By S. V. Kirubaharan –

S. V. Kirubaharan

A reputed newspaper in the United Kingdom, “The Independent”, published a disturbing news item and an article on 18 February 2013, under the headlines, ““Handed a snack, and then executed: the last hours of the 12-year-old son of a Tamil Tiger” (Photographs show boy was held before he was killed at close range) and “This is proof, beyond reasonable doubt, of the execution of a child – not a battlefield death”. The author of this news item is Callum Macrae, director of “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka”.

The article establishes how 12 year old Balachandran, an innocent child, son of the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE was brutally killed. The first photograph shows him sitting in a bunker, alive and unharmed, apparently in the custody of Sri Lankan troops. Another photograph, taken a few hours later with the same camera, shows the boy’s body lying on the ground, his chest pierced by bullets.

While the civilised world is ashamed and denouncing the inhumanity of this cold-blooded killing, ex-army commander of Sri Lanka Sarath Fonseka is bluffing and denying this War Crime. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is Commander in Chief of the Sri Lankan Security Forces and one time good pal of Fonseka.

Analysing the statements of ex-army commander Fonseka, it can be easily understood that his statement on the inhumane killing of 12 years old Balachandran has no value, but is pure bluff. His present statement seems rooted in political expediency during his apprenticeship political career, and in hunger for power.

It is not surprising that this dishonest ex-army commander has joined Rajapaksa in an attempt to divert the attention of the international community. There is no other way to save the Rajapaksa brothers and other culprits from allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, than the ex-army commander posing as an opponent of the government, making unrealistic statements regarding this inhumane act.

In an exclusive interview to the Daily Mirror in Sri Lanka, Sarath Fonseka said on 19 December 2009:

“I was personally supervising down to a very low level. But those who did not know, how we fought the war, who were just trying to pass down irresponsible instructions and trying to deal indirectly, not indirectly, unprofessionally with the junior people, secretary of defence tried to contact the junior commanders in the field, never heard these systems in any armies. In disciplined armies, you don’t do that. So he was trying to deal with direct people, talking all nonsense, giving wrong instructions, like ’don’t disfigure the white flags and various things. He thinks that’s heroism or something. If you say, ‘go to hell, if white flag, kill every bugger… everybody.’ Something like that, is not leadership, this is you known trying to, without knowing the job, trying to behave a ‘cardboard hero’. That is the manner he has been behaving. But they were not carrying out those stupid instructions, but they were carrying out my instruction. I had tight control throughout the war and they behaved very well and I don’t think there were any abuses. I saw in an American report, I will give you the reference later on that says the secretary of defence has admitted there were abuses from the government side during the war. So to whom is he referring, when he says government? The government did not fight the war, the military fought the war. So in other words, he says there were abuses from the military, he has said that, to those US official. So we will get that report out, one of these days”.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0NYQujQLis

In this interview and in many other interviews, Sarath Fonseka admitted that secretary of defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa was bypassing him and directly in touch with a few army commanders on the ground. Likewise, the secretary of defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa acknowledges the same.

Given this dual reality, how can Sarath Fonseka have the audacity to make the following categorical statement on 20 February 2013, to the Daily Mirror : “About these pictures I don’t know, we had no knowledge about this youngest sons whereabouts when I was the Army commander during my time and I can give the assurance that the Army had no information of his youngest son” he said.” 

If he can speak with such certainty, why does Sarath Fonseka use terminologies such as : “I don’t know……I think……. To my knowledge,…..” ?

Can he deny that the bunker where the 12 year old Balachandran is sitting alive and unharmed, belongs to the Sri Lankan Army?

The question is, how can Sarath Fonseka give his assurances regarding this incident, whereas when he referred to the White Flag incident to the “Sunday Leader” of 13 December 2009, he stated that “Gota Ordered Them To Be Shot”. This news item again clearly indicates that, Sarath Fonseka had no clue about much that was happening during the last days of the war.

The same news item of 13 December 2009 revealed that, ‘General Fonseka said it was Basil Rajapaksa together with the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa who through foreign intermediaries conveyed a message back to the LTTE leaders who wished to surrender to walk out carrying a piece of white cloth. “It was their idea,” he said’. 

Sarath Fonseka’s latest statement gives rise to serious doubts as to whether he is aiming for the impending vacant position of Prime Minister.

While the international community received confirmation from President Rajapaksa on 4 February 2013, that there will not be any political solution to the Island’s bloody conflict, many may have missed the fact that Sarath Fonseka expressed the same view in an interview on 28 December 2009.

Fonseka said that, “…thirteenth amendment is now out dated. It was dated 20 years ago, during the war. Now we have better understanding within the communities. We have better respect towards communities. There is no mistrust…all the communities to live together, like take example from America, how blacks and the white live together. They live like one country one nation…Still live together as one Nation…”            

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NY3C-Lwb3k

This is the man who polled more votes in the last Presidential election, from the Tamil areas, the North and East, than from the South. This is how every politician from the South cheats the Tamils.

There are only a very few honest politicians from the South who consider that Tamils have grievances and that there must be a durable solution to the long-standing political issue.

Meanwhile those who worked internationally with the Sri Lankan government on the subject of child soldiers, must be ashamed at the hypocrisy and crocodile tears of the Sri Lankan government. They wonder, if such heinous brutality can be inflicted on one child of 12 years, what else would have happened to others?