn't read the rest of the story to see if her family was killed.

How can anyone not feel empathy for this young girl? I hope some of the people in this country who are saying that the people in the regions devasted by the tsunamis either deserved it or simply have to take care of the aftermath themselves read her story and feel their humanity reemerge.

As for the man who did this to her, he was clearly NOT acting like a normal human being. Whether he is a sociopath or deranged or something else permanent or temporary, I can't say, but I hope he brutalizes no more victims and comes to realize the horror of what he did.

(By the way, I like your prayer flags. Nice thought to have them flapping in the electronic ether. Considering all your posts, there's a lot of them out there by now!)

[truthpusher]

9. Read some more of the story...here's an excerpt...

...it talks a bit about her family....

After the rape, the teenager said, "I felt lifeless." Soaked with mud, her body itched all over from the thorns.

Dazed, she saw two figures approaching.

"He told me not to breath a word," she said. "He spoke to the men and left me with them. I didn't say anything and was terrified because they, too, were men."

The teenager was loaded into a truck with corpses and the injured. She recognized her brother's body and fainted.

It truly is a story of suffering of almost mythic proportions.

regarding the prayer flags...that was my intention...I have also seen prayer wheels and animated prayer wheels as well...I did the same thing by adding the metta prayer (my daughter and I say this every night)...the world needs all the help it can get at this point.

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. Thank you. The Metta Prayer is a perfect companion to the flags

Rage isn't the answer. Sometimes it can give a burst of energy for self-defense or some other temporary urgent thing, but it is not the most useful frame of mind for anything longer term. Tends to burn a person up, cloud their thinking, and harden their heart to everything, not just the object of their rage.

(For you, TP, I know I'm sort of preaching to the converted here. Since you understand, here's a quote for you: "You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering." -Henri Frederic Amiel, philosopher and writer (1821-1881) Wonder what he would have made of Buddhism?)

What a lovely, lovely thing to do with your daughter. I hope the young girl in the story finds a home full of that kind of feeling.

Yes, the world needs all the help it can get. Oddly enough, it's looking like a major source of that help is going to be through internet-based communities. I believe DU is a prototype of something that is going to change everything. It's already started, and I don't think it's stoppable at this point.

[Zgrrl]

12. Another excerpt from the story...

After learning of the rape, the doctor gave the young woman pills to prevent pregnancy.

Apparently the Sri Lankan DOJ guidelines don't forbid this.

My heart goes out to this poor girl. She will be in my prayers.

- Zgrrl

[truthpusher]

14. very observant on your part...

...I didn't even catch that. Definitely a merciful thing to do.

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Thank you. I'm glad the article included that

So not only is she spared from bearing her rapist's baby, she did receive some compassionate treatment.

[susanna]

18. "First, do no harm."

Looks like Sri Lankan doctors realize what that really means.

on edit: they know that their patient is the woman who has been raped, not a potential "product of conception" deposited by a rapist.

[aquart]

13. Some people are not redeemable.

[susanna]

19. How true that is. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

20. With sadness, I must agree

Just as some people are irretrievably damaged in mind or body, there are some who are permanently, fundamentally abnormal in their emotions, motivations, and reaction to other people. They can think but they cannot feel empathy or conscience or connection. I suspect it is something in their brain chemistry or structure. Like other kinds of damage, it comes in a wide range of degree, with the most affected having nothing we would recognize as "humanity." They cannot be "fixed" or "saved," they can only be prevented from harming other people by some form of intervention.

Even the people who CAN be "saved" later on must be prevented from harming others if they act viciously.

What I would hope is that the people who do the intervening to prevent the "damaged" or otherwise vicious ones from harming anyone else could then let go of their own rage and go on with their lives without it continuing to burn in them.

[susanna]

22. I've had to intervene with a sociopath.

He caused me unmitigated hell. That said, he has moved on (of course that's always an "if"). There is nothing like it, that much I can attest to. No sense of empathy whatsoever. It's like watching a real-life, human cartoon. Crazy.

[Nothing Without Hope]

25. Terrifying

When I said "intervene," I meant like police or other 3rd-party people stepping in to prevent abuse. Sounds like you were a victim who had to rescue herself. The sociopath doesn't need to "move on" because they feel no emotions or real disturbance from what they have done. It's you that I hope is healed whatever is left of the damage he did to you inside and out.

IMO the rage against the people who hurt us or do other vicious things is a stage, maybe a necessary one for the healing (certainly it's trouble to try to suppress it), but I don't think it's something that is good to carry all one's life. Something I'm working on too, though I was not so unfortunate as to encounter a true sociopath. I hope I never do.

I've heard stories that hint of the kind of horror you express from a friend who was a social worker who encountered psychopaths in her cases sometimes. She says that you can tell what they are in the way they look at you and act, that your hair literally stands on end around these people. They are alien and terrifying and utterly unpredictable.

[truthpusher]

29. The term you used...

...'human cartoon' (if I am gathering your meaning) is extremely vivid and is one of the best description I've heard so far to describe someone in the act of doing something that has totally taken them over.

[MarianJack]

21. My Personal Hope is...

...that there is a special corner of HELL for bastards like this evil rapist!

[Nothing Without Hope]

27. Something I wonder about: why did AP carry this story?

Most of the possible reasons I can think of would do them no credit. Plus, now that the incident and the area where it occurred are world-famous, this girl is probably going to be ostracized:

"I want to be a journalist," she said when asked about the future. Her eyes lit up and she smiled faintly, but that faded when her aunt said they hoped some man would marry the teenager.

Her sister soon dampened any idea of a quick marriage: She said gossip already was swirling around the village, where rape brings stigma and shame to the victim rather than the rapist.

Will she have to leave what remains of her family to look for acceptance and a future somewhere else in the world? The story doesn't say, and she probably doesn't yet know for herself. What impact, positive or negative, will this story have on her? And did AP care?

[truthpusher]

28. I got a sense that the journalist...

...was not out to sensationalize the story. I think that the journalists are being overwhelmed with humanity..Jesus, even Colin Powell seemed to be affected by the whole situation.