{"id":124820,"date":"2014-05-19T00:27:40","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T18:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=124820"},"modified":"2014-06-13T12:33:00","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T07:03:00","slug":"ltte-front-organization-wanted-medics-to-take-cyanide-instead-of-surrender-frances-harrison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/ltte-front-organization-wanted-medics-to-take-cyanide-instead-of-surrender-frances-harrison\/","title":{"rendered":"LTTE Front Organization Wanted Medics To Take Cyanide Instead Of Surrender: Frances Harrison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A LTTE front organization in London wanted rebels medics to take their cyanide capsules instead of surrender to the Sri Lankan government, Frances Harrison reveals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was left wondering if they just wanted to score a propaganda point in the media, rather than actually save lives\u201d,\u00a0Harrison, a former BBC Correspondent, writes in her book &#8211; \u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Still+Counting+the+Dead&amp;x=12&amp;y=7\">Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka\u2019s Hidden War\u00a0about the last phase of the conflict<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_77335\" style=\"width: 180px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Frances-Harrison.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-77335\" class=\"size-full wp-image-77335\" alt=\"Frances Harrison \" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Frances-Harrison.jpg\" width=\"170\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-77335\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frances Harrison<\/p><\/div>\n<p><i><\/i>In the chapter \u201c The Spokesman\u201d, she detailed the story of the LTTE political wing leader, Nadesan, and his deputy, Pulidevan\u2019s surrender negotiations and the role she played on or about 18 May 2009 at the end of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil war.<\/p>\n<p><i><\/i>The three paragraphs below are from Pages 66- 67<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the last week end of the war, Puli and Nadesan telephoned Colvin and asked her to persuade the United Nations to oversee their unconditional surrender, along with a group of forty fighters and family members. Puli made his wife leave the war zone with the exodus of civilians, promising they would meet up again but warning it might take several years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were no more jokes, no pleasantries; they were really waiting for an answer,\u2019 Colvin said. She called the UN Secretary- General\u2019s special envoy, Vijay Nambiar, who was traveling. The first time they spoke, Numbiar told Colvin he thought it would be an uphill struggle to persuade the Sri Lankan government to accept a surrender: They seems to want to go all the way.\u2019 The second time they spoke, Colvin had woken Numbiar up at five in the morning. He said he\u2019d been invited to witness the surrender of group of Tigers but didn\u2019t think it was necessary to go in person.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Shouldn\u2019t you go? This is a very, very fraught situation,\u2019 Colvin asked, horrified that he didn\u2019t seem to want to seize the opportunity. Numbiar told her he\u2019d received assurances from President Rajapaksa that the tigers who surrendered would be safe, and he thought that was sufficient.<\/p>\n<p>I too received a call that weekend, from a Tamil doctor in London who wanted to tell the media that rebel medics wished to cross into army territory, bringing with them hundreds of civilians and injured people. He\u2019d already tried UN and the Red Cross, who were unable to help. The doctor was flustered and distraught, unsure when he\u2019d be able to speak to his colleagues on the ground again, aware their lives hung in the balance. I told him it seemed odd to negotiate surrender through the media \u2013 direct negotiations with the government might be better given that time was running out so fast. He consulted colleagues in a Tiger front organization in London, who insisted the medics should take their cyanide capsules because surrender was not an option. I was left wondering if they just wanted to score a propaganda point in the media, rather than actually save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Related posts;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a title=\"WikiLeaks:Diaspora Rejected U.S. Calls Them To Urge Release Of Civilians\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaksdiaspora-had-rejected-u-s-calls-for-them-to-urge-the-release-of-civilians\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">WikiLeaks:Diaspora Rejected U.S. Calls Them To Urge Release Of Civilians<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":77335,"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-124820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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