posted January 04, 2005 08:57 PM            

Colombo, 05 January, (Asiantribune.com): The newspapers are full of stories about sexual abuse of some girls who were Tsunami victims, by various unscrupulous elements who have infiltrate the refugee camps. Though the National Child Protection Authority has said that such incidents are few and far between, some incidents of molestation and rape are reported to have taken place.

Meanwhile, this writer been made aware of a different perversion that took place soon after the Tsunami stuck.

In some areas, necrophilia was evident --- when certain persons were caught having sexually abused the corpses of females.

Dr Harischandra, a psychiatric in Galle said: this sort of ghoulish and reprehensible behavior though the work of a miniscule few, nevertheless has given a bad name to all Sri Lankans who rose up magnificently to the demands of the crisis and acted with a great deal of social responsibility.

The other bizarre occurrence is the rumor that a Tsunami will strike again between January the 3rd and the 8th. These are obvious scare-stories spread by mischievous elements. (How can a Tsunami be predicted anyway before and earthquake -- because the Tsunami can arise only out of an earthquake?)

The President said she will ‘’hang’’ producers of television programs, who peddle these scare stories, but so far nobody has been sent to the gallows but the rumors continue unabated.

Another bizarre story: none of the Buddha statues down south or in the costal belt have been effected. Not even a glass pane protecting the Buddha statue has been shattered in Galle, which has been virtually rendered a ghost town after the ravages of the Tsunami.

Naturally, people are prone to give various superstitious interpretations - - but Dr Harichandra says “I do not know of any force nature which will spare Buddha statues made of clay and take the lives of some very learnered and pious Buddhist monks and many devout Buddhists on the day of the Tsunami -- a Poya Day.’’

With all the bizarre stories gong around, its becoming increasingly obvious that the tsunami not only ravaged the country in material terms -- it also caused severe mental stress among all Sri Lankans, victims or otherwise. As Dr Harischandra says “those who saw dead bodies piled up in Galle hospital had to be given separate psychiatric are to cope with their stress.’’