Human Right watch which will be submitting its Report to UN on Monday,disclosed that The Tamil Women were raped by The Sri Lanka Security forces,’to teach them a lesson”
There seems to be no end to the atrocities being perpetrated by The Sri Lanka Government.
The UN must ensure that this report is not also NFAd(No Further Action)
In 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.
Story.
Amidst reports of widespread sexual violence by the Sri Lankan army on suspected LTTE rebels, the Human Right Watch (HRW) has sought an international investigation.
The investigation demands came after a report, ” ‘We will teach you a lesson’: Sexual violence against Tamils by Sri Lankan Security Forces“.
The report is said to have contained a list of 75 cases of rape and sexual assault. These incidents happened all across Sri Lanka, from 2006 to 2012.
The majority of the cases are said to have happened during the armed conflict (with LTTE) that ended in may 2009.
The conflict ended almost three years ago, but the incidents of sexual violence continues till this day, the report quoted.
The revelations were confirmed by HRW Asia Director Brad Adams.
“The Sri Lankan security forces have committed untold numbers of rapes of Tamil men and women in custody. These are not just wartime atrocities but continue to the present, putting every Tamil man/woman arrested for suspected LTTE involvement at serious risk”, he was quoted in a news report published in national daily the Hindu.
Adams further reiterated the necessity of an international investigation into the alleged crimes.
Innumerable accounts of gross atrocities have emerged since the conflict ended.
Sri Lankan security forces are accused of blackmailing and sexually harassing Tamil men and women to extract information from them related to LTTE.
One account of 31-year-old women describes how she was blackmailed by the forces in revealing her husband’s details.
She was mercilessly beaten by a sand-filled-pipe and raped.
Another account of 23-year-old women was abducted and questioned for her alleged links with LTTE.
She was raped for three consecutive days and forced to perform sexual acts with number of men. In the end, she was asked to sign a piece of paper where she confessed her link with the LTTE.
Even men were not spared from the sexual violence.
Graphic accounts of extreme sexual violence gave a glimpse of the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan security forces to crush the rebellion against its government.
The cold blooded killing of Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son published in Britain daily – The Independent – has raised questions over Sri Lanka’s armed forces conduct during the final stages of the operation against Tamil Tiger rebels.
According to the report in the daily, the series of photographs taken a few hours apart and on the same camera, show Balachandran Prabhakaran, son of Villupillai Prabhakaran, sitting in a bunker, alive and unharmed, apparently in the custody of Sri Lankan troops. Villupillai Prabhakarn led the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Another photo shows the boy’s body lying on the ground, his chest pierced by bullets.
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.’
While people have been talking of action against Rajapakshe and Sri Lanka for the Genocide of the Tamils in Sri Lanka, Si Lanka has been going about the business of killing the Tamils and halting the reconstruction programme in the Eastern part of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka cleverly played the East and North divide of Sri Lanka and Muslims and People working in Estates to ensure that the Tamils remain undivided.
As its wont, The Tamils succumbed to it and they engaged in internecine war among themselves.
Now the World, including the UN is being jolted by the proposed release of the Documentary ‘No Fire Zone’, documentary unveiling the Genocide of the Tamils, the cold-blooded murder of LTTE Chief’s son 12-year-old Balachandran Prabhakaran, Sri Lanka,on the sly is going about the job of killing the Tamils in the Eastern Part of Sri Lanka,
Excerpt of the fresh Killings of the Tamils and Link.
“Sinhala militarisation, genocide in East goes unnoticed, unaccounted
[TamilNet, Sunday, 17 February 2013, 10:51 GMT]In the name of a Sinhala-titled programme ‘Divineguma,’ Colombo intensively spearheads structural genocide of Eezham Tamils in the East. It has now gone to the extent of mushrooming Sinhala military camps and settlements running grocery shops and restaurants to the public. The only major construction activity in the East is the construction of Sinhala military camps. By talking only of the North and leaving out the East, the visiting foreign dignitaries buttressing State in the island systematically obscure what is happening in the East and imply that the annihilation of the nation of Eezham Tamils in the East is ‘normal and acceptable’. The line of subversion started when Mr. Robert Blake was the US ambassador in Colombo after the SL military capture of the East from the LTTE, and the line was later taken up by the Indians, political activists in the East said
.Failure to internationally highlight and fight against what is happening in the East would first reflect in Vanni as what is happening there now and would eventually result in the annihilation of the Tamil nation in Jaffna itself, the activists in the East cited.
The Tamil–Muslim discourse in the East has adversely affected the entire liberation question of the Tamil-speaking people in the island in the past and both the communities especially in the East have to keep that in mind in their deliberations, the activists said, adding that only a secular an independent State for the Tamil speakers in the island would ensure the life of self respect to all of them in the island.
Meanwhile, even retail trade in the Ampaa’rai district has been taken over by the occupying Sinhala military, political sources said.
Two major SL military camps have been created at Naavithan-ve’li and Anna-malai in Ampaa’rai district, where the SL military is now running grocery shops and restaurants to the public.
At Annamalai, a building belonging to the irrigation department located amidst schools, hospital and other SL government departments, has been taken over by the SL military for its camp within the last one and a half months. The building was earlier occupied by the STF.
Similarly, an extensive Sinhala military camp and training ground are in the making at a land that was earlier allocated for the construction of a broadcasting station for the Ampaa’rai district.
Many other SL military camps are now being constructed at places such as the locality of the old hospital at Periya-neelaava’nai, Beach Road at Kalmunai, Thiruk-koayil, Aalaiyadi-vempu and at the tourist locality at Ullai.
The camps terrorise especially the Tamil villages. While many Tamil villages erased out by the SL military during the war are yet to be resettled, Colombo is interested only in constructing military camps.
Tamil politicians cited the examples of the villages at Kagnchi-kudichchaan-aa’ru and at Thangka-vealaayutha-puram.
The politicians accused that Tamil areas are deliberately neglected in any development activity and Tamil politicians are never consulted on anything.
They accused the Muslim polity in Ampaa’rai for blocking development of Tamil villages and for following a policy of land grab, marginalisation of Tamil polity and complete annihilation of the presence of Tamils in the district, in collaboration with the occupying Sinhala military.’
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.
RAW ,Research and Analysis Wing of IndiaIntelligence Agency met with President Rajapakshe of Sri Lanka when he visited iTrupati in India on February 14.
This was a closely guarded secret.
In 1988, A. Verma, then chief of the Indian secret service, met President J. R. Jayewardene to confirm the implementation of the Indo-Lanka Accord to which India was a signatory. What Professor Rohan Gunaratne revealed in his book titled, Indian intervention in Sri Lanka, in relation to this meeting and the events connected therewith is noted hereunder:
Later it was ferreted out by the journalists.
The last meet of RAW Chief with the president of Sri Lanka was with the deceased prime Minister Jayawardene.
The after math is in the story below.
As of now, the issues India has with Sri Lanka are.
Devolution of Powers for the Tamils.
China’s dominance in Sri Lanka
Tamil Nadu Fishermen’s killing by Sri Lanka.
For Sri Lanka.
The issue of Genocide case against Rajapakshe.
Tamil Nadu Politicians stoking Eelam Issue.
Investment by India in Sri Lanka.
Obviously you do not discuss these issues with an Intelligence Chief!
Story:
February 14, 2013, Colombo. Sri Lanka Guardian) The Indian media reported that Alok Joshi, Chief of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had visited President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Guest House at Tirupati, where he was staying. In practice, a meeting between the Chief of the country’s secret service and visiting foreign Head of State is a rarity. J.R. Jayewardene is the only head of Sri Lanka to have had a meeting with the chief of ‘RAW’. Usually, the chief of ‘RAW’ meets the leader of a foreign country only when there is a crucial issue pertaining to India or a perilous situation involving the country of that leader.
In 1988, A. Verma, then chief of the Indian secret service, met President J. R. Jayewardene to confirm the implementation of the Indo-Lanka Accord to which India was a signatory. What Professor Rohan Gunaratne revealed in his book titled, Indian intervention in Sri Lanka, in relation to this meeting and the events connected therewith is noted hereunder:
“On 26 April 1988, A. Verma, the head ( Read an exclusive interview with A.K. Verma which published by the Sri Lanka Guardian on 2008) of RAW, flew into Colombo. Verma’s visit was known only to a handful of men in Indian and Sri Lanka. In Colombo, only three men knew about it. They were M.M. Gunaratne, Director-General, Intelligence and Security, Ministry of Defence, under whom the Special Task Force (STF) and National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) were placed, Zerny Wijesuriya, Director, National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) and President Jayewardene himself. Even people like Dixit, the high profile Indian High Commissioner, Gamini Dissanayake, influential minister and co-architect of the Accord, General Sepala Attygalle, Defence Secretary, General Cyril Ranatunge, the General Officer Commanding the Joint Operations Command, and W.M.P. B. Manikdewela, the Secretary to the President did not know. Lalith Athulathmudali, the National Security Minister, was also not fully informed – perhaps he would have been partly informed by the effective private intelligence network he operated.
In India, Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister, Grirish Chandra Saxena, the National Security Adviser to the Indian Prime Minister, Chandrasekaran alias Chandran of RAW and only two or three other officials knew. Subsequently, when two prominent Sri Lankans in the government became aware of the RAW connection, they were very annoyed.
Verma travelled undercover and spent about 48 hours in Colombo. He tried to convince Jayewardene the LTTE was interested in joining the mainstream and that he should cooperate with the negotiating intermediary – RAW. Verma held discussions with M.M. Gunaratne on the morning of 27 April. He was well informed about the conflict, and had personally negotiated with the TULF, the militant groups including the LTTE, and was keen to obtain certain assurances from President Jayewardene before he once again met with Kittu in Madras. Verma stated that all Tamil groups were agreeable to enter the political process. He stated that the LTTE too was keen to do so, but subject to certain conditions being satisfied.
RAW head meets Jayewardene
28 April 1988 was historic day when the head of RAW met President Jayewardene. According to a high level source in New Delhi, Jayewardene was cautious. However, he cooperated at least at the beginning, and even Gandhi who intensely disliked the LTTE thought that with the support of Jayewardene, India will be successful in striking a deal with the LTTE. Verma said the LTTE is keen to “surrender 700 of the estimated 1,000 big weapons the LTTE have in their possession and they would like to retain 300 weapons for their security.” Verma added: “With the surrender, a ceasefire would be announced. The LTTE would thereafter publicly support the Accord. The balance weapons will be released gradually, once the LTTE feels assured that a climate of security has descended on the North and East.” Verma asked President Jayewardene whether he could respond to the LTTE by announcing that the Government of Sri Lanka will hold elections in the North and East for once council (under Article 37 A of the Provincial Councils Act). This was to be done when the groups were ready to enter the political process and before the date of the elections for the North and East was to be announced, and soon after all other elections were completed. Verma stated that a referendum as stipulated in the Accord would subsequently be necessary, for people to accept or reject the merger.’ Verma requested Jayewardene to make two other public statements regarding two LTTE requests as an explicit demonstration of goodwill and gesture towards the LTTE. One was to be on the release of detainees in custody. RAW was told that 3,634 had been released and only 627 were in custody, and that even they would be released in due course. The other request was on the use of the 1982 electoral register for the elections. The President agreed to the latter.
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