Now Rajapakshe of Sri Lanka has been invited to speak in the UN Assembly.
Human Rights Commission of the UN has begun an enquiry into the genocide of Tamils in Lanka.
Sri Lankan Ministers have declared in Public that they will not let the enquiry be conducted in Sri Lanka and Navi Pillay retorted that it is not necessary to go to Lanka to confirm the killings of Tamils and that there is enough evidence to confirm Lanka’s guilt.
In the meanwhile reports say that the solution to the Tamil problem can be found only within the United Lanka.
Quite laudable.
But……?
Killed and disfigured.Heaps of BodiesLanka Air force kills TamilsMaimed Tamils.The photo shows what it appears to show… an unexploded SLA rocket has pierced this Tamil woman’s lower body.
Transcript from Channel 4 No Fire Zone.
”
Statements of Sri Lanka soldiers
“Motherfuckin Tiger wankers!”
(inaudible)
“Load the ammo” “Show your face”
“Hey… pose with the bodies”
–then while showing bodies of what appear to be dead Tamil Tiger child soldiers—
“Hey look up” (Soldier looks at camera and makes grunting sound)
—then during the loading of female bodies–
“Bring that body… Another one”
“eh?”
“She is moaning now”
“Moaning in your head?”
“Still moaning?”
“Bring that one”
“This one has the best figure”
“Eh?”
“This one has the best figure”
—We have more footage, taken elsewhere, which suggests systematic murder, abuse and sexual violence—
“She seems like someone who’s newly joined”
“She looks like someone’s clerk”
“Look how many pencils and pens she’s got”
“I really want to cut her tits off”
“…if no one was around””
Some people who are interested, definitely no politicians,in the resolution of the Sri Lanka Tamils issue have been in touch with me.
Tamils Raped Killed Lanka.
Killing Of Tamils Lanka.
They are trying their best in their own way to bring in awareness among the people of world about the injustice meted out to the Tamil People in Lanka and the massacre of the Tamils in Sri Lanka.
These people, in their personal capacity are bringing this matter to the attention of the US Government , the Congress members of the US,Members of the
The Lankan issue , in my opinion, has not brought forth to the Public forcefully.
Mere publishing of shocking videos/images and news items of sufferings of the individuals.
The issue has not gone home to people it ought to.
You cross Nayudupet or Kuppam in Andhra, no body talks about this at all.
I am settled in Bangalore.
When I ask my friends in Karnataka about the Tamils issue, their answer is..
‘This is not new.Tamils a create problems wherever they go and they get the punishment.
Moreover, Sri Lankan Tamils are anti Hindus and anti Indians.
They killed our Prime Minister.
Let us talk about some thing else”
This is not the view of Kannadigas alone.
Wherever I go in the North, I get similar feedback.
Why?
1.Too much emphasis has been given to the word Tamils and not on the human right issue.
2.Why the Tamils have been treated this way and what their problems are, have not been clearly brought forth.
People talk about LLC and no body talks about Sirimavo agreement with India.
Nor the fact that the Tamils have been denied basic Rights in Lanka.
That they are treated as menials and second -rate citizens in their own country.
That their lands are grabbed.
Sinhalese are brought in to show that Sinhalese are in majority.
Their language Tamil is being slowly erased from the Island.
That Hinduism is systematically wiped out by destroying Temples, Cultural Centers.
Employment opportunities and schooling are denied to the Tamils.
For the Conduct of a minor Hindu Religious function Governmental permission is required in Tamil areas of Jaffna.
Children and women are raped and killed.
Torture , Repression and killing of people is not restricted to Tamils.
Now Tamils are exterminated , nearly, it is the turn of Muslims and Christians.
Not to leave political dissenters like JVP, or the Media.
The Matale Mass grave speak of the killing of JVP, it might have included Tamils as well.
These facts are not known to public in a manner that they can understand.
Pouring out emotions will be of no help.
This is a practical issue that needs practical approach and the first step is presentation facts and presenting them to the suitable audience who matter,
The issue of Lankan Tamils being anti Hindu is ill founded.
These are the people who propagated Shavisam and Kaumaram in Lanka and Far East.
Major donors of famous temples are Lankan Tamils.
Then why this perception.
In Diplomacy it is not organised facts alone that guarantee people’s ears but how and through whom it is presented.
The Tamil issue is being presented by Karunanidhi and DK , who are known to be anti Hindus.
People perceive the people and the issue they promote are also anti Hindus.
“I got messages not to shoot those who are carrying white flags.
Tamils Herded and Shot by Lankan Security Forces.
A war is fought by soldiers.
They do so by putting their lives on the line.
Therefore, the decisions about war should be taken by the soldiers in the battlefront.
Not the people in air-conditioned rooms in Colombo.
Our soldiers have seen in life the kind of destruction carried out by those people before they decided to come carrying a white flag.
Therefore, they carried out their duties.
We destroyed any one connected with the LTTE. That is how we won the war.”
In 2011 General Fonseka was sentenced to three years in prison and fined Rs.5000 by a court for “propagating a false rumour’ in connection with the original Sunday Leader story.
This is what General Fonseka said on the killing of the LTTE cadres who negotiated a surrender and ane they approached the Lankan Army.
They were carrying the White Flag as a mark of Surrender.
They were shot dead.
In the din of the cry to prosecute the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakshe and his brother Godbaya Rajapakshe, Defense secretary who gave the
orders to shoot,the Vienna convention has been breached.
Why not ask for a Trail at least on this issue?
It is a different matter altogether that this is a retracted statement of Fonseka
Behind the scene manipulation of Rajapakshe, Gotabaya Rajapakshe follows in a separate Post.
Here is how they were shot shot dead.
“
“Last night’s toll of the dead is 3318 and of the injured more than 4000. It was a barrage of artillery, mortar, multi-barrel shelling and cluster bombs, weapons which Sri Lankan government denies using on the civilians in the no fire zone. The cries of woes and agony of the babies and children, the women and the elderly fill the air that was polluted by poisonous and unhealthy gases and pierced the hearts of fathers and mothers, of elders and peasants of old men and women of all walks of life. I am not unaware that this letter would arouse the wrath of the Sri Lankan government which will resort to the revenge by killing me.“
On 10th May 2009, a Catholic priest inside the war zone, Father Francis, wrote to the Pope in Rome describing what he was experiencing.Whi
“
At 0630 am on 18 May 2009, approximately twelve people left the bunkers carrying at least two white flags. All wore civilian clothing – the men were in white sarongs and shirts.
Witness 2 was lying on the embankment watching the surrender. He saw that the man carrying the white flag was Nadesan and he also identified Nadesan’s wife and Puidevan in this group.
The first batch to cross were met by two different teams of soldiers, including according to an eyewitness, the 58th Division Commander, Shavendra Silva (currently Sri Lanka’s deputy Permanent Representative at the UN in New York), who went up to greet them.
Several witnesses heard Nadesan’s wife shouting in Sinhala to the soldiers. One witness saw the men in the group had their hands held behind their backs by the soldiers though he couldn’t see if they were tied or handcuffed.
About twenty metres behind the first group, was the second one led by the police chief Illango (also
known as Ramesh) who was also carrying a white flag. Witness 3 was in this group. They passed many dead bodies and could hardly see the lagoon through the dense bushes. Witness 3 saw about 200 troops in the bushes. He then noticed the destroyed building surrounded by about 100 soldiers where Witness 1 was being detained. He confirmed seeing civilians inside this building.
The second group watched the first group approach the security forces. Witness 3 saw about 20-5 soldiers in uniform and armed with AK47 rifles surround the first group. He observed Pulidevan and Nadesan’s group being escorted across the bridge surrounded by soldiers.
Then his group was surrounded by armed soldiers. The police chief Illango spoke to the troops in Sinhala. Their group was surrounded and escorted in the same fashion across the bridge. Witness 3 was separated from the others and taken to a sentry post, interrogated and slapped and then loaded onto a bus and taken to a detention camp for former LTTE cadres…
Eyewitness 2
Witness 2 says about an hour or so after the surrender, he was on a dirt road parallel to the A35 highway and spotted the corpses of Pulidevan and Nadesan lying in a ditch by the roadside with soldiers standing around taking photographs. (see map)
“I instantly recognised the bodies of Pulideevan and Nadesan. I knew as soon as I looked at their bodies that they were dead. Both men were lying on their backs in the ditch…
Eyewitnesses say it was not just the LTTE political wing leaders who were targeted, but at least 102 other administrative, financial, political, humanitarian leaders of the LTTE, in addition to unarmed military wing cadres and non-combatants such as children who also surrendered later the same day. There were also other LTTE figures who surrendered in the days before and after 18 May who have disappeared or been killed in the custody of the Sri Lankan security forces.
It appears to have been part of a cold-blooded plan to wipe out any future Tamil representatives.
..
It is late at night, past midnight. Make a mental picture of this. Can you see them coming out with white flags in this dense jungle in pitch darkness? The situation was that some terrorist cadres counter-attacked. Prabhakaran was trying to break out and escape to the lagoon, his son went in another direction. At the same time 10,000 surrendered cadres came down from one side. In this kind of situation in the thick of battle, can you expect a young recruit, barely a month into battle, to recognise a senior LTTE cadre and make a decision as to shoot him selectively or spare him?”
“In the aftermath of the Second World War, the Balkan states of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia became part of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia. After the death of longtime Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito in 1980, growing nationalism among the different Yugoslav republics threatened to split their union apart. This process intensified after the mid-1980s with the rise of the Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, who helped foment discontent between Serbians in Bosnia and Croatia and their Croatian, Bosniak and Albanian neighbors. In 1991, Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia declared their independence; during the war in Croatia that followed, the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army supported Serbian separatists there in their brutal clashes with Croatian forces.
In Bosnia, Muslims represented the largest single population group by 1971. More Serbs and Croats emigrated over the next two decades, and in a 1991 census Bosnia’s population of some 4 million was 44 percent Bosniak, 31 percent Serb, and 17 percent Croatian. Elections held in late 1990 resulted in a coalition government split between parties representing the three ethnicities (in rough proportion to their populations) and led by the Bosniak Alija Izetbegovic. As tensions built inside and outside the country, the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and his Serbian Democratic Party withdrew from government and set up their own “Serbian National Assembly.” On March 3, 1992, after a referendum vote (which Karadzic’s party blocked in many Serb-populated areas), President Izetbegovic proclaimed Bosnia’s independence.
Far from seeking independence for Bosnia, Bosnian Serbs wanted to be part of a dominant Serbian state in the Balkans–the “Greater Serbia” that Serbian separatists had long envisioned. In early May 1992, two days after the United States and the European Community (precursor to the European Union) recognized Bosnia’s independence, Bosnian Serb forces with the backing of Milosevic and the Serb-dominated Yugoslav army launched their offensive with a bombardment of Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo. They attacked Bosniak-dominated town in eastern Bosnia, including Zvornik, Foca, and Visegrad, forcibly expelling Bosniak civilians from the region in a brutal process that later was identified as “ethnic cleansing.” (Ethnic cleansing differs from genocide in that its primary goal is the expulsion of a group of people from a geographical area and not the actual physical destruction of that group, even though the same methods–including murder, rape, torture and forcible displacement–may be used.)
Though Bosnian government forces tried to defend the territory, sometimes with the help of the Croatian army, Bosnian Serb forces were in control of nearly three-quarters of the country by the end of 1993, and Karadzic’s party had set up their own Republika Srpska in the east. Most of the Bosnian Croats had left the country, while a significant Bosniak population remained only in smaller towns. Several peace proposals between a Croatian-Bosniak federation and Bosnian Serbs failed when the Serbs refused to give up any territory. The United Nations (U.N.) refused to intervene in the conflict in Bosnia, but a campaign spearheaded by its High Commissioner for Refugees provided humanitarian aid to its many displaced, malnourished and injured victims.
‘The Sri Lankan civil war was very costly, killing an estimated 80,000-100,000 people between 1982 and 2009.
“The deaths include 27,639 Tamil fighters, more than 21,066 Sri Lankan soldiers, 1000 Sri Lankan police, 1500 Indian soldiers, and tens of thousands of civilians.[citation needed] The Uppsala Conflict Data Program, a university-based data collection program considered to be “one of the most accurate and well-used data-sources on global armed conflicts” provides free data to the public and has divided Sri Lanka’s conflicts into groups based on the actors involved. It collectively reported that between 1990 and 2009 between 59,193-75,601people were killed in Sri Lanka during various three types of organized armed conflict: “State-based” conflicts, those that involved the Government of Sri Lanka against rebel groups(LTTE and the JVP), “Non-state” conflicts, those conflicts that did not involve the government of Sri Lanka (e.g. LTTE vs. LTTE-Karuna Faction, and LTTE vs. PLOTE), as well as “One-sided” violence, that involved deliberate attacks against civilians perpetrated by either LTTE or the Government of Sri Lanka”
Figures quoted above are way below par.
This does not include the killing of JVP cadres.
Add to this,
Mass killings,
Rape,
Confiscation of the lands of the Tamils,
Killing those who came to surrender.
…
Bosina killers have been identified and action taken.
“Now, she [Damilvany Kumar] says that there had been all these alleged rape and murder and all these things. Now she is one person who will get attracted by soldiers, because she is so different from others.
I want to know whether she was raped. She was there for one year. She came with the IDPs, and she was in the IDP camps.”
“We received a report that a soldier went into a tent at 11pm and came out at 3am. It could have been sex for pleasure, it could have been sex for favours, or it could have been a discussion on Ancient Greek philosophy, we don’t know.”
On another occasion when asked by a Sky News reporter about the allegations of sexual violence within the camps, Mr Wijesinha replied:
“There are a few blue eyed children in that camp, so you know that some of the NGOs have had a jolly good time when they were up in Vavuniya, so when you go up just have a look and try and identify them.“
In the run up to the ESVC summit, we have been revisiting the mounting evidence which documents the widespread, systematic and on-going use of sexual violence by Sri Lanka’s military against Tamils, that occurs with absolute impunity.
The summit follows the Declaration of Commitment to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, tabled by the Mr Hague and endorsed by two-thirds of UN member states, which condemns the on-going use of sexual violence in conflicts and pledged to ensure justice for victims.
Sri Lanka was highlighted by the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as a key country where rape was used as a tactic of war, in October 2009, only a few months after the armed conflict ended.
Addressing an UN Security Council focused on rape in war, she said:
“Now, reading the headlines, one might think that the use of rape as a tactic of war only happens occasionally, or in a few places, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Sudan.
That would be bad enough, but the reality is much worse. We’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere.
In too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence are not punished, and so this impunity encourages further attacks.
…
Much of the photographic and video evidence of sexual violence in the final stages of the armed conflict emerged in the form of ‘trophy videos’, filmed by Sri Lankan soldiers themselves whilst committing the crimes.
One of the latest videos to emerge depicts soldiers performing acts of sexual violence on the stripped, dead bodies of Tamil LTTE fighters.
Citations. and for more check the following Links.
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