In an interview with BBC Tamil, Sivasubramaniyam Sivadas, the medical doctor who reportedly treated the 15 Tamil women who were admitted to Kilinochchi hospital shortly after being recruited into the Sri Lankan army, dismissed reports of sexual abuse or mental trauma, and claimed that they fifteen had suffered from a case of 'collective hysteria'.

See here for full interview in Tamil. See below for a transcript of the interview:

Dr Sivadas: There are 15 of them. Out of that 02 are admitted to the wards. The remaining 13 are kept in a room in the upper floor in order to be consulted by me. Many people requested me to see them. I clearly informed them about two matters. I will see them if only you accept my decision after I diagnose them. The other one is that I wanted to meet the patients privately.

After that one medical officer from the Army arrived. He contacted higher authorities and said 'that they are ready to accept my recommendations'. After that only I met all 15 girls personally.

BBC Seevakan: What type of illness did they have? How did they look ?

Dr Sivadas: They are like, what we call in our villages 'goddess dance' (possessed by god). They are also faced with the similar issue. One week back about 108 .. or 103 girls were recruited to the army. They are between 18 -25 years old. Out of them one girl a week ago had told another girl that while she was going to a distance place in the camp she felt that some shadow or someone was coming with her

The other girl has said that a lot of people had died in that area and that she might have been possessed by a lost soul. Only divine power will cure it. Otherwise nothing can be done, she has said'. The girl got frightened and fainted.

The other girl took to pose like a goddess and started to dance.

BBC Seevakan: That all fifteen had this type of illness or only these two?

Dr Sivadas: No no. It started from this two and slowly spread to all 15 in that camp. Some of the them did not think it was true, but some thought it's true, it may happen to them too, and began to get scared. Few of them began to do the 'cobra dance'.

These phenomena can be commonly observed in Vanni. In my three and a half years of experience I have seen this type of collective hysteria... I seen this at least ten times.. collective hysteria.

Once was among child soldiers at the Poonthodam camp, and once when around 50 women were recruited to work at a garment factory 4-5 of them started to dance like snakes. So for me it was not a big issue.

BBC Seevakan: Medically what you are guessing as the reason for this?

Dr. Sivadas: There are two minds, a deep and superficial one. 10 percent of our matters are decided in the superficial mind the rest 90 percent is decided in the deep mind.

In the deep mind ...if inner conflict arise ...means something unsolvable or matters which are complicated ...disturbs the deep mind... in many occasions they will express (it) in ways like this.

Commonly Tamil people call it as 'Kaali had arrived' (Being possessed by god Kali) and Singhalese people say 'Patthini dheyyo arrived.' (Possessed by god Patthini)

BBC Seevakan: For this mental state to happen to them, what was the reason you detected? While you talked to them were you able to uncover anything?

Dr Sivadas: Most of them willfully enrolled for this job which gives Rs 30,000 salary monthly. Contrary to what is being said outside such as they were forcibly recruited.. when I spoke to them, they said they had willfully joined.

They said, that 'we don't have a wage, we drink only Kanjee (porridge), there is much poverty in the Vanni, and so for us this job is a great gift'.. and that's why they went.

However, inspite of this, after they got there, because of their culture, and the lives they have led for the past 30 years.. this goes against that. [They think] 'I have to go to get a wage, I have to get an income, but then what of my culture, and my Tamil people, and my Tamil identity - is this right?' This is causing an inner conflict.

BBC Seevakan: But you are saying this is due to the inner conflict of mind. ..Possibility of any type of abuse committed to them after they joined the army .. May it be the reason?

Dr. Sivadas: I have seen all fifteen of them fully, and the other 103 I visited at the three camps that night. Nothing of the sort happened to them. Even when they were doing this 'divine dance', not a single army soldier, or female soldier touched them.

Perhaps if they had assaulted these girls they might not continue in the army. But instead, without assaulting them, they brought them there [to the hospital] and [got them] admitted.

One thing that they [girls] pleaded, begged and cried about, was to say 'Sir please save us from these reports of sexual abuse. Everyday we listen to the news and hear about it [allegation]. Please tell the world that nothing like this happened, tell them that we are not having any serious mental illness and no sexual abuses were committed against us.'

In my point of view, I personally worked in Vanni for the last three and a half years and I've worked with many ex -combatants. I will say this is not a sexual abuse. Rather that this is 'media abuse' or 'political abuse'

BBC Seevakan: All right. What type of treatment are you giving them?

Dr Sivadas: We usually explain to them that this type of incident happened because of problems in their mind and not because of a god or devil possessing and doing it.

BBC Seevakan: So now you are saying that their situation is settled down?

Dr Sivadas: Well settled. I promise to meet them after one week... I am not going to be the person who assists them to join in the army. Because as an individual, who believes in Tamil nationalism, I personally feel that that the government did not need to do these types of work [recruitment] so quickly. But, as a medical doctor, I have a duty, to show that these girls were not sexually abused or suffering from any mental disorders.