{"id":114294,"date":"2013-11-09T00:23:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T18:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=114294"},"modified":"2013-11-15T04:03:28","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T22:33:28","slug":"wikileaks-us-had-limited-access-to-war-zone-preparing-war-crimes-report-is-extremely-difficult-us-ambassador","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-us-had-limited-access-to-war-zone-preparing-war-crimes-report-is-extremely-difficult-us-ambassador\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: US Had Limited Access To War Zone, Preparing War Crimes Report Is Extremely Difficult – US Ambassador"},"content":{"rendered":"

“(SBU) S\/WCI Amb. Clint Williamson met July 9 in separate meetings with Jacque de Maio, ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia, Kwang-wha Kang, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and Pascale Moreau, UNHCR Acting Director for Asia. He was accompanied by S\/WCI Shaun Coughlin, RMA Counselor and PSA Counselor. In all the meetings, Amb. Williamson outlined the Congressional language attached to the recent supplemental funding legislation requiring the Secretary to report back within 45 days on reports of war crimes during the recent fighting in Sri Lanka, including to the extent possible, identification of perpetrators of such crimes. Williamson noted that the USG had limited access to the conflict zone and therefore it will be extremely difficult to present conclusive evidence about exactly what happened during the conflict, let alone who was responsible.”<\/strong>\u00a0the US Mission to UN informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Clint<\/a>

Clint Williamson<\/p><\/div>\n

The\u00a0Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span>\u00a0found the related leaked cable from the\u00a0WikiLeaks<\/a><\/span>\u00a0database. The \u201cConfidential\u201d cable discuses\u00a0what had happened on the ground during and since the conflict.\u00a0The cable was signed by the US Ambassador to Geneva\u00a0Clint Williamson<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on July 15, 2009.<\/p>\n

The ambassador wrote; “Therefore, the Department would have to rely in large part on reports from open sources, NGOs, and International Organizations that were on the ground or otherwise active on Sri Lanka during the fighting. Looking at the two sides in the conflict (Sri Lankan military and the LTTE), Williamson said that the most obvious areas of focus would be the LTTE,s reported use of human shields and child labor, as well as alleged executions of civilians attempting to flee the conflict zone. For the GSL, the focus would be on the potential disproportionate use of force and reports of disappearances of individuals during the screening of the population in the north.”<\/p>\n

Other related stories to this cable;<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks: It\u2019s Not Genocide, Army Could Have Won The Battle With Higher Civilian And Less Army Casualties \u2013 ICRC To US Mission To UN<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

WikiLeaks: LTTE Stored Weapons At Hospitals \u2013 ICRC To US Mission To UN<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

WikiLeaks: Govt. Restricted Blood Bags, ICRC Stopped Counting Dead Children Because No Blood Available \u2013 ICRC To US Mission To UN<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

WikiLeaks: Wrap Up ICRC Operations \u2013 Gota Sent A Straightforward Message \u2013 ICRC To US Mission To UN<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":56121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nWikiLeaks: US Had Limited Access To War Zone, Preparing War Crimes Report Is Extremely Difficult - US Ambassador - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-us-had-limited-access-to-war-zone-preparing-war-crimes-report-is-extremely-difficult-us-ambassador\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WikiLeaks: US Had Limited Access To War Zone, Preparing War Crimes Report Is Extremely Difficult - 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