“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.
SRI Lanka’s army was yesterday pushing ahead warily in its advance on the Tamil Tiger stronghold of Jaffna city, fearful of rebel ambushes and possible chemical weapon attacks. Aid workers said the army could move into the city within hours if it wanted to after a mass exodus of tens of thousands of rebels and civilians had left it a virtual ghost town. But a suspicious military said yesterday it sensed that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were preparing a trap. “They may have tried to depopulate Jaffna so that they can use chemical weapons when our troops move in,” a senior military officer said. The rebels used chlorine gas to attack troops in 1990 during a failed attempt to overrun an army camp, but caused no harm. The officer said the army was taking the chemical weapon threat seriously and had distributed gas masks to some of the troops. Government forces have been within 8km of Jaffna city for the past few days and yesterday the LTTE said from their London office that battles were raging at the town of Urumpirai, just 3km from Jaffna’s municipal limits. According to the military the army’s new defence lines are about 7km from Jaffna’s municipal limits. Sri Lankan military officials have warned that minefields, booby-traps and ambushes may await them. “We should be able to move in quickly if there is no resistance,” a military official said. “But we’re obviously going to be careful of walking into a trap.” A top-level military source even suggested that moving into Jaffna right now might not be the objective, despite the two-week push towards the city. “There could be changes in strategy,” he said, echoing some diplomats’ view that little would be gained in taking Jaffna when it could prove difficult to hold. Rebel resistance to the army’s two-pronged advance crumbled on Monday after troops captured Neerveli, 10km northeast of Jaffna. The Government yesterday ordered schools across the country closed after saying threats had been issued against children. In Delhi, India, the Tigers’ chief theoretician, Mr Anton Balasingham, said in an interview published yesterday that a guerilla campaign would be maintained if Jaffna fell to government forces. “Even if they take over Jaffna, it will not be a military success,” he said. “The (Sri Lankan) north-east is a vast area and our guerilla movement cannot be crushed in conventional battle. “The Lankan forces can take over the territory, but they cannot hold on. We will strike back,” he told the weekly news magazine Outlook. In Geneva, the World Council of Churches appealed for intervention by a neutral government such as Norway or Australia to relaunch peace efforts. The council’s secretary-general, Mr Konrad Raiser, who has returned from a visit to India where he met Sri Lankan religious leaders, has called on the Colombo Government and Tamil rebels to resume talks broken off earlier this year.
Voice of America reports on Sri Lanka’s disinformation campaign…
November 28, 1995
“The Sri Lankan Government is waging a propaganda war to complement its military offensive. Correspondent Michael Drudge reports from Colombo that truth has become one of the war’s victims. Media observers say Sri Lankan television has begun resorting to disinformation in its reporting on the war against Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
A Government television news broadcast Monday quoted Tamil Tiger Commander saying the military take over of the northern Jaffna peninsula was a serious set back for the rebel movement. In truth Commander Prabhakaran called the loss of Jaffna only a temporary set back.
The Government newscast said Commander Prabhakaran’s reference to peace negotiations was a sign of Tamil Tiger weakness. In reality, he simply rejected any negotiation as long as the army occupies Jaffna.Observers say the television newscast was but the latest instance of government media officials hedging the truth.
The military press office on Saturday issued a statement that the Tamil Tigers had used gas on troops, implying it was a chemical weapons attack. Only later did military sources admit the gas in question had been tear gas.The government continues to ban reporters from the northern war zone. The state information department hands out video and still photographs produced by the Sri Lankan army. Information is provided by fax.The government is also forbidding reporters to visit camps where hundreds of thousands of civilians have fled to escape the fighting.
Sri Lanka media are subject to military censorship. The local cable operator even blacks out stories about Sri Lanka that appear on foreign television channels.”
Weapons of Minimum Destruction
August 19, 2004
The Tamil Tigers’ use of chemicals angered some of their support base.
Rapoport says that terrorist use of chemical and biological weapons is similar to state use – in that it is rare and, in terms of causing mass destruction, not very effective. He cites the work of journalist and author John Parachini, who says that over the past 25 years only four significant attempts by terrorists to use WMD have been recorded. The most effective WMD-attack by a non-state group, from a military perspective, was carried out by the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka in 1990. They used chlorine gas against Sri Lankan soldiers guarding a fort, injuring over 60 soldiers but killing none.
The Tamil Tigers’ use of chemicals angered their support base, when some of the chlorine drifted back into Tamil territory – confirming Rapoport’s view that one problem with using unpredictable and unwieldy chemical and biological weapons over conventional weapons is that the cost can be as great ‘to the attacker as to the attacked’. The Tigers have not used WMD since.
Sri Lanka: LTTE warns against use of “Chemical Weapons”
August 17, 2001
COLOMBO. 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.
Described as a “bunker buster”, the shoulder-fired weapon uses a fuel-air explosive warhead that is most destructive when detonated inside structures, killing living beings through suffocation and burns, but also causes death and destruction over wide areas.
“We are perturbed over reports that the Sri Lanka Government has purchased new infantry weapon system with chemical warheads… The acquisition of this banned weapon by Sri Lanka marks a new and dangerous escalation of the armed conflict in the island”, the LTTE statement declared.
The decision by the Sri Lankan Government to introduce mass destruction technology into the northeast theatre of the conflict was a reflection of its single-minded determination to continue with the military option and escalate the war against the Tamil people, the LTTE said.
Tamil Tigers ready to attack Sri Lankan forces with toxic weapons
July 12, 2006
COLOMBO: Hidden in the jungles of Vanni, a toxicological laboratory of the Tamil Tigers is manufacturing their ‘special weapon’, as described by Anton Balasingham earlier, to attack the Sri Lankan Government forces located in Jaffna. Prof. Peter Chalk of Queensland University (now attached to Rand Corporation as an expert on terrorism) told an audience in Melbourne that the LTTE is the first known terrorist group to use chemical weapons.
Prof. Chalk, a leading expert on Tamil Tigers strategies, said that the Tigers fired a ‘chemical’ into an army camp in one of its early offensives. Ironically, it backfired because the winds brought most of it back and deposited the chemical on the LTTE side.
Reports leaking out from Vanni reveal that the LTTE has now increased the potency of this “secret weapon” and also improved the method of delivering it to selected targets. The new chemical weapon is designed to stun the victims. If it is targeted on Sri Lankan Army camps with a total of nearly 40,000 troops, it could easily immobilize the forces, according to informed sources in London.
Balasingham has informed groups raising funds in UK that the LTTE is now armed with a “special weapon” to launch its next major assault on Jaffna. As any major offensive against Jaffna is bound to cost the Tigers heavily in manpower their new strategy is to use the “special weapon” that would immobilize the Sri Lankan forces before a counter-offensive could be launched to attack the LTTE. The LTTE objective in using this chemical weapon is to minimize losses to their cadres.
Reports from Vanni claim that the Tamil Tigers have almost completed the production of this “special weapon” in sufficient quantities to launch their next offensive. The production was carried out in a toxicological laboratory housed in two floors underground. It is protected by a three-storied building above-ground. Reports also state that this is the tallest building in the Vanni constructed under the direct supervision of Velupillai Prabhakaran.
The sources further revealed that technicians and engineers were brought from Punjab, India for the construction. Pro-LTTE Sri Lankan chemical experts and engineers who worked in Western countries are said to be the brains behind the building of the lab as well as the toxicological products.
A hedge fund trader from New York who migrated from Vadamarachchy has made generous contribution towards the constructions of the building which would also double as ordnance factory. He is married to a Punjabi.
The LTTE was thrown out of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan Army led by Maj-Gen Janaka Perera in 1995. The Tigers withdrew into the jungles of Vanni and since then they have been plotting and planning to recapture Jaffna without success. Both sides are aware that the next war, when it comes, is going to be costly to both sides. With the international forces ranged against them the LTTE is making a bid to make their attack short and swift by engaging in “chemical warfare.”
Analysts believe that this is a huge gamble, which may backfire on the LTTE. Velupillai Prabhakaran is already on the international list of wanted criminals. A mug shot of his is posted in Interpol list of wanted criminals. India too is facing internal pressures to extradite him for the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.
If he resorts to “chemical warfare” he will seal his fate as a war criminal hunted by the international community which has banned such warfare since World War I. Besides, the international community fighting a global war against terror will consider this new “chemical warfare” as opening new leads for other terrorists to follow. LTTE terror technologies (example: suicide kit tied to the body) have been the models for other terrorists to follow.
Chemical Weapon Story a Concoction: LTTE
July 14, 2006
The LTTE yesterday strongly rejected media reports which suggested it possessed chemical war fare weapons and was even prepared to use it against the government security forces in the event an all out war were to resume once again.
LTTE Batticaloa political leader Daya Mohan told the Daily Mirror he was not authorised to comment on such issues on behalf of the LTTE but insisted the rebels would never go against UN protocols on the use of chemical weapons.
‘We will never go against UN protocols on the use of chemical warfare. The report you mentioned is not factually correct,’ Mr. Mohan said.
The rebel district leader was responding to an Asian Tribune website report which suggested the LTTE had in its possession a new chemical weapon designed to stun the victims and if it was targeted on Army camps with a total of nearly 40,000 troops, it could easily immobilize the forces.
The government meanwhile said it would not rule out the possibility of the LTTE possessing chemical weapons although there was no evidence to substantiate such claims.
‘Taking the history of terrorists it remains a possibility that the Asian Tribune report may be true. As a government we are not ruling it out,’ Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told the Daily Mirror.
He said as a Defence measure the government would ensure it was prepared to face the eventuality of the LTTE resorting to chemical warfare in the future.
The Asian Tribune report quoted a terrorism expert as saying the LTTE had on one occasion made a failed attempt to use a chemical weapon while it added that the LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham had informed groups raising funds in Britain that the LTTE was now armed with a `special weapon` to launch its next major assault on Jaffna.
Excerpts from “Toxic Warfare,” by Theodore Karasik
Many recent incidents of toxic warfare have involved poisoning with chemicals, sewage, or pesticides. All these substances can be used to interfere with military operations, disrupt the functioning of civilian infrastructure, cause physical harm, and instill fear among the general
1 Episodes of poisoning have a long history in toxic warfare. In 1986, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) poisoned tea with potassium cyanide in an effort to cripple the Sri Lankan tea export industry.2
2See Abraham D. Sofaer, George D. Wilson, and Sidney D. Dell, The New Terror: Facing the Threat of Biological and Chemical Weapons, Stanford, CA: HooverInstitution, 1999, p. 82.
Sri Lanka
During the 1990s, the LTTE used chemical waste to attack industrial facilities on several occasions as a means of creating confusion at strategic points. In November 1995, LTTE forces launched a gas attack on Sri Lankan troops in a bid to lift a siege on the rebel bastion of Jaffna, sparking heavy battles that left 84 dead on both sides. The toxic attack was the first since 1990, when the LTTE fired chlorine gas cylinders into a besieged military camp near Batticaloa on the east coast.19 In 2001, Tamil rebels attacked the Bandaranaike International Airport and military base with mortars. The first wave of attacks, launched at 3:30 a.m., targeted industrial and fuel facilities at the airport to create a fire and smoke diversion, while a second wave of mortars was aimed at both commercial and military aircraft. The resulting damage claimed 12 aircraft, costing millions of dollars, and closed the airport for a day.20
19See Agence France-Presse, November 25, 1995, accessed from FBIS-FTS- 19951125000450.
20See “Tamil Rebels Raid Sri Lankan Airport,” Washington Post, July 25, 2001, p. 14.
LTTE Sea and Land Attacks
The Tamil Sea Tigers (LTTE)35 have used smoke and vapors both to create casualties and to cause deception, sometimes through elaborately staged or sophisticated means. In September 2001, the Tamil Sea Tigers attacked Bandaranaike Airport, destroying half of the Sri Lankan air fleet and causing millions of dollars of damage. Included was an attack on the airport’s fuel depot that was aimed at spreading smoke and vapors.36 The attack was intended to produce—and indeed resulted in—a spectacular mess that destroyed the fuel depot while also causing confusion and eventual military operations. One month later, in October 2001, a suicide squad from the LTTE sea forces attacked the MV Silk Pride at sundown as the ship approached the Haffna peninsula. The oil tanker, carrying 225 tons of low-sulfur diesel, 160 tones of kerosene oil, and 275 tons of auto diesel, caught on fire.37 LTTE fighters later participated in yet another toxic attack in an effort to interrupt Sri Lanka’s economy.38
35The Tamil Sea Tigers is the oceangoing version of the Tamil Tigers.
36See Rohan Gunaratna, “Intelligence Failures Exposed by Tamil Tigers Airport Attack,” Jane’s Intelligence Review, September 2001, pp. 14–17.
37See “Further on Tamil Tigers Attacking Oil Tanker in Sri Lanka,” Agence France-Presse, October 30, 2001, accessed from FBIS-SAP-20011030000111.
38See “Guerrilla Suicide Boat Hits Sri Lankan Oil Tanker,” Reuters, October 30, 2001.
Excerpt for “Die and Let Die: Exploring Links between Suicide Terrorism and Terrorist Use of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Weapons” by Adam Dolnik
LTTE has a history of involvement with chemical agents on several levels. In 1986, the group claimed to have poisoned Sri Lankan Tea with potassium cyanide, but no evidence of contamination was found.62During 1990, the group was suspected of using poison on several occasions, among them an armed assault with knives soaked in a liquid containing cyanide poison,63 and the use of landmines equipped with cyanide capsules.64During the same year, the group did in fact use a chemical weapon, when large amounts of chlorine gas were deliberately disseminated by wind in an assault on a besieged military camp at Kiran.65The number of casualties of this attack is unknown. Evidence suggests that during 1990 the LTTE was facing a great shortage of conventional arms, forcing them to use improvised weapons. Because all allegations of the group’s involvement with CBRN agents fall into this time frame, it appears that the LTTE tried to use chemicals to substitute for limited conventional capability, as opposed to escalating their struggle in terms of the number of casualties.
62. Sri Lanka, Tea Tested After Poison Threats. Facts on File World Digest [CD-ROM], 24 January 1986.
63. “Tamil Rebels Kill 144 in Sri Lanka Raids,” The Toronto Star, 13 August 1990.
64. “Tamil Rebel Camp Smashed by Sri Lankan Security Forces,” Xinhua Overseas New Service, 18 June 1990.
65. Bruce Hoffman, The Debate Over Future Terrorist Use of Chemical Biological, Nuclear and Radiological Weapons (RAND
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.
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?
The Sri Lanka Government has been saying that Videos showing the massacre of Tamils and the one showing two blind folded men being shot dead by the security forces is a fake and is being circulated by the sympathizers of the LTTE.
But the Video analysis proves that the Footage is original and has not been doctored.
From Tamilnet.
Sri Lankan Tamil Shot dead
On August 25, 2009 a UK-based TV station (Channel 4) revealed a video showing
summary execution of blindfolded prisoners by two men in Sri Lankan military uniform. The
video panned to show 8 bodies of men already executed, and captured the systematic
execution of two more men. The 9th victim is executed by one soldier 5 seconds into the
video and the 10th victim is executed after 41 seconds by the second soldier. The two men
in military uniform spoke casually in Sinhalese, the language of almost 100% of the Sri
Lankan armed forces, as they carried out the executions.
The video was delivered to Channel 4 by a German-based exile organization, Journalists
for Democracy in Sri Lanka (JDS). JDS is a multiethnic exile organization recently formed
by journalists who fled Sri Lanka out to fear for their own life. The release of the video sent
shock waves through international human rights groups.
Within 24 hours of the broadcast by Channel 4, the government of Sri Lanka (GoSL)
refuted the video, calling it doctored in order to discredit the armed forces of Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the GoSL moved quickly to secure all videotapes of the war front against the
Tamils owned by members of the military.
On August 28, 2009 the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary
Executions, Prof. Philip Alston, called for the immediate establishment of an independent
inquiry into the authenticity of a video which purportedly depicts the extrajudicial execution
of two men stripped naked with their hands tied behind their back by the Sri Lankan military
and the presumed prior execution of others. On August 26, 2009 Human Rights Watch
(HRW) issued a press release of its concern regarding the executions.
The summary executions, if proven, violate Common Article 3 to the Four Geneva
Conventions of 1949, to which Sri Lanka is a contracting party, that in subsection I(d)
prohibit, “… the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a
regularly constituted court….” Violations of the Geneva Conventions are war crimes
according to Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law.
Realizing the gravity of the military execution, the US-based non-profit group Tamils
Against Genocide (TAG) authorized Image and Sound ForensicsTM (ISF), USA to evaluate
the video for its authenticity. After analysis of the video and extensive field testing with real
ammunition (an AK-47 with 7.62×39 mm ammo) recorded by an array of different recording
devices, ISF concluded that the video recording is authentic. A second company (Firearms
& Ballistics), subcontracted by ISF, concluded that the blood flow, blood color, damage to
central nervous system and posture of falling victims represented a real event of
executions. In the same time period The Times, UK, employing an independent forensic
expert, declared that the video is indeed authentic, and concluded that the fine details such 5
as the high speed expansion of gas following a rifle shot and the brain fluid exuding from a
victim would be impossible to re-enact.
The U.N. expert, Christof Heyns, reviewed the 5-minute, 25-second video frame by frame with a team of technical and forensic specialists to determine its authenticity, and concluded that the video suggests there is enough evidence to open a war-crimes case. Sri Lanka has claimed the video is fake.
In the video, several men lie on a muddy track, bound and motionless. The camera cuts and another man is shown being forced to sit upright by a soldier in camouflage carrying a rifle. Another soldier steps up behind the seated prisoner and shoots him in the back of the head, point blank. The prisoner slumps sideways as the camera pans across the road revealing nine bodies, most of them naked, with gunshot wounds clearly visible despite the grainy quality of the footage.
The uniformed men then force another blindfolded prisoner down into the dirt. A gunshot rings out and he, too, jerks and collapses. Later, the camera focuses on a young man, his skull blown open. Soldiers stand over the half-dressed corpse of a woman, gloating.
Heyns, a South African law professor who is also the U.N.’s independent investigator on extrajudicial killings, said the footage provides solid evidence for a prosecution case.
“It’s very rare that you have actual footage of people being killed,” the former lawyer told The Associated Press. “This is different from CCTV. This is trophy footage.”
The Sri Lankan government says the video is staged, an attempt by pro-Tamil Tiger groups to undermine its hard-won victory in the country’s 1983-2009 civil war.
“We have proven beyond any doubt that this is not authentic,” the director general of the government’s Media Center for National Security, Lakshman Hulugalla, said on Monday. The U.N. panel says it unpicked Sri Lanka’s claims and found them to be unsupported.
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