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 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.’
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.
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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.’
Tamils have come under the Sri Lankan Army‘s Chemical weapons attack today, Tamil sources affirmed. They added it is unknown if the chemical weapons have been used previously in the war since many have been admitted to hospital with the same symptoms of dizziness, vomiting and fainting. However these symptoms had been ignored as they were due to hunger and distress.
In the final days of closing on the LTTE rebels, who have been fighting for a free state for Tamils in the North and East, the Sri Lankan Government is frustrated by mounting foreign concerns over its war crimes and banned media.
The Sri Lankan Army is at the final stages of removing evidences of the bloody war they have declared on Tamils in the name of rooting out ‘terrorism’. When the screens open for the outside world to see what has happened to Tamils in the area, the Sri Lankan Government want obedient and scared Tamils citizens to “praise” the government’s effort to “free” the regions from LTTE.
To simplify the job, the Sri Lankan Government has deployed its chemical weapons to cleanse the Tamils and LTTE rebels in the war zones. Civilians have reported vomiting, difficulty in breathing, dizziness and fainting after been subjected to these attacks.
Sources also said that the Sri Lankan Army higher officials wearing mask to protect themselves from the fumes and lower cadets were actually found in distress, who were then transported to Army facilities to get medical help.
LTTE warns against use of ‘chemical weapons’
COLOMBO, AUG. 16, 2001.
The LTTE today accused Sri Lanka of purchasing a banned chemical weapon and warned of “dangerous consequences” if it was inducted in the battlefields of northeastern Sri Lanka.
The LTTE statement appeared to be referring to the Russian- manufactured RPO-A Shmel rocket launcher without naming it. The Sunday Leader newspaper reported this week that the Government had purchased 1,000 units of the weapon.
The Sri Lankan Army spokesman, Brig. Sanath Karunaratne, confirmed the purchase of the Shmel, but denied it was a chemical weapon or that it was banned.
The RPO-A Shmel is a rocket-propelled incendiary/blast projectile launcher whose warhead contains a “thermobaric” flammable mixture, that is, it simulates high pressure conditions when detonated in enclosed structures and in the open.
The use of this weapon by the Russian Army in Chechnya came in for strong criticism by the human rights groups.
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.
This report is published both in Tamil and English at my site.
Sexual Violations of The Tamils in Sri Lanka
Above is the audio: if it does not work, follow the link at the end of the post.
Rape of a Tamil WomanBrutal Killing Of The TamilsGruesome Killing
The Transcript.
TamilNet: Now, this report has compiled several individual cases of violations. You have also told that there is a pattern in it and it has been conducted in a systematic manner. TamilNet and many other Tamil media organizations have been arguing that these patterns indicate genocide and that this charge must be investigated. What is your opinion on this?
Mepham: Well on that particular issue, Human Rights Watch has not taken the view that this is genocide. We have certainly taken the view that systematic human rights abuses have been perpetrated by the Government of Sri Lanka against elements of the Tamil population. We’ve documented that in considerable detail over the years. But we’ve also…I mean we’re an independent impartial human rights organization, we’ve also documented abuses committed by the LTTE over the years as well. So our job as a human rights organization is to look at rights abuse, to document it, to expose it wherever it happens.
We’ve been very concerned that in the final months of the Sri Lankan civil war and early 2009, the best estimates are that something like 40,000 civilians were killed, mostly at the hands of the Sri Lankan military. That was the finding of the UN Panel of Expert’s report, the report given to the UN Secretary General. There’s been a complete failure on the part of the Sri Lankan government to investigate that, to hold anybody accountable, for anyone to face justice for those crimes and that’s why Human Rights Watch and others are urging, very strongly, that there needs to be an international mechanism to investigate and hold people accountable because the so called Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission is frankly a bit of a farce. It’s not a serious body, it doesn’t have real power, it is not interested in investigating and holding anybody accountable.
The Sri Lankan government was still cut a bit of slack by the international community on that one with people saying “well let them have their chance to sort of address this”. I think it’s pretty clear now, they are not prepared to use that mechanism or indeed any other mechanism to properly get to the bottom of what happened and the involvement of Sri Lankan military and security forces in that abuse.
Hence, the need for more concerted international action including at the upcoming meeting and discussion on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council, which will take place in a few weeks time. It’s very important that governments around the world come together, and demand that there is a strong resolution and strong international follow up action, that there is an international mechanism to investigate abuses in Sri Lanka and to hold people responsible for those abuses to account.
TamilNet: By international mechanism do you mean an independent international investigation?
Mepham: Yes, yes. That was essentially what was called for by the UN Panel of Expert’s report, he said that the panel, three people on the panel said, there needed to..there was evidence that around 40 000 civilians may have died but there needed to be a proper international investigative mechanism, international investigation to look into what happened, to identify who was responsible for abuse, who committed the crimes and to hold those individuals accountable. And of course, the Sri Lankan government goes to great lengths to dismiss all that, to deny the abuse, to say they are not prepared for that to happen.
It will only change if there is really concerted international pressure on Sri Lanka, of the kind that we have not seen up to this point. Which is why it is kind of particularly shocking that lots of governments around the world are going to go off to a glitzy summit in Sri Lanka in November and sit down and eat and drink with Mr. Rajapaksa, at the same time as that government has completely failed to address the problem of impunity for war crimes.
TamilNet: Now as regards the cases of sexual abuse. Many months back last year, TamilNet came out with a feature which showed that women, especially former fighters belonging to the LTTE were being systematically targeted by the Sri Lankan state, by the military and by its police and many of these extreme cases included forcible impregnation which even led to many of them committing suicide. Do you think that this needs to be addressed very clearly at international fora?
Mepham: Yes. All of these kinds of…I can just talk with more authority about the abuses that we’ve documented in the report we’ve launched this week. There are lots of other allegations and claims of abuse that have taken place as of the last few years. All of them need to be properly investigated. Claims of that kind that are made, it is incumbent on the Government of Sri Lanka to investigate them and hold people accountable.
When it’s not prepared to do so, then there should be an international investigative mechanism. Because I think there is powerful evidence that this is not, as I said in the remarks at the press conference, this is not sort of random or just criminal elements. There is method in this abuse, it’s directed, it’s targeted, it’s designed for a purpose which is to intimidate and to inflict suffering and terrorize and to extract information. On that note, sexual violence of that kind is a war crime under international humanitarian law and needs to be treated as such and the people responsible for it need to be held to account.
TamilNet: What is the responsibility of the Co-Chairs and the world powers which managed the peace process? Do you think that they have a moral and political responsibility to step in and address the question of the Tamils now?
Mepham: Yes. They all have a responsibility. I mean, governments around the world have a responsibility to uphold international human rights, that’s what they’ve signed up to. Not only in terms of their domestic practice but in terms of the influence and pressure they bring to bear internationally. So all of these governments, particularly those that are involved in this process have an obligation to press on human rights concerns, to ensure proper accountability in the way we haven’t seen up until now and to ensure that people responsible for war crimes are held to account and that’s, there is a culture of impunity in Sri Lanka which really needs to be addressed and that’s one of the things that we are calling for as a sort of central recommendation from our report.
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While welcoming the attempt of the HRW to document systematic sexual violence perpetrated against the Eezham Tamils by the Sri Lankan state, political observers expressed regret at the refusal to term genocide as genocide.
More than the Tamils, the International Community of Establishments know the full nature and extent of the structural genocide being perpetrated on the Eezham Tamil nation. While organizations still try to give a picture of ‘war crimes of both sides’, what is brushed under the carpet is the war crimes of all sides, especially that of the Establishments in giving legitimacy to Sri Lanka’s genocidal war on the Eezham Tamil nation, they said.
The Sri Lankan government will definitely deny this report as is expected from a genocide perpetrator, but it was the refusal of the ICE to recognize the nationhood, sovereignty and territoriality of the Eezham Tamils which is the core reason why Sri Lanka was able to commit such crimes with genocidal intent on the Tamil nation and foster the “culture of impunity” with abandon regime after regime, they further opined.
These allegations have been rejected by the Lankan government. To what extent are the claims valid? Since these are serious allegations, it is important to examine the veracity of the `evidence’ presented by the Independent which collaborates closely with Channel-4 and British TamilAdvocacy groups.
What raises suspicions is the surfacing of this picture after one year, with the claim that it is part of a successive footage from the same camera. Are there any other photos? Figure 2 clearly shows that the light comes to this under-ground bunker from the area numbered 1, and radiates towards 2, 3 etc. Nevertheless, the there are hardly any shadows consistent with the light source around the boy’s body or the head area.
A blow-up of the region around the left shoulder of the child shows that, far from there being any type of shadow, a shoddy job of colour filing has been done along the edge of the shoulder. The shadow seen in the sand bags just left of number 9 indicates what to expect. Furthermore, the shadow of the edge of blanket near no. 7, on the arm, is completely in the wrong direction.
Furthermore, the end of the bench to the left off no. 6 does not show the planks, but appears to have been worked over on the initial canvas using graphic tools, totally obliterating the type of texture of the wood planks seen to the right of the boy.
It is also important to compare very carefully the trouser worn by the boy lying dead on the ground, shown below.
First, we notice a person wearing slippers. We also se an ordinary civilian shoe.
This shows that the people around the dead boy are NOT SOLDIERS. Perhaps a group of
LTTE people found the dead boy much earlier. The camera belonged to an LTTE person who
had other pictures of bunkers, or of the boy and used them for creating graphic art with photoshop or any other tool.
The narrow black flap on the pocket cover is 16-18 cm long and narrow, with a width of 4cm. On the other hand, the trouser worn by the boy seated on the wooden plank has a pocket flap which is much wider. The artist, in positioning the boy seems to have drawn the flap in a way different from that on the trouser of the boy dead, and laying on the ground. Two pictures of the boy sitting in the bunker have been published. If the pictures in the bunker are authentic, then the picture of the dead boy wearing a similar but different trouser is inconsistent with the claims of these British reports. Hence the new picture raises troubling questions about the way photos are being used as `evidence’ in an age where sophisticated graphic tools are readily available even to a child. Of course, the Tigers are well known to be past masters of publishing fake photos. Many pictures of Prabhakaran posing in groups with black tigers, or blown up bodies attributed to the army were published in the Tamil Net from as early as 10 years before the demise of the Tigers.
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