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Tag: Colombo

  • 13500 Million Defense Fund Missing Death Squad Rajapakshe Raided

    Some time back I posted an article quoting a Lankan News Paper that former President of Lanka, Rajapaksha visited Tirupati,in india, not to worship, but to sell illegally obtained God(350Kg)

    There is news that his residence was raided by the authorities.

    Rajapaksha, Former President,Sri Lanka.
    Rajapaksha, Former President,Sri Lanka.

    ‘

    Embattled former Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s country home in the southern province has been raided by police who were looking for a luxury sports car but the search drew a blank.

    “They raided our house in Tangalle yesterday looking for a Lamborghini car,” said Namal Rajapaksa, the former president’s elder son and a parliamentarian.

    Police spokesman Ajith Rohana said the search was done on a court warrant but it drew a blank.

    “They have been harassing us by searching not only our own houses but those of our friends. We can’t visit homes of our associates because they get their places searched,” Namal said.

    He said the police complaint was based on false information that they were hiding a sea plane and tyres of racing cars.

    “All they found was a pedal boat used by pre-school children,” Namal said.

    The search of Rajapaksa’s country home comes days after police launched a probe into allegations that his younger brother Gotabhaya ran “death squads” and ordered the murder of a high-profile newspaper editor.

    Basil Rajapaksa, the other brother of Rajapaksa and the former economic development minister, has also been accused of being involved in a number of shady deals.

    Since Mahinda Rajapaksa’s defeat to Maithripala Sirisena in the January 8 election, the state media have been showing visuals of the Rajapaksa family’s extravagant life styles.

    The visuals of air-conditioned toilets with digital video screens fixed at the official Temple Trees residence have been aired on state television.

    During the run up to the polls, the then opposition accused Rajapaksa’s sons of owning helicopters, expensive horses from royal stables in the UK and expensive racing cars.

    Information on alleged properties of the Rajapaksa family is being regularly given to police since the advent of Sirisena-led new government….( The Hindu dated 20 January 2015)..

    But reports from Lanka indicate that Rjapaksha was involved in misappropriating Rs.13,500 Million of Lanka Defense Ministry Fund.

    This is in addition to 350 kgs of Gold procured illegally.

    “As huge as Rs.1500 million in cash !! had been discovered by accident at Temple trees after Medamulana crook Mahinda Rajapakse (better known now as the modern ‘Alibaba’ ) who ruled the country brutally for 9 years fled Temple Trees on the 9 th morning ,when all his unlawful hasty and frantic attempts to be in power via military conspiracies and treason against the country (to be in power by hook or by crook –borrowing his own words) flopped. In the confusion and desperation when he ran away from Temple Trees on the 9th these monies have been left behind by him.

    All these hard cash in valid local and foreign currency were found inside a room under lock and key. A Temple Trees source told Lanka e news ,if this colossal sum of money were left behind when fleeing away in panic , what amount of money would have been taken along by this Medamulana modern Alibaba? It is learnt that the Treasury had been informed of these monies .

    At the same time it has come to light the amount of money taken out of the state defense funds and wasted by the Rajapakses at their whims and fancies is also as large as Rs. 135,00 million!! In the defense fund Taprobane branch account which had Rs. 210,00 million , presently there is only Rs. 7500 million . The balance Rs. 13500 million taken by Mahinda Rajapakse as the minister of finance and defense has at his will and pleasure spent them without any records or documents!

    According to Ministry of finance informed sources , based on these monumental frauds and misappropriation of state funds in billions and billions of rupees committed by Medamulana Mahinda Rajapakse , even if the most powerful of powerful omni -potentates intervene Mahinda Rajapakse going to jail cannot be averted.

    In other words ,even if Mahinda relies on his most powerful den of countless Alibaba thieves he nursed and nurtured so carefully covering all their crookedness and corruption in order to suppress his own mischief , murders and crookedness during his 9 year despotic reign ,he cannot be rescued.”

     

    Running Death Squad -Gotabhaya Rajapakshe.

    Sri Lankan authorities are investigating a claim that the toppled president’s younger brother ran a “death squad” and ordered a high-profile newspaper editor’s assassination, a police spokesman said.

    Former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered the hit on Lasantha Wickrematunga in January 2009, ex-public relations minister Mervyn Silva alleged in a formal complaint lodged with police on Saturday, the spokesman said.

    Wickrematunga was fatally shot in 2009, just days before he was due to testify in a defamation case Rajapaksa had filed against his paper, which had been highly critical of the then-ruling family.

    “We have received a complaint that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was responsible for abductions, assaults and murder,” police spokesman Ajith Rohana told AFP news agency on Sunday.

    “Three murders have been mentioned and one is that of Lasantha Wickrematunga. He (Rajapaksa) is accused of running a death squad.” Rohanna added.

    Rajapaksa could not be contacted for comment.

    Wickrematunga and his Sunday Leader newspaper were vocal critics of Rajapaksa’s administration, and had accused Gotabhaya of corruption over the purchase of second-hand aircraft and arms for the military…

    Citation.

    http://lankaenews.com/news/258

    http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2015/01/sri-lanka-gotabhaya-rajapaksa-probed-over-killings-201511864815373261.html

    http://www.thehindu.com/news/police-raid-rajapaksas-house-in-tangalle/article6804731.ece

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  • UN Report On Lanka War Crime Text

     

    The UN has moved ahead with prosecuting the Sri Lanka Government on Monday, by publishing the Navi Pillai Report UNHRC Commissioner on the Killing  of the Tamils in SriLanka.

     

    Killing of Tamils Lanka.Image.jpg.
    Killing of Tamils Lanka.

     

     

    Extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary killings

    1. The High Commissioner and several special procedures mandate holders continued to follow developments in recent cases in which the apparent excessive use of force led to the death of unarmed protesters or of prison inmates. On 1 August 2013, approximately 6,000 residents of Weliweriya, a small suburb of Colombo, protested against the State’s failure to address community concerns about the contamination of their drinking water supply by a local factory. Army personnel were deployed in support of the police to control the protest, which had turned violent and reportedly used excessive force, leaving three people dead and many others with critical injuries.[1] On 2 August 2013, the Army Commander appointed a military court of inquiry into the incident. The court submitted its report on 21 August, but it has not been made public. On 30 August 2013, the Army announced that four senior officers had been relieved of their duties with immediate effect, although no court martial has been initiated.[2] The factory has since been relocated and compensation offered to the families of those killed.
    2. On 12 November 2012, the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms appointed a committee to inquire into events in Welikada prison on 9 November 2012, when Special Task Force personnel conducted a search operation and army personnel subsequently intervened to control a riot; at least 27 inmates were killed and 43 injured.[3] The committee handed over its report to the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Prison Reforms on 15 January 2014, but it has not been published. According to media reports, it concludes that the prisoners shot each other. The Government informed the High Commissioner that a similar inquiry had been carried out into custodial deaths when security forces had stormed Vavuniya prison to free officials taken hostage by prisoners in June 2012, which was highlighted in her previous report,[4] but to date no report has been made public.

    D.     Mass graves

    1. On 26 November 2012, a mass grave with approximately 155 skeletal remains was uncovered in Matale, central Sri Lanka. In June 2013, a presidential commission of inquiry was appointed to probe the circumstances surrounding the gravesite, despite the initiation of a judicial process in the Matale Magistrate’s Court. There are concerns regarding the manner in which the remains are being preserved, the protection of the site and the investigation process.[5] In December 2013, it was reported that another gravesite with 52 skeletal remains, including of children, was discovered in Mannar, northern Sri Lanka.
    2. It is vital that the integrity of the sites, and exhumation and identification procedures, be given due attention. The rights of families to know the fate of their missing loved ones is critical, and they must be actively involved in the legal and humanitarian efforts to locate, exhume, rebury and memorialize the dead. In this context, an uncompromised exhumation and investigation process is essential, and could benefit from international assistance.

     

                         [1]   See Human Rights Watch, “Sri Lanka: Investigate ‘Clean Water’ Protest Deaths”, 9 August 2013, available from http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/08/09/sri-lanka-investigate-clean-water-protest-deaths; and Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, press communiqué, 30 August 2013, available from http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=Press_Communique_Weliweriya_Incident_20130830_03.

                         [2]   See Ministry of Defence press communiqué (see footnote 13).

                         [3]   Centre for Policy Alternatives, “A List of Commissions of Inquiry and Committees Appointed by the Government of Sri Lanka (2006-2012)”, 12 March 2012, available from http://www.cpalanka.org/a-list-of-commissions-of-inquiry-and-committees-appointed-by-the-government-of-sri-lanka-2006-2012/.

                         [4]   A/HRC/22/38, para. 21.

                         [5]   For instance, the Matale magistrate overseeing the inquiry was subsequently transferred – according to the Government, on disciplinary grounds – to Colombo.

     

    Full Report.

     

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/world/asia/sri-lanka-rejects-push-for-independent-war-inquiry.html?_r=0

     

    http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Sri_Lanka/POE_Report_Full.pdf

     

    Image Credit.

    http://www.salem-news.com/articles/may102011/tamil-genocide.php

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  • White Flag Bearers Shot Dead Lanka Timeline

     

    “I got messages not to shoot those who are carrying white flags.

    Tamils Herded and Shot by Lankan Security Forces.Image.jpg.
    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?”

    Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Defence Secretary

    Source for Information and Images.

    http://white-flags.org/

    * This Report is by an Organisation vouched to be fair by a Senior member of Sri Lankan Cabinet

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  • New Mass Grave In Sri Lanka Found

    The leaked UNHRC report by Naveetham Pillai to the UN on the War Crimes of Sri Lanka in killing the Tamils  en masse indicated that there is substance in the allegation that the Sri Lanka Government was indeed Guilty of War Crimes.

    Mass Grave found in Sri Lanka
    Mass Grave Pudukkudiyiruupunew Mass Grave in Sri Lanka

    Navneetham Pillai stated that , on her visit to Sri Lanka some time back, British PM Cameron was prevented from visiting th site and the Tamils mobbed him and reported to him the atrocities committed, she was not given enough co-operation by the Sri Lankan Government and that a case exists for an International Probe for War Crimes by Sri Lanka.

    Sri Lanka promptly rejected her statement.

    Earlier the Sri Lanka Minister abused her stating that he was ready to marry her!

    ‘“I urge her to join me to go on a trip around the country. I would teach her the history of Sri Lanka, I would tell her about Maha Ravana. It was we who gave Kuweni in marriage to Prince Wijaya and if Madam Pillay is agreeable I am ready to marry her even tomorrow,” he said.

    He made these remarks addressing a public meeting in Maradana, Colombo today.

    “We are a nation that wore garments prior to the white man, and I will teach Madam Pillay a bit of our history. We were a nation which conducted trade with the world during the era before Christ.  In order to do a study on our nation she has to visit Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Ruhuna. We are a nation that built a flying machine (Dandu monara- a mythological flying machine) before Wilber t and Orville Wright,” he said.

    He further said the country today was free of the clutches of terrorism due to the steadfastness of the Rajapaksas and it was the President who led the country to both the defeat of terrorism and peaceful co- existence among communities.’

    Audio Below.

    https://soundcloud.com/dailymirror/mervyn-says-he-is-ready-to

    Now that the US is planing to table a resolution to censure Sri Lanka and initiate  action to institute an International Enquiry into the mass killing of the Tamils, the Sri Lanka Government is on the offensive mode with the Sri Lanka Media joining the chorus.

     

    A dampener to them has come  in the way of a family ploughing their backyard and stumbling across a mass grave.

    ”

    This incident was registered after two remains exhumed while a house owner ploughed the backyard.

     

     

    Dr S Sivaruban, the Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) of Jaffna Teaching hospital has stated that the majority of the skeletons were female.

     

     

    The clothes of the remains have been decomposed, however pieces of Nylon and a National Identity Card were recovered from the grave, he revealed.

     

     

    Dr. Sivaruban further stated that the residents of the area mentioned that Moonkilaru village faced an artillery attack in 2009.

     

     

    In an inquiry made by ‘BBC Sandeshaya’ Media Spokesman for the Police, SSP Ajith Rohana has stated that the area was under the rule of LTTE for over 20 years.

     

     

    The parts of skeleton are being subjected to further investigations, he added.’
    Source:
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  • War Crimes By IPKF? Sri Lanka Killing Tamils

    The US proposes to bring in a motion in Geneva against Sr Lanka to pressurize it to  set aright its War Crimes against the Tamils Massacre.

    Understandably Sr Lanka hit back saying initially that there were no such incidents,relented somewhat later that there might have been some stray incidents locally, but now has gone on the offensive stating that the US was grossly overestimating  the toll.

    War Crime IPKF
    IPKF War Crime

    ”

    Sri Lanka rejected U.S. criticism of its human rights record as “grossly disproportionate” on Sunday, a day after a senior U.S. official said Washington would table a U.N. resolution against Colombo.

    Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal expressed frustration on Saturday over Sri Lanka’s failure to punish military personnel responsible for atrocities in a civil war that the government won in 2009 against separatist Tamil rebels.

    Biswal, speaking in Colombo after a two-day visit, said the United States would table a third U.N. human rights resolution against Sri Lanka in March to address the war crimes allegations as its human rights climate has been worsening.

    “The (U.S.) claims… are unsubstantiated. Reckless and irresponsible statements without evidence have been recoursed to in order to create an impact to give way to prejudged action,” Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

    In her criticism, Biswal also referred to attacks on mosques and churches on the island and said some Sri Lankans felt unable to practice their faith “freely and without fear”.

    Sri Lanka’s majority Sinhalese are largely Buddhist and its ethnic Tamil minority is mainly Hindu. The country also has small Christian and Muslim minorities.(Reuters)

    Not with this Sri Lanka has gone on the offensive stating that the War Crimes of the IPKF in Sri Lanka has to be investigated.

    News on this has started surfacing in Sri Lanka Media,

    Excerpt.

    ”

    Early part of this year I participated in a lecture given by a former RAW chief Chandran who without any hesitation told us that India didn’t like the heavy US involvement in Sri Lanka in the early part of the Eighties and wanted to teach a lesson to Sri Lanka thereby providing arms trainings to Tamil Groups. According to him, India’s sole intention was to have their strong presence in Sri Lanka. When he was asked by the Tamils in the audience about the political solution for Tamils, his reply was “Did we ever mention political solution during the training?”.   He continued “We gave you training to attack Sri Lankan forces and but never mentioned about Tamil Eelam or a political solution to you”.  So straight from the horse’s mouth, the RAW chief confirmed that India had used the Tamil discontent to get to Sri Lanka, leaving most of us in the audience who had willingly participated in this experiment, feeling angry and betrayed.

    Though Deepavali, popularly known as the “festival of lights”, is an important five-day festival in India but for Sri Lankan Tamils that particular Deepavali was the darkest day in our history. A few days before this attack my friends and I managed to flee from Manipay to Kytes by fishing boats. On our way along with other dead bodies, we have to bury 2 girls in their twenties and another one in her thirties, who were raped and killed by the IPKF in Navali, Manipay. Although in those days we did not have the technologies to record these events, my memories are still fresh and those images are still there in full colour.

    A few weeks later the IPKF took control of Jaffna and I managed to return to Manipay and re-started my AAT course in Jaffna. However another killing spree was started in Jaffna by an unknown group called the Mandian group stopped my studies. The Mandian group was very close to the Indian Peace keepers and their project was to eliminate the traces of the LTTE from the North and East of Sri Lanka. For example, a man called Satkunam who was very famous in Manipay during my school days for his Tea stall (particularly for giving us young people, cigarettes and tea on credit) was allegedly assassinated sometime in 1988 by a Mandian group assassin. Satkunam’s only crime was providing food to the LTTE boys during the IPKF time even though he was forced to do so by the LTTE.

    22 Years ago on 14th of August 1989 a terrible incident happened in Valvettiturai, in Jaffna. The Indian Peace Keeping Forces (IPKF) was alleged to have killed more than 50 civilians, including several children. This was in retaliation to an LTTE attack at Valvettiturai. There were thousands of attacks carried out by the peace keepers, Hospitals were attacked; schools where civilians were sheltered were bombed and innocent civilians were executed by them  and their allies.

    Yet in those days there were no Channel 4, no Darusman reports or no International outcry over human rights abuses meted out by the IPKF and their allies. Not a single Tamil politician from the TULF or the TNA even talks about these war crimes committed by the IPKF and their Tamil proxies. Somehow they have forgotten and perhaps even forgiven these crimes against humanity. How ironical it seems that the Indian media (and many of these groups previously guilty of such crimes) are reporting that they have evidence of war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan forces during the last stages of the war.

    What happened during the last days of the war in 2009 is still fresh in our memory. However we should also remember the quote by George Santayana “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. We all know how the role played by India in first supporting and then prolonging the Eelam War in the eighties”

    What does India have to say on this?

    What does Karunanidhi , the self-appointed protector of the Tamils have to say on this?

    he was and is close to Congress leadership.

    Source:

    http://www.lankanewspapers.com/news/2012/5/76748_space.html

    http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2014/02/02/indian-war-crimes-in-sri-lanka-ipkf-massacre-of-tamil-doctors-and-nurses-inside-jaffna-hospital/

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