Ramanisblog

Tag: War crime

  • Japanese Ate Indians Used For Target Practice

    The Indian PoWs  captured by the Japanese during Word War II were used as targets for shooting practice and some PoWs were eaten by the Japanese.

    Scroll down for Japanese PoW camp Video.

    japanese used Indian PoWs for Target Practice.jpg
    Japanese Take Aim at Indian PoWs World War II
    Japanese aim at Indian PoWs
    Blindfolded Indian PoWs being Targeted by Japanese

     

    Indian PoWs being bayonated,image
    Indian PoWs being bayonated by Japanese

     

    “On April 2, 1946, the Reuters correspondent in Melbourne, Australia, cabled a short message, which was carried by all newspapers a day later, including The Times of India. It read: “The Japanese Lieutenant Hisata Tomiyasu found guilty of the murder of 14 Indian soldiers and of cannibalism at Wewak (New Guinea) in 1944 has been sentenced to death by hanging, it is learned from Rabaul.”

    The nationalist narrative has long projected the Second World War as a clash between the patriots of the Indian National Army (INA), supported by the Japanese Empire, and the evil British Empire. The soldiers of the Indian Army who fought for the British are immediately dismissed as stooges of the Raj. But the refusal of many who were taken prisoner to renege on their oaths of loyalty in the face of extreme torture also showed remarkable bravery.

    After the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942, 40,000 men of the Indian Army became prisoners of war (PoWs). Some 30,000 of them joined the INA. But those who refused were destined for torture in the Japanese concentration camps. They were first sent to transit camps in Batavia (now Djakarta) and Surabaya from where they were packed off to New Guinea, New Britain, and Bougainvillea.

    At the camps, they made no distinction between Indian officers and men. Officers would be slapped across the face or beaten up with sticks for the slightest error made by their men —error in this case being a tired soldier taking a moment’s rest while on double fatigue duty, or a sick soldier failing to salute a Japanese officer. Very often, work parties of haggard men would be taken away from the camps to the shooting range where they would be used as live targets for new Japanese infantry recruits to improve their marksmanship. Soldiers who were not killed in the firing but wounded were bayoneted to death…

    The TOI report of May 16, 1944, also mentioned that the Indian soldiers “were victims of ‘indescribable indignities’ at the hands of their captors”. The chapter Indian POWs in the Pacific, 1941-45 by G J Douds, which is part of the 2007 book, Forgotten Captives in Japanese-Occupied Asia, edited by Kevin Blackburn and Karl Hack, elaborates on these indignities. “At Hansa Bay in New Guinea, Hindu prisoners were also severely beaten for their refusal to touch beef…the Japanese tried to prevent Muslims from fasting during Ramzan. Extra fatigues were imposed in a bid to enforce eating. The Muslims held out and the fast was eventually permitted; but in general no toleration was shown in religious matters,” reads a passage.

    Citation.
    The Sikhs were particularly insulted for their long hair and beards. In February, 1944, eight rescued Sikh PoWs narrated their tales of suffering and about the indignities heaped on them. “We were locked in a room for a night and a day without water. Next day, when our mouths were very dry, they took us out and made a sport of plucking our beards. For food we were given dry bread, but before we could eat it our hands were tied behind our backs. We writhed in pain to get at the bread, which was placed in our laps. One Indian commissioned officer who asked for water was hit on the head and shot. Another was forced to drink large quantities, and when he had finished the Japanese jumped on his stomach until the water poured from his mouth, ears, nose, and eyes,” one of the men was quoted in the Canberra Times dated February 4, 1944.

    The men further detailed how a Viceroy’s Commissioned Officer (VCO) was hung upside down alive and bayoneted by the Japanese who also pulled his heart out.

    But the most spine-chilling of all Japanese atrocities was their practice of cannibalism. One of the first to level charges of cannibalism against the Japanese was Jemadar Abdul Latif of 4/9 Jat Regiment of the Indian Army, a VCO who was rescued by the Australians at Sepik Bay in 1945. He alleged that not just Indian PoWs but even locals in New Guinea were killed and eaten by the Japanese. “At the village of Suaid, a Japanese medical officer periodically visited the Indian compound and selected each time the healthiest men. These men were taken away ostensibly for carrying out duties, but they never reappeared,” the Melbourne correspondent of The Times, London, cabled this version of Jemadar Latif on November 5, 1946.

    Citation.

    http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Japanese-ate-Indian-PoWs-used-them-as-live-targets-in-WWII/articleshow/40017577.cms

  • Bosnia And Sri Lanka Genocide

     

    “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 59,193-75,601 people 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 Lankan Government?

     

     

    Is this International Justice?

     

    Citation,

     

    Wiki.

     

    Bosnian Genocide, History Channel

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  • Mass Graves Of Sri Lanka Photo Essay

    I have posted exhaustively on the war crimes committed by Sri Lanka in trying to exterminate the Tamils there.

    Mass murder was no an exception but a rule.

    Mass graves keep on coming out.

    Today a new mass grave has been found.

    A look at the Mass Graves.

    Mass Garve at Matale, Sri Lanka
    Mass Grave, Matale

    The total number of human skeletal remains unearthed from a mass grave behind the Matale Hospital has risen to 142 since the excavation started in early November last year.

     

    The skeletal remains have been sent for carbon dating in a bid to establish the era the grave came into existence, officials said.

     

     

    Some argue that the grave contains the victims of the aborted 1971 armed insurrection of the Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) in 1971 while there are others who say it could go back to the 18th century during the colonial era.
    KKiiling of Tamils nandi kadal
    Nandikadal Massacre
    Nadikadal Graves
    Scorched Graves Nandikadal

     

     

    Graves At Mullivaykkal
    Mullivaikkal Graves

    [TamilNet, Monday, 01 October 2012, 22:21 GMT]
    An official who recently visited the outskirts of Mu’l’livaaykkaal with the soldiers of the Sri Lanka Army told TamilNet this week that he had personally witnessed skeletal remains of hundreds of slain people surfacing along the few kilometers long, L-shaped bunker, running from Vadduvaakal to northwards along the land of the genocidal onslaught. A vast area is still not cleared and is strictly prohibited from access to anyone except SL military officials. “There are booby traps and UXOs. Rotten automatic rifles and RPG ammunitions are lying around in the area. When I walked across a bunker, I was able to sense that it was a bunker of mass slaughter. As the bodies buried underneath have rotten, the soil was going under as we walked across,” he said. Meanwhile, some other mass graves show the use of chemicals that have burnt even the bones to become ashes, journalists report.

     

     

    The end of war in Sri Lanka, captured for posterity by Google Earth published last week by Groundviews was the first look at the end of the war in Sri Lanka through historical satellite imagery freely accessible via Google Earth. The article was an open invitation for those using Google Earth to scan for and alert others over areas and artefacts of interest, that in turn could strengthen discussions around the hellish final weeks of war in Sri Lanka. Given the nature of imagery from around this period and centred on Nandikadal, the article explicitly noted,

    What Google Maps and Earth does NOT enable one to do, given (1) the quality of some of the historical imagery (which sometimes features extensive cloud cover of vast regions) and (2) the large gaps between the available historical imagery (mid March, late May, after the official end of the war and killing of the LTTE’s leader, then mid-June and early August) is any robust analysis on when shelling in a specific region took place, and importantly, by whom.

    Shared widely on Facebook, Twitter and via email, the article clearly indicated that one of the best references today for the research and study of the end of war in Sri Lanka is Google Earth. Imagery accessible via Google’s servers simply isn’t available through other sources or archived elsewhere in the public domain.

    Whereas the previous article studied the sheer scale and extent of the destruction and human displacement in Sri Lanka during the final phase of the war, between March and May 2009, the focus here is on mass graves in and around the so-called Civilian Safe Zones (CSZs). Our first article was anchored to two key UNOSAT reports. The present study is anchored to the High-Resolution Satellite Imagery and the Conflict in Sri Lanka report by the Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Programme of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), published in August 2009. As with the UNOSAT reports, the AAAS study – commissioned by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International – was met with official condemnation and Ministry of Defence counter-analysis after its public release, largely anchored to the sections dealing with the removal of IDP structures within the CSZ between 6 and 10 May 2009,..

    Mannar Graves
    Mannar Graves
    Source:
    Sri Lanka Guardian.

     

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  • Killing Of Children In Sri Lanka Photo Essay

    In the mass of information on the killings of men and women in Sri Lanka by the Security forces , the fact that innocent children were massacred by the Army, in the name of maintaining the Security and integrity of Sri Lanka, whether it is the handling of the LTTE  or the JVP, is overlooked.

     

    Worse, it was condoned and abetted by the Government and ignored by the Judiciary!

     

    War Crimes or not Infanticide is the worst crime.

     

     

    The full implications of this horror came to light when a Mass grave was unearthed in Matale in Lanka.

     

    It was obnoxious that the Magistrate refused to take even affidavits on this case!

    “The Matale Magistrate yesterday (4 November 2013) refused to accept further affidavits from persons whose relatives have disappeared and were seeking to provide information to court on incidents relating to the mass graves discovered in Matale.”

     

    (https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/matale-mass-grave-case-magistrate-refuses-affidavits-ignores-submissions-avoids-recording-true-proceedings/

    Genocide in Sri Lanka.
    Rows of Children Killed by Sri Lanka Army
    Sri Lanka Kills children
    A Desolate parent with dead children.http://www.salem-news.com/articles/november212012/lanka-death-photos-tk.php Image from
    Infanticide by Sri Lanka.
    Mother and child, both critically injured.
    Murdering spree
    Scores Murdered
    Hanging of children by Lanka forces.
    Children Hanged
    Killing in Sri Lanka
    Stripped and Killed.

     

    How can the perpetrator/s ever sleep?

     

    Source and For more.

    http://www.salem-news.com/articles/november212012/lanka-death-photos-tk.php

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  • Tamils Killing Sri Lanka Guilty Permanent People’s Tribunal

    The Permanent People’s Tribunal , an international body has indicted Sri Lanka as Guilty of war crimes in killing the Tamils, under the guise of ending Terrorism in the Island Nation.

    Channel 4 exposed the gruesome killing of innocent Tamilians point-blank, children and women included.

    Earlier Human Right Watch has had the same view.

    Child Killed in Sri Lanka
    Child Killed

    Recently David Cameron, PM, UK, met with the survivors of the Genocide when he attended the CHOGM Summit in Colombo.

    “After an assessment of evidences presented by eyewitnesses and experts, judges of the Permanent People’s Tribunal reached unanimous consensus that the Sri Lankan state was guilty of crimes of genocide against the Eezham Tamils and that the genocide is continuing even after the end of the military operations against the LTTE. Concluding the four day session with a press conference at Bremen on Tuesday, the judges also noted that the Sri Lankan military did not have capacity to commit genocide on its own and that it was supported by the UK-USA-India axis. While the judges held the USA and the UK to be complicit in the genocidal process, they were of the opinion that more evidence was needed as regards India’s role.”

    The PPT Report on Tamils Killing by Sri Lanka.

    ”
    The Second Session of the Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka concluded today in Bremen, Germany, with
    the presentation of its verdict. The panel of eleven judges unanimously found Sri Lanka guilty of the
    crime of genocide against the Eelam Tamil people, and that this crime continues today.

    The Tribunal specified that the victims are in this case the Eelam Tamils as a national group.

    The Tribunal  found that genocide against the Eelam Tamil group has not yet achieved the total
    destruction of their identity. The genocidal coordinated plan of actions reached its climax on May 2009,
    but it is clear that the Sri Lanka Government project to erase the Eelam Tamil identity, corroborated by
    the above mentioned conduct, shows that genocide is a process and that process is ongoing.  The
    genocidal strategy changed once the perpetrators gained control of the territory. The killings are being
    transformed into other forms of conduct, but the intention to destroy the group and its identity remains
    and continues, through causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the Eelam Tamil group…

    The Tribunal considers that the proofs established, beyond any reasonable doubt that the following acts
    were committed by the Government of Sri Lanka
    (a) Killing members of the group, which includes massacres, indiscriminate shelling, the strategy of
    herding civilians into so‐called “No Fire Zones” for the purpose of massive killings, targeted assassinations
    of outspoken Eelam Tamil civil leaders who were capable of articulating the Sri Lankan genocide project
    to the outside world
    (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, including
    acts of torture, inhumane or degrading treatment, sexual violence including rape, interrogations
    combined with beatings, threats of death, and harm that damages health or causes disfigurement
    or injury.
    (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction
    in whole or in part, including
    * expulsions of the victims from their homes, * seizures of private lands, * declaring vast areas as military
    High Security Zone (HSZ) to facilitate the military acquisition of Tamil land

    Further, the Tribunal considered evidence related to
    (d) Imposingmeasuresintended to prevent births within the group
    including forced sterilization and coerced contraception of Eelam Tamil women.  Further investigation is
    required on the extent of this practice in other regions before a determination is made on whether these
    could be considered genocidal acts.

    The UK and USA were found to be guilty of complicity in the crime of genocide, including
    ‐‐ complicity by procuring means, such as weapons, instruments or any other means, used to commit
    genocide, with the accomplice knowing that such means would be used for such a purpose;
    ‐‐ complicity by knowingly aiding or abetting a perpetrator of a genocide in the planning or enabling acts
    thereof;

    Recognizing that the Sri Lankan state alone did not have the capacity to achieve their genocidal
    ambitions, and given the evidence presented, the Tribunal believes that the UK, the USA and India are
    guilty of complicity in genocide. However, given time constraints the Tribunal decided to withhold its
    decision pending the consideration of additional evidence as to the possibility that India, as well as other
    States, are indeed guilty of complicity in the crime of genocide against the Eelam Tamils.

    More than 30 direct eye‐witnesses and experts testified in support of the Prosecution’s case, providing
    evidence on various alleged crimes that could be determined to constitute the crime of genocide, as well
    as on the legal and historical background and the charges of complicity.

    Download the File at,

    Source:

    http://www.tamilnewsnetwork.com/2013/12/11/sri-lanka-guilty-of-genocide-ppt-verdict/

    As to India’s Complicity in this Genocide, a Post follows.

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