The other new witness, who was also operating with Brigadier Shavendra Silva’s 58 Division on the front line during the final assault, claims the Brigadier was ordered by the defence secretary “to finish the job by whatever means necessary.”
‘Licence to kill’
He said this was interpreted by the soldiers as a licence to kill. He described how he had watched as Sri Lankan forces shot dead unarmed Tamil women and children. It is the first time this allegation has been made.
The war was won by Sri Lankan government soldiers two years ago. The rebel leadership was virtually wiped out.
‘They shot people at random. Stabbed people. Raped them. Cut out their tongues, cut women’s breasts off. I saw people soaked in blood.’
Earlier Channel 4 telecast last Year the Genocide of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Now a New Documentary is being released and it will be shown to UNHR.
The bodies of Tamil women civilians lay smouldering on the floor in northern Sri Lanka after being deliberately targeted by Sri Lanka nationalist forces of Mahinda Rajapaksa. These bodies are not only the result of strident uncontrolled nationalism, but the direct effects of Globalisation between the world’s largest powers, the United States, China and India in the first initial pre-amble to multi-polarity developing throughout the world.
Would they take action against Rajapakshe and his band of Thugs at least now?
n one of the most repugnant images yet seen during the so-called War on Terror, A Tamil woman between 20 and 30 years of age lies dead in the mud after being raped and shot to death by nationalist Rajapaksa military forces during the ethnic cleansing of 2009. As an increasing body of evidence now illustrates, scenes like this were common throughout the north of Sri Lanka despite initial claims by government sources that incidents of this type were exceptional. In an attempt to explain this behaviour, the Sri Lankan military have claimed that disrobing and open handed detailing of bodies is required to search for weapons, explosives or documents as standard operating procedure. In many of these incidents, females have been found naked, blindfolded with clothing removed just enough to expose sexual organs with hands tied behind the back and gunshot wounds to the head. In almost all cases, females are found in face up positions with their legs splayed. It should be noted that the operation conducted by nationalist forces in Sri Lanka has not been made possible by competent anti-terrorist training for the role, or a degree of professionalism, but by a sudden influx of finance and military weapons and ordnance from the United States and China. This influx simply brought the Sri Lankan military into a position in which it had the military capability to overshoot its natural lack of competence.
Carefully evidenced and powerfully measured, ‘No Fire Zone’ is a feature length film about the final awful months of the 26 year long Sri Lankan civil war told by the people who lived through it. It is a meticulous and chilling expose of some of the worst war crimes and crimes against humanity of recent times – told through the extraordinary personal stories of a small group of characters and also through some of the most dramatic and disturbing video evidence ever recorded.
This footage allows us to document the day to day horror of this war in a way almost never done before: Footage recorded by both the victims and perpetrators on mobile phones and small cameras – viscerally powerful actuality from the battlefield, from inside the crudely dug civilian bunkers and over-crowded makeshift hospitals.
Footage which is nothing less than direct evidence of war crimes, summary execution, torture and sexual violence.
This was supposed to be a war conducted in secret. The Government excluded the international press, forced the UN to leave the war zone and ruthlessly silenced the Sri Lankan media – literally dozens of media workers were killed, exiled or disappeared. While the world looked away in the first few months of 2009 around 40,000 to 70,000 civilians were massacred – mostly by Sri Lankan government shelling, though the Tamil Tigers also stand accused of war crimes.
The film starts in September 2008. An air of deep foreboding hung over Kilinochchi– the de facto capital of the Tamil homelands of Northern Sri Lanka. The armed forces of the ultra-nationalist Sinhalese government of Sri Lanka were on the move, and the brutal secessionist army of the Tamil Tigers was on the retreat. After a twenty-six year revolt – the scene was set for the final awful endgame.
We have looked at and translated hours of raw footage which captures the day-to-day life of the people who lived and in many cases died – during the 138 days of hell which form the central narrative of our film. This footage is an incredibly intimate account of human suffering.
But the film is also built around compelling personal stories. There is Vany – a young British Tamil who was visiting relatives in Sri Lanka who became trapped along with hundreds of thousands of other men, women and children, desperately fleeing the government onslaught. She had trained as a medical technician in the UK, now she found herself helping in a makeshift hospital while doctors tried to treat hundreds of desperately injured people, in some cases performing major surgery without general anaesthetic.
Other people who tell their stories include two of the last UN workers – Peter Mackay and Benjamin Dix – forced to leave on the orders of the UN which, they feel, was betraying its fundamental duty to protect.
Inevitably too, this film is the personal story of some who didn’t make it.
‘No Fire Zone’ also brings the story up to date. The Sri Lankan government still denies this all happened in what thy describe as an “humanitarian rescue”. The repression and ethnic restructuring of the Tamil homelands in the north of Sri Lanka continues – journalists and government critics are still disappearing. The government will tolerate no opposition and have even turned on their own judiciary, impeaching the Chief Justice of the country when she found they had acted unconstitutionally.
Without truth there can be no justice in Sri Lanka. And without justice there can be no peace. We hope our film can be part of that truth-telling.
We offer this film, not just as the definitive film of record, but also in the hope it will jolt the international community and audience to call for action.
Like all crimes, it was all supposed to be conducted in secret.
In September 2008, as Sri Lankan government forces pushed the fighters of the Tamil Tigers further and further back into the Tamil homelands of the north, the government ordered the UN to evacuate their last few international workers from Kilinochchi, the Tigers’ de facto capital.
The reason, they said, was they could no longer guarantee their safety.
The real reason was far less honorable: They did not want any witnesses to what was coming.
One of the UN staff, communications Officer Benjamin Dix, recalls how distressed and angry they felt. A mood which was not improved by the celebratory party the UN threw for them when they escaped the war zone.
“I remember feeling pretty disgusted by that party. I didn’t see that there was anything there to celebrate. What we had actually done was complete abandonment of our duty of protection of civilians in a conflict situation,” he said.
The next day Dix resigned from his post. But even he had no idea just how catastrophic that abandonment was, how awful was the disaster that was about to befall the people left behind.
With the UN out of the region, with international media excluded and local journalists and critics silenced, exiled, disappeared or in fear of their life, the government felt ready to launch the final offensive.
On January 2, 2009, Kilinochchi fell. Between 300,000 and 400,000 civilians were on the run, fleeing further into the Tiger-held territory. But they were fleeing into a terrible trap – a trap which would see tens of thousands of them die, mostly (as a UN panel of experts later concluded) as a result of targeted government shelling.
Back in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo, the increasingly autocratic regime of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother, the Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was determined to finish the Tigers off. As the then UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sir John Homes told me: “They were not going to let anybody stop them do that. Either the international community, the media or the fear of humanitarian issues of civilian casualties. And that’s the way it worked out.”
And if any local journalists were thinking of challenging that plan, they were about to receive a painful reminder of what the consequences might be.
Soon after the fall of Kilinochchi, the founding editor of the Colombo Sunday Leader, the Sinhalese writer, Lasantha Wickrementunge, wrote an article attacking the government’s military triumphalism and commitment to a military solution to the Tigers 26-year insurgency. It was not an easy article to write; he had once been a personal friend and admirer of the president.
A few days later, as Wickrementunge was driving to work, he was ambushed and executed by four unknown assailants on motorbikes.
After his death his newspaper published a front page editorial he had written in anticipation of his own murder. It was addressed to his former friend, the president. “For all the dreams you had for our country in your younger days . . . you have trampled on human rights, nurtured unbridled corruption and squandered public money like no other president before you.”
And he concluded:
“When finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me.”
But pleas concerning this dead journalist had no effect.
To the regime in Colombo, it must have seemed like all the elements were in place: There was no one left to witness what was about to happen.
Many Indians ,especially the younger generation including and especially my son, is never tired of telling me how bad India is and how good, orderly and Citizens are in the US and Europe.
I have agreed to the extent that India is corrupt and needs a Clean up and at the same time The West is not a Puritan either.
If the scams in India are in crores of Indian Rupees it is in Millions of US Dollars and Pound Sterling abroad.
This post is an eye opener for those who praise the citizens abroad for their Dutiful citizenship.
You dot evaluate a culture by mere standing in Queues and cleanliness on the road.
I have my brother’s Grand son living in Sweden for quite a few years now.
He used to tell me how responsible and helpful the Swedes are in helping out citizens in need of Government assistance, be it a form filling even.
Yes .
I agreed and informed him that he would find, in the course of time, how corrupt and morally decaying a Society Sweden is in terms of personal Life style and how it ruins family life over there.
Now,though he still appreciates the good things over there, he has realized that a Culture needs to be evaluated on the over all aspects of Life.
Having said this,let me add that if only we develop the Industriousness, attention to Detail, Public Spirit and responsible citizenship…!
The following information is not to justify our corrupt practices but to point out that the West is decaying excepting in a material comforts which is contributing to it s decay.
Corruption
“Tax evasion poses an acute challenge to developing and developed countries. From 2000 to 2010, illicit financial flows deprived developing countries of US$5.86 trillion. Tax evasion is not a victimless crime – for people in the developing world, the consequences of tax evasion can be a matter of life and death. If developing countries could recover this untaxed wealth, it could mobilise enormous resources for improving their public services and their citizens’ lives.
The new Eurodad report “Secret structures, hidden crimes” finds that the hidden ownership of companies and other legal structures facilitates tax evasion, corruption and related crimes. It outlines the different ways that individuals abuse companies, trusts and other vehicles in order to evade taxes.
It argues that better information about who owns and controls these companies and other set-ups is key to bringing trillions of dollars of offshore wealth back into the tax net and helping to prevent capital flight in the future.
It argues that all forms of tax evasion can be more effectively fought where they are recognized as a “predicate offence” of money laundering as this makes it a criminal offence to help someone to hide and shift tax-evaded money. For some countries tax evasion is already a predicate offence, but only in a limited set of circumstances”…
According Oxfam, tax evasion by
individuals costs developing countries
US$124 billion. Christian Aid has found that,
even using a very conservative estimate,
developing countries lose the equivalent of
US$160 billion per year to tax evasion by
multinational companies using false invoicing
and blatant transfer mispricing. If this sum
were channelled to developing countries’
budgets, with allocation unchanged it
would be enough to save the lives of 1,000
children every day. Over the past decades,
tax evasion by individuals has led to the
accumulation of US$21–32 trillion of untaxed
offshore wealth, according to recent research
by the Tax Justice Network (TJN). About
25-30% of this (US$5.3–9.6 trillion) is from
developing countries.
Money laundering is the process of
concealing the source of money obtained
by illegal means. It can be easier to hide
tax-evaded income because, unlike other
criminal proceeds, the money generally
comes from a legitimate source initially. This
money only becomes illegal later on, when
the full amount of tax due is not paid. This
generally involves the taxpayer concealing
or under-declaring their income. Tax evasion
and money laundering therefore go hand”..
Hidden ownership facilitates
corruption and crime
Beneficial ownership transparency would
also help address illicit capital flight, which
cost developing countries an estimated
US$859 billion in 2010. These flows comprise
proceeds of corruption, crime and tax
evasion. The United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime (UNODOC) estimated the total
value of money laundering to be around
US$2.1 trillion in 2009 – equivalent to 3.6% of global GDP.
The UN and World Bank STAR (Stolen Asset
Recovery Initiative) published some 150
corruption cases involving hidden ownership
of a corporate vehicle either to launder
money or as part of the initial scam. Global
Witness has produced a number of case
studies on corrupt officials laundering their
money abroad, while researchers have found
that sub-Saharan Africa has lost US$700
billion to illicit capital flight since 1970,
dwarfing its outstanding debt of US$175
billion. Corruption could also be curbed with
strong AML rules.
Hidden ownership masks
accountability for human rights and
environmental violations
When a human rights violation takes place,
those affected can find it difficult to take
a case to court if the parent company or
management further up the ownership chain
cannot be identified. The same goes for
environmental violations.”…
Use of complex structures to
circumvent financial regulation
Before the financial crisis, many banks
used complex and even illegal structures to
hide losses that would later be bailed out
by taxpayers. UK bank Northern Rock did
this using an investment vehicle based in
Guernsey registered in the name of a real
charity, without the charity’s knowledge. If
ownership information was made publically
available online people and organisations
would be able to check if their identity was
being abused in this way.
Tax avoidance
Greater organisational transparency and
beneficial ownership disclosure would
make it easier to understand aggressive tax
planning and avoidance schemes that exploit
legal loopholes when transactions take
place between jurisdictions with different
rules. Many of these schemes exist in a
contested grey area between what is legal
and illegal. One telling example of the impact
of tax avoidance in developing countries
is ActionAid’s case study of UK brewing
giant SABMiller.”
The Resolution moved by the US apparently censuring the Sri Lankan Government by has been passed by 24 for,15 against with eight absentions( 47 members).
India joined the countries in voting against Sri Lanka and immediately mollified Sri Lanka.
“Soon after the voting, the Indian foreign ministry put out a detailed note which placed its contentious decision in perspective.
The ministry stressed that ‘resolutions of this nature should fully respect the sovereign rights of states and contribute to Sri Lanka’s own efforts in this regard’. It pointed out that with thousands of years of cordial relations and deep rooted spiritual and cultural ties, India can’t cannot remain untouched by developments in the neighbouring country.
‘We will continue to remain engaged with Sri Lanka to take forward the process of reconciliation to secure for all its citizens a future marked by equality, dignity, justice and self-respect,’ the ministry said in New Delhi. Reminding Colombo to implement the recommendations of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report, India said ‘there is a window of opportunity to forge a consensual way forward towards reconciliation through a political settlement respecting all ethnic and religious groups inhabiting the nation’.
India stressed that the LLRC report recognises that ‘a political solution is imperative and that the government of Sri Lanka should provide the leadership to this political process’.
” The fifth and final paragraph of the preamble of the US Resolution, immediately preceding its operative clauses, reads: “Noting with concern that the LLRC report does not adequately address serious allegations of violations of international law…”
It is to be noted that this provides an alibi for the Sri Lankan Government to question the other observations of the LLRC Report and may even shelve thr Report quoting this proviso!
“(1). Calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the constructive recommendations in the LLRC report and take all necessary additional steps to fulfill its relevant legal obligations and commitment to initiate credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans,
(2) Requests that the Government of Sri Lanka present a comprehensive action plan as expeditiously as possible detailing the steps the Government has taken and will take to implement the LLRC recommendations and also to address alleged violations of international law.
This tantamount to the perpetrators to rectify /address issues created by them. how illogical can one be?
‘and also violations of International Law’-this gives room for Sri Lanka to drag LTTE into the picture and muddy the water further.
“(3) “Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures to provide, and the Government of Sri Lanka to accept, advice and technical assistance on implementing those steps and requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present a report to the Council on the provision of such assistance at its twenty-second session.”
That is to say the Government of Sri Lanka shall advise(supposed to accept and advice UNHRC Commissioner at the same time -how contradictory?) shall use the UNHRC High Commissioner as an Agent of the Government of Sri Lanka.
Instead of UNHRC dictating terms , it will be the Sri Lankan Government that shall dictate the UNHRC.
I often hear my elder brother say ‘if you have to scold some one, scold them in such a way that it does not hurt them’
It is really strange that SrI Lankans do not seem to realize the enormity of the Genocide and this can be seen from the Petition organised by the Sri Lankan Youth(?)
“The United States draft resolution (A/HRC/19/L.2) on Sri Lanka was tabled at the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Councilin Geneva on 8 March 2012.This resolution, is being brought up to address the alleged “war crimes” supposed to have occurred during the humanitarian mission to save innocent civilians from the terror of the inhumane terrorist organization calling itself the “Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)”.
The resolution;
1. Calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the constructive Recommendations made in the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and to take all necessary additional steps to fulfil its relevant legal obligations and commitment to initiate credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans;
2. Requests the Government of Sri Lanka to present, as expeditiously as possible, a comprehensive action plan detailing the steps that the Government has taken and will take to implement the recommendations made in the Commission’s report, and also to address alleged violations of international law;
3. Encourages the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures mandate holders to provide, and the Government of Sri Lanka to accept, advice and technical assistance on implementing the above-mentioned steps, and requests the Office of the High Commissioner to present a report on the provision of such assistance to the Human Rights Council at its twenty-second session.
The passing of this resolution will have the effect of;
1) Breaching Article 2(7) of the Charter of the United Nations which states “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”
2)Completely jeopardizing the core concepts of International Law and breaching Article 2(1) of the Charter of the United Nations, which ensure the sovereign equality of all its Members, since no such resolution has been brought up against the US (sponsor of the current resolution) for allegations of Human Rights Violations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
3) Violating the sovereignty and integrity of Sri Lanka.
4) Hindering the effort of the Sri Lankan government in its reconciliation efforts to ensure equality among all races and the post war development process.
5) Taxing the resources of the United Nations since the government of Sri Lanka has already made substantial progress in implementing the recommendations of the LLRC report which makes it unnecessary for a process as recommended.
Rattled by the Documentary evidence made Public by Channel 4 telecast of a Documentary ,’Sri Lanka‘s Killing fields’ on 14 March, The Government of Sri Lanka is organising march by mobilising stooges to protest tabling the Resolution to censure Sri Lanka on Tamil Genocide in Europe.
Henry Dephane, a Civil right activist from Tamil Nadu , who has been invited by the UNHRC, recounts how Tamil Supporters were manhandled in Geneva at the meeting and the Chairman of UNHRC apologised to the delegates.( source.Junior Vikatan 21/3/12)
Not content with this, the Sri Lankan Government seems to be inciting Sinhalese against the Tamils to the extent of making Sinhalese school children attack their Tamil counterparts from Jaffna!
‘Thousands of government supporters marched on foreign embassies yesterday to call on Western countries not to table a planned resolution critical of the country at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.
Around 15,000 people marched to the US, Norwegian and German embassies, as well as the British high commission in Colombo to hand over petitions urging the resolution on alleged rights abuses committed during the country’s civil war be dropped…
The protesters condemned what they called interference from the US and other foreign powers in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs and accused the international community of trying to tarnish the country’s image at the UN meeting.
Among the marchers were the leaders of the Inter Religious Alliance for National Unity (IANU), who accused the US and international community of trying to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka.
“They have intervened in the internal affairs of other countries such as Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq and violated their human rights,” said its co-chairman Reverend Sarath Hettiarachchi.
The Methodist minister called on the government to align itself with anti-US countries to give Sri Lanka a stronger voice against its detractors.
Nations divided at the grassroot in the island despite machinations of global powers, reflected in an episode this week in which visiting students from leading schools of Jaffna were attacked by fellow Sinhala students in a cadet camp at Randamba in the Southern Province. The Sinhala military officials in the camp, rather than attending to complaints, chose to send the Jaffna school students back, with a warning not to tell anyone what had happened to them in the camp. During the decades of war, Colombo had stopped cadet programmes in the schools of Jaffna. Now as a part of its militarisation and structural genocide programme Colombo has conceived the idea of obligatory military training to all university entrants and reintroduction of cadet programme in the leading schools of Jaffna.
Accompanied by teachers, school cadets (or rather children as they are under 18) from St. John’s College, Jaffna Hindu College, Kokkuvil Hindu College and Central College of Jaffna were among those who were taken for the cadet training camp of both Sinhala and Tamil students at the Randamba SL military facility in the Southern Province.
During the camping, verbal exchanges between the two sections snowballed into an attack on visiting Tamil students by the Sinhala students, on Tuesday.
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