The Udalagama and Paranagama reports released yesterday allege that the military committed war crimes during the war against Tamil rebels.
The long awaited reports also points the finger at the LTTE for serious human rights violations including the recruitment of under age children as combatants.
The Paranagama report tabled in parliament yesterday says that during the last 12 hours of the war LTTE cadres had run amok killing scores of Tamil civilians.
The 178 page report notes that the documentary shown by British TV network, Channel 4 titled “No Fire Zone: Sri Lanka Killing Fields” may have genuine footage of soldiers, torturing and killing either LTTE combatants or Tamil civilians.
The report says that there is enough evidence to suggest that some members of the armed forces committed acts during the war. However for the larger part of the report, the Paranagama commission points the finger at the LTTE over killings, abductions, extortion and other atrocities
Meanwhile commenting on an incident which occurred on 14th August 2006, where fifty-three Tamil school girls and 3 staff members were killed, at Sencholai children’s home in Vallipuram the report says that there is evidence to suggest that aerial bombing could be the cause for the mayhem.
The Udulagama report says that the killing of 17 aid workers in Muttur and the killing of 5 students in Trincomalee could be related to military.
The report also says that heavy shelling had caused mass deaths and adds that both the LTTE and military was responsible.
The Udulagama report has recommended setting up of Human Rights monitoring units at every Police station in the country with highly trained officers to handle related issues in the future.
Meanwhile according to reliable sources Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe was overheard saying to some of his confidantes that he and President Maithripala Sirisena had decided not to release the two reports ahead of the 30th UN Human rights Council sessions as this could have been disadvantageous to the country.
John / October 21, 2015
All those who committed crimes against humanity should be brought to justice, irrespective of rank & file.
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Ruwan / October 21, 2015
You only want to punish the armed forces when you say rank and file? I would rather hear you say “All those who committed crimes against humanity should be brought to justice”
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John / October 21, 2015
LTTE too had rank & file , command & control system , okay
Yes, they should be punished .
But sadly , (for you) they are no longer there
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Ram / October 21, 2015
A less than honest response. Adele Balasingham is at the top of the pile and there are other terrorists who escaped abroad, and yet others who organised, funded the LTTE carnage from abroad.
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John / October 22, 2015
Ram,
Less than honest ? what do you mean ?
I say , yes LTTE should be punished ! definitely ,yes ,
When I responded to my friend Ruwan, I said LTTE was no more , sad.
Yes I stand by what I said.
Ram,
BUT YOU SAY
“yet others who organised, funded the LTTE carnage from abroad.”
If so ,IF YOU ARE HONEST , that should include who funded , armed LTTE locally , including Govt. of Sri Lanka & India among others.
I think you are not honest
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Ravi / October 22, 2015
The Maxwell Paranagama Commission puts all the war crimes committed by the SL armed forces on LTTE. No Wonder UNHRC Chief told Maxwell to STFU and wanted a new commission in place.
Thanks for all these COMEDY Maxwell, LOL!
This was the reason why UNHRC rejected the whole commission and advised to dissolve the commission.
After the UN Report exposed the ‘Systematic War Crimes’ of SL armed forces, Maxwell Paranagama jumps in to say that it is ‘Individual War Crime’ acts of Soldiers to save the top war criminals.
After the hard-hitting UN Report against his Dud Commission, to save face he has ‘Reworked’ his report and submitted saying the Channel 4 films are all authentic.
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Pot / October 21, 2015
To all the Pundits, Conspiracy theorists, Dayan, Wimal, Vasu and the lot
“Your silence is deafening”
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Ram / October 21, 2015
The people who were casting aspersions on both these commissions and the commissioners yesterday, are singing hosannas to them today. Isn’t that remarkable ?
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Ansar / October 21, 2015
Now what ? Our own expert’s report suggests that there have been war crimes committed by our Armed Forces.
I am sure they also would be branded as traitors of the Nation by MARA, Booruwansa and the gang.
Let us face the truth and accept the fact that, there were some bad apples in our Army with racist mentality like our former Leader MARA and also accept the fact that there were many good soldiers like our present Leader MY3, as well.
Bad apples needs to be thrown out of the basket or else it will spoil the substantial number of good apples too. They might be the same armed men who would have also got involved with extra judicial killings, abductions and white van operated by State Sponsors of the previous regime.
So it is in the best interest of the Nation that the cleaning exercise is done now and get over it once and for all. This is not for the benefit of the International Community or Diaspora, as will be claimed by racist idiots, but for the future of our beloved country and it’s people.
Hope saner counsel will prevail among the masses, over petty racism and bogus patriotism.
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MOHAMED MARZOOK / October 21, 2015
It is now understood why these two Reports were not released. MR and those responsible in his Govt. will stand accused. However, they should be punished for preventing the public from knowing what were said in the Reports after several Millions of Tax Payers money has been spent by the commissions.
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Eusense / October 21, 2015
ansar,
Read the real report before jumping into conclusions!
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Native Vedda / October 22, 2015
Nuisance stupid I
“Read the real report before jumping into conclusions!”
Have you read the report yourself?
Come to think of it, you don’t need to read the report and you will never either. However you are going to rant anyway.
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Jagath Fernando / October 21, 2015
I am a Sinhalese and I want to know the truth.
All convicted of crimes should be held accountable.
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Pot Shot / October 21, 2015
Agreed. Whether it is LTTE or Sri Lankan forces they must be all brought to book and dealt with the law of the land. I am sick & tired of hearing from both sides how clean and professional they have been in fighting this war. It does not give families from either side of the divide the relief they deserve. Neither can you suppress their grief any longer. So get on with it and have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission where every body is given a chance share their grievances openly. By not doing this you give the Rajapakse brothers all the cover for them to hide behind their crimes.
If we now know that Ekneligoda and Thajudeen were killed by the previous regime, it is hard to believe that they so loved the Tamils in the north that they spared their lives, Sinhalese in the south (who opposed them) and Muslims in Beruwela. All this was part of the Rajapakse design to drive fear and mayhem and rule with a iron fist.
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Eusense / October 22, 2015
jagath,
If you are a Sinhalese or even a Tamil you should have read the real U&P report to know the truth!
Go read.
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Tamil from the north / October 22, 2015
Thanks Jagath. Anyone who commits a crime, whether they are Tamils, Sinhalese or whatever should be punished to the full extent of the law.
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Jim softy / October 21, 2015
I don’t think Amred forces did crimes. Tamils are chicken to admit that. LTTE videoed all crimes they and they knew when to stage those. The same report says, well known NGOs know that at the last 12 hours, LTTE were killing civilians in order to save them.
Tamils are simply pathetic barbarians. While LTTE was blowing up from every direction they asked political solution. But, that is not the only truth. They have videoed every thing barbaric thing they did.
Sri lankan govt is chicken to go behind these things. As long as the Sri lankan govt is defensive, Tamils go at it.
That is why a better leader but like Mahinda Rajapakse is needed. Mahinda Rajapkse showed he would not do it the proper way.
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Jim softy / October 21, 2015
Simply Tamils don’t have this kind of fair skin as that dead has.
It should be a Sinhala soldier captured by them.
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Vetmahadeva / October 21, 2015
Jim softy
If you do not believe your own fair skin you can’t be fair to yourself as well.
Therefore hold on to that Zero-Causalities theory firm no matter Gotta and Mara who originated Zero-Causalities theory dumped it to dustbin within months!
Gotta and Mara were very clever (foolish if you trust your own utterances) to have killed all the top cadres of LTTE who surrendered and there is nobody to fix …….. you are too boiled up and there are some typo mistakes
Zero Zero Witnessing for Zero-Causalities in the modern world utterly Failed!
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manel fonseka / October 21, 2015
What utter nonsense! Of course there are Tamils with fair skin just as there are very VERY dark Sinhalese!
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Pandaram / October 22, 2015
Jim
Sinhala & Tamil skin colour?
You mean Tamil leader Sambandan or Wigneswaran and Sinhala leader Maithreepala?
Btw, from which TN tribal area did your ancestors come to SL and got converted to Sinhala Buddhist?
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Maveeran / October 22, 2015
Lol @ Jim Softy,[Edited out]
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Native Vedda / October 23, 2015
Jim softy
“It should be a Sinhala soldier captured by them.”
It does not explain as to how that soldier was captured given that Sri Lankan armed forces are the best in the word with proven history of bravery.
“Simply Tamils don’t have this kind of fair skin as that dead has.”
Were you looking at the other side of their bum? If so why, when?
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Sengodan. M / October 21, 2015
The release of the two reports justifies the government’s stand in Geneva to co-sponsor the resolution. Any cry of treachery or international conspiracy has now become absolutely incredible.
Sengodan. M
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Premila / October 21, 2015
This article is written out of context and deliberately misquoting to mislead the public. Please refer to following issued in response to a similar article written in BBC :
Question: Has the Paranagama Commission accepted that the video footage of Channel 4 is genuine?
Answer: No.
What the Commission has said is that the authenticity of the video footage is not an issue that this Commission can resolve. (Page 103 – para 428) The Commission has taken into account both the experience of the Members of the Advisory Council and the material presented by the United Nation’s pathologist and the fire-arms experts. However, ifit is genuine:
a. it would be strong circumstantial evidence.
b. the Commission is not in a position to, and has not named any of the individuals who were responsible for the alleged ‘Channel 4’incidents.
c. However, a proper judicial investigation is required.
Question: Is this view about Channel 4 entirely new?
Answer: No. Indeed, the LLRC’s own view and recommendation was that an investigation on the Channel 4 material was necessary: (LLRC Report, 15 November 2011, pp. 151-152.)
a) Based on the available material and taking into account the above considerations, the Commission wishes to recommend that the Government initiate an independent investigation into this matter to establish the truth or otherwise of the allegations arising from the video footage.’
b) The Commission therefore recommends that the Government of Sri Lanka institute an independent investigation into this issue with a view to establishing the truth or otherwise of these allegations and take action in accordance with the laws of the land. Equally, the Commission feels that arrangements should be made to ensure and facilitate the confidentiality and protection of information and informants. The Commission strongly urges all those concerned, especially the organizations that provided the original images and the broadcasting organization, to extend fullest cooperation by providing the necessary information to facilitate this work.’
Question: Has the Commission been critical of Channel 4 conduct?
Answer: Yes.
This Commission is critical of Channel 4’s conduct in not supplying the original film footage of alleged crimes. The Commission is cognisant of the importance of protecting sources, but it appears no effort has been made to camouflage those whose identity may be compromised in the footage and then send such footage on to the GoSL, as source material.
Apart from the issue of authenticity, there are several issues that may arise from a detailed consideration of the film, including issues that go to the fairness of the programme makers, but do not detract from the gravity of the circumstantial evidence:
a) the programme’s failure to differentiate between who was doing the shelling when there was abundant evidence that the LTTE were both shooting and shelling their own civilians;
b) the programme’s failure to deal fairly with controversy over the number of civilians killed and its emphasis on the figure of 40,000 in the light of other responsible estimates of a much smaller number including that of the UN Country Team, who put the death toll at 7,721 from August 2008 to 13 May 2009 or, indeed, the US State Department’s figure of 6,710 killed between January to May 2009;
c) the programme’s failure to underline that because the LTTE had failed to accept the Government’s No Fire Zone (‘NFZ’) that under international law there were no NFZs in existence;
d) that the failure of the programme lay in neglecting to make mention of the risk to the life of civilians came from the LTTE’s forcing of civilians to ‘retreat with its forces, rather than allowing them to flee to safer areas’ and to state that this placed legal obligations on the GoSL to ensure that its civilians were wrested from LTTE control.
Kindly correct the interpretation and stop misleading the public for petty gains in supporting the Government’s trechary of co-signing a resolution detrimental to its very soverignity and independence !!
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Ram / October 21, 2015
Thank you for the explanation Premila.
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Native Vedda / October 21, 2015
Premila
Could I have cite of Maxwell’s report.
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Johnny Eelam / October 22, 2015
Native Vedda,
Why do you care about Tamil Civilians?
When you first wrote to this blog, you wanted all para sinhala / demala / muslim / burgher out of the native land. You were going to deport the sinhalese to northern India and the tamils to southern India.
So what made you change your mind? Did you get your DNA results back? Or, did your grandfather tell you that you are really a COST VEDDA?
BTW – some of the Special Forces personnel – you know the type who laid down their lives the days before the war ended, to save Tamil Civilians – had Vedda blood. I heard they are dying to meet one of their kind. Would you like an introduction?
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Native Vedda / October 22, 2015
Johnny Eelam
“So what made you change your mind? Did you get your DNA results back? Or, did your grandfather tell you that you are really a COST VEDDA?”
This is my ancestral land and I have the right to reclaim it from all paras. The land doesn’t belong to any of you as you know you live here on a long lease. Actually this island belongs to the future generations, hence the urgent need for a through cleansing. If you (Tamil & Sinhala speaking descendants of Kallathonies) do not behave yourself then of course we will have to invoke natural law to kick you back to North South India.
Don’t be stupid, Is it COST VEDDA or Coast Veddah? There is no division between Coast Veddah and a Bintene Veddah. You can deploy any amount of Colonial divide and rule strategies, however we are not going to fall for it.
By the way it is you who needs a DNA test to see which part of it makes you stupid, and its possible you can repair it with new bio bricks,
You know no fear(?), you know no danger, you know nothing just like Johnny English the inapt accidental spy.
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Johnny Eelam / October 23, 2015
Native(?) Vedda
“There is no division between Coast Veddah and a Bintene Veddah.”
According to my 8 year old granddaughter –
The Coast Veddas or Vedar, by self-designation, form a social group within the minority Sri Lankan Tamil ethnic group of the Eastern province of Sri Lanka.
They are primarily found in small coastal villages from the eastern township of Trincomalee to Batticalao.
“If you (Tamil & Sinhala speaking descendants of Kallathonies) do not behave yourself then of course we will have to invoke natural law to kick you back to North South India.”
Have you signed a Sirima-Shastri Pact with Jayalalithaa?
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dcn / October 21, 2015
This report has been prepared by commissions with eminent persons appointed by MR a clear position about war crimes. Why is MR silent on this report? Is he going to say this is the work of reactionary forces from the west?
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Eusense / October 21, 2015
dcn,
First read the real report not the CT version!
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Saro / October 21, 2015
Blame game is still not complete, unless people on both sides are genuine in their search for a solution to the killings it will not stop. The truth will come out one day which may not be now or long time to wait.
The successive governments and leaders were guilty of breaching the agreements signed to find a solution to the root cause of troubles and problems. The trouble makers are fueled by those who had/ have power and fuel. They are shouting now in and out of parliament. Masses will believe them as the former do not know the motive of the latter.
For this country to march forward along with other nations there must be a permanent solution based on fairness and not on history or reports written by people with vested interests.
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Mutt theo / October 21, 2015
We Sri Lankan wants the truth. Why obstruct international inquiry? Americans and Indian and all the countries have satellite access and Sri Lankan media who was filming the war should have enough evidence to find out whether Human right violation has taken place or not. Let us be open and we can live together as brothers and sisters. How long we are going to live in this world. There is no trailer behind the hearse.
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Eusense / October 21, 2015
The title of this article is misleading and false. This article depicts extreme bias in presenting the U&P investigation report. Here are some of the real excerpts from the U&P report.
“The investigation found that it was the LTTE which killed majority of Tamil civilians during the last 12 hours of the final stage of the war.”
“In coming to its findings about the LTTE, the Commission was cognisant of the fact that every major NGO and many international organisations recognized the parasitic conduct of the LTTE in its treatment of Tamil civilian population, including the forcible recruitment of children as soldiers, particularly in the last stages of the war. It has been estimated by a respected Jaffna-based NGO that in the final 12 hours of the conflict the majority of the Tamil civilian casualties were caused by the LTTE,”
The report “rejects the suggestion that civilians were either targeted directly or indiscriminately by the SLA as a part of an alleged genocide plan.”
“The Commission finds that the Darusman Report, as well as other reports, have taken a particularly narrow and restricted view of the obligation upon the GOSL to prosecute international crimes.”
The report says, “The LTTE was principally responsible for the loss of civilian life during the final phase of the armed conflict through their actions which included taking 300,000 to 330,000 civilian hostage, implementing a strategy of killing Tamil civilians to suit their military aims, using civilians as a strategic human buffer leading to considerable loss of civilian life, using hostages to dig trenches and build fortifications thereby exposing them to harm, sacrificing countless civilian hostages to keep the LTTE leadership in power, arming hostages and forcing them into the front line leading to the deaths of large numbers, forcing a great number of children to man the frontlines; deliberately preventing civilians, under their effective control, from fleeting to areas away from the fighting and executing civilian hostages for attempting to escape their captivity; shelling civilian hostages in order that the LTTE might assign those deaths to the SLA for media purposes to provoke international humanitarian intervention; placing their heavy weaponry amid civilians making it inevitable that there would be civilian casualties; killing civilians through the use of suicide bombers; placing mines and other explosive devices that resulted in civilian deaths; causing the deaths of civilians who drowned in an attempt to flee their LTTE captors; and adopting a practice whereby a significant number of its cadres fought in civilian clothes, thus blurring the distinction between combatants and civilians inevitably leading to civilian deaths.”
The commission “accepted that shelling by the SLA undoubtedly led to a significant number of civilian deaths, “but the commission stresses that this was an inevitable consequence of the LTTE’s refusal to permit civilians to leave their control in order to use them both as a shield and a pool for recruitment, even when the GOSL permitted a ceasefire on April 12. No government could be expected to permit young children to be forced into the front lines without taking all available measures to put an end to such ruthless exploitation of a civilian population,”
“The commission rejects the Darusman Report’s finding that ‘a number of credible sources’ have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths.”
It also says “the way police have conducted the initial investigations with regard to the killing of 17 aid workers of the international non-governmental organization Action Contre La Farm in early August 2006 lacks professionalism. The commission recommends that it is necessary to incorporate a comprehensive component on human rights and international humanitarian law in all police and armed forces training schemes.
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Thanga / October 22, 2015
It was clear as day light the armed forces used heavy weapons to shell LTTE positions knowing well there were thousands of civilians. The armed forces also summarily executed the LTTE front rank leaders like B. Nadesan, Puliththevan and Ramesh of the Peace Secretariat when they and another 300 cadres went with the white flag to surrender. They were advised by Basil Rajapaksa that they will be safe provided they carry a white flag atop. The more than 100 senior LTTE cadres like Thilakar, Rathnathurai, Balakumar, and Elilan who were taken away in buses by the army after they surrendered too were murdered. One barbaric murder was that of Balachandran aged 12 who was seen munching some short eats inside a bunker, but few minutes later was gunned down with 5 or six bullet marks. These photographs/video footing were given by the army personnel for fat money. The Paranagama Commissioner report simply confirms something that is in the public domain during the last 6 years. So it is hilarious that Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to claim there was zero casualties, no military operations only humanitarian operations.
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Eusense / October 22, 2015
thanga,
What kind of weapons would you have liked if the armed forces used to shell the LTTE? What do you have to say about Tigers using Tamils as human shields? Would you have preferred the armed forces drop everything and go into their Barracks leaving the LTTE terrorists alone?
If I was a soldier I wouldn’t trust a single Tiger terrorist with white flag or any other color flag, coming towards me. I know how these terrorists operate with strapped bombs on their bodies which are detonated to kill as many as they can.
By the way, why do you think those terror leaders and balachandran in your list did not take the cyanide capsule? Is the cyanide capsule exclusively for powerless and poor Tamil fighters and other Tamil 12 year old kids?
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Siva Sankaran Sarma / October 22, 2015
Indeed, and even if there was a shred of evidence indicating this so called white flag story is true (hint: there isn’t :D), who would be stupid enough not to shoot a bunch of approaching barbarians who have famously used such shameless, illegal tactics to attack the armed forces and civilians before (including the use of pregnant “civilian” suicide bombers) :D
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sinhalese buddhist / October 22, 2015
Premila
Great point. CT often publishes articles whose titles are intentionally misleading, some are in fact suggest the exact opposite of the content of the article.
Whether these anonymous writers come up with deliberately misleading and inaccurate titles so that they can get more people to read the article, or whether they want to advance a political agenda, is a valid question for us readers to ask.
I have found several unethical practices on CT:
-the thumbs up/down counters : sometimes they are pre-set that when you give a thumbs up it AUTOMATICALLY adds multiples thumbs down at the same time.
-the headings for photographs are sometimes mistranslated. There was a case where the word “Sinhala” was added in the English version describing a Sinhala poster where the word never appeared.
For a website that claims to be about truth, I am perplexed by some of the seemingly inherent biases and agendas of the editors on this site.
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old codger / October 22, 2015
“I have found several unethical practices on CT: -the thumbs up/down counters : sometimes they are pre-set that when you give a thumbs up it AUTOMATICALLY adds multiples thumbs down at the same time.”
This only happens if the same person gives both a “thumbs up ” and a ” thumbs down”.Try it.
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watcher / October 22, 2015
Read the report, it does not say SL troops are guilty, it says ch4 video need to be investigated and nothing more.
Ch4 video did not pass the technical authencity and fabricated hoax.
Video being analysed by global experts from Australia and US and gave their verdict, video as fake.
UN never hired experts in this area, first bunch of experts were highly discredited by My Siri Hewawitharana and after that, UN got a second guy to do the analysis saying he teach the subject at the Uni. and Mr Hewawitharana went after the same guy and exposed him as a fraud since he is lab technician and a demonstrator and not a teacher.
Mr Hewawitharana has challenged UN directly and they never took his challenge, now we know why.
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Tamil from the north / October 22, 2015
Every one of these dogs in military uniform should be identified and brought to justice. While you are at it, look for this Sumanasekera bugger and that little weasel Jim Shitty and Vibushana and bring them to justice for stupidity as well. Leave Fathima Fuk-u-shima alone as she is busy in the MidEast working as a whore.
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Native Vedda / October 22, 2015
Tamil from the north
Please ask Wee Thamihz Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon to cover the story. As you know he is a self confessed senior journalist.
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Tamil from the north / October 23, 2015
NV, I thought he has gone on a holiday to India. Ok, I will speak to him and get him to write a piece, absolutely he is brilliant.
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Native Vedda / October 22, 2015
Tamil from the north
Please ask Wee Thamihz Siva Sankaran Sarma Menon to cover the story. As you know he is a self confessed senior journalist.
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Lester / October 25, 2015
Prabhakaran had 30 years to surrender peacefully. The only way to get him with force was to kill these others first. Innocent or not, they were in the way.
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punitham / February 19, 2017
Where can I read Udalagama report please?
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