{"id":194396,"date":"2018-10-16T12:08:41","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T06:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=194396"},"modified":"2018-10-22T01:39:32","modified_gmt":"2018-10-21T20:09:32","slug":"eelam-war-iv-aftermath-western-complicity-deceit-revenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/eelam-war-iv-aftermath-western-complicity-deceit-revenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Eelam War IV & Aftermath: Western Complicity, Deceit & Revenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael Roberts<\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr. Michael Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a provocative piece on the last stages of Eelam War IV in 2008\/09 and on its aftermath of Reports and You Tube cut-and-thrust. It makes specific claims in assertive style. These assertions are founded on lengthier articles with their supporting evidence. So, it is by assertion that I proceed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>The essay is not a survey of the factors that enabled Sri Lanka to defeat the LTTE. The focus is on the pursuits of the US Secretary of State\u2019s Department through its point man, US Ambassador Blake, and its \u2018auxiliaries\u2019 in the UN and European Union<\/strong>.<\/a>[1]<\/strong><\/a>In a bold conjecture I am also guided by the feeling that the Pentagon and the Secretary-of-State\u2019s Department were not always working in step with each other during Eelam War IV.<\/a>[2]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Let me start with GIANT QUESTION-BEARING ASSERTIONS: how many persons with some clout in the corridors of the Western governments, the UN and the leading world newspaper chains were aware <\/strong>then in 2009<\/strong>(as well as now in 2018)<\/p>\n

1. That, as Lt Col. Gash noted then in late January 2009, it was \u201cnot possible to distinguish civilians from LTTE cadres, as few cadres are now in military uniform<\/strong>.<\/strong>\u201d<\/a>[3]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

2. That by mid-2008 the LTTE had devised a grand strategy directed towards creating a picture of \u201can impending humanitarian catastrophe\u201d with the objective of stimulating forceful Western intervention to save their project in circumstances where they were outgunned and outnumbered<\/a>[4]<\/strong><\/a>\u2013 with \u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

3. the mass of civilians serving as \u2018tinder\u2019 for this picture, while also amounting to just so many \u2018sandbags\u2019 in the Tiger defensive formation.<\/a>[5]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

4. ,,,\u2026.. and that KP Pathmanathan<\/a><\/a>[6]<\/strong><\/a>was re-installed as the head of the LTTE\u2019s international operations on 31 December 2008 with the prime objective of instigating Western intervention directed towards spiriting the Tiger leaders lock, stock and barrel to a favourable country<\/a>[7]<\/strong><\/a>\u2026 and that \u2026.<\/p>\n

5. \u2026 KP convened a secret meeting at Kuala Lumpur in mid-February<\/a>[8]<\/strong><\/a>which brought together the Norwegian ambassador in Lanka, two Norwegian diplomats from back home and two senior LTTE activists from the international arena<\/a>[9]<\/strong><\/a>in a conspiracy involving USA \u2013 a conspiracy directed towards forceful intervention in the war \u2026..<\/p>\n

6. \u2026 with an American Pacific Air Command recce team sent to the island at the same time<\/a>tasked with working out a plan of action for this line of intervention (which scheme was forcefully scotched by backroom Indian veto).<\/a>[10]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

7. This line of intervention in step with the LTTE\u2019s strategy had been ratcheted up by the US Ambassador Blake from late 2008 under the influence of a new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, so that \u2026.<\/p>\n

8. \u2026 Blake consistently pressed both warring parties to establish a ceasefire, while being resigned to the fact that the LTTE would not heed any such demand \u2013in effect rendering the diplomatic pressure one-sided and one way\u2026\u2026<\/a>[11]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

9. \u2026 and that this high-handed intervention was taken to the extreme point in mid-March 2009 when Blaketold the Sri Lankan Minister of Defence, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, to cease military advances<\/strong>: via the remark \u201csending the army in would be disastrous for Sri Lanka,\u201d<\/a>[12]<\/strong><\/a>while \u2026.<\/p>\n

10. \u2026. rubbing the message in bytelling Foreign Minister Bogollagama on the 18th<\/sup>March that<\/strong>\u201cSri Lanka would likely meet war crime charges\u201d<\/strong>if they continued their military advance \u2013a threat that was in tune with the warning issued by Navy Pillai, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, five days previously<\/a>[13]<\/strong><\/a>\u2014 an indication to us today that USA and key UN agencies were operating arm-in-arm.<\/p>\n

To\u00a0<\/strong>this striking list of occluded or dimly-known facts<\/strong>, we should add the widely-canvassed set of exaggerations and lies peddled in the Western media as well as the government corridors of the Western world and the rooms of the UN. For instance, claims<\/p>\n

11. That the events occurring on the war front were terra incognita<\/em>since it was \u201ca war without witnesses\u201d<\/a>[14]<\/strong><\/a>\u2013 even though 131 local and foreign journalists were ferried to the front<\/a>(usually on a day-visits) between the 1st<\/sup>January and 15th<\/sup>May 2009.<\/a>[15]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

12. That the GoSL was indulging in merciless artillery bombardment.<\/p>\n

13. That this shelling and the military advances were exacting a horrific civilian death toll \u2013 with figures sent by satellite phone by Tamil NGO officials and\/or Tamil medicos working under the LTTE being served up and circulated as \u2018conclusive proof\u2019 of such outcomes.<\/a>[16]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Ravi Nessman interviewing Udawatte, a senior SL Army officer at the rear front circa 26 January 2009 \u2026and in a plane heading for the war zone -Pics by Kanchan Prasad<\/p><\/div>\n

It was because this picture was so widely entrenched and because further calamity was deemed to be around the corner that the Foreign Ministers of Britain and France rushed to Sri Lanka in late-April 2009 and ordered the President to cease military activity. Mahinda Rajapaksa, however, did not kow-tow to this gunboat diplomacy and squashed the effort.<\/a>[17]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Its fiasco notwithstanding, the Miliband\/Kouchner effort is significant in revealing the position taken by the West tout court<\/em>.\u00a0 Most arms of the UN (but not the Security Council) were an integral part of this Western course of action.<\/strong>Various UN officials visited Sri Lanka at different moments in 2009 as elements in this line of intervention: Tamaret Samuel in February 2009; John Holmes on 26th<\/sup>March 2009 and Vijay Nambiar on 15th<\/sup>April 2009.<\/p>\n

Then, as the LTTE was finally crushed, no less than the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon rushed to the island in mid-May 2009. He visited the UN supervised IDP camps on the 22nd May 2009 and then flew in a helicopter over the coastal stretch in the Vanni Pocket where the final denouement had taken place. He summed up his reading from the air thus: \u201cseeing complete devastation and no movement of human beings\u201d \u2013 a viewpoint that grabbed world news headlin<\/strong>es.<\/a>[18]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The ignorance inscribed within this simpleton reading is underlined when set in contrast with an assessment provided in 2015 after a careful review by the retired SAS officer, Major General JT Holmes<\/strong>: \u201cthe SLA did not rush in, but instead took its time to plan and adapt its tactics to take account of the civilian presence.\u00a0\u00a0It was, in the view of the author, an entirely unique situation and the fact that 290,000 people escaped alive is in itself remarkable.\u201d<\/strong><\/a>[19]<\/strong><\/a>There were many striking photographs of people steaming from the fighting zone in late April and mid-May in both local newspapers and international web-sites which Ban Ki-Moon could not have missed.<\/strong>Moreover, when he arrived in Colombo the UN personnel there would have told him there were some 290,00 Tamils inclusive of Tiger POW\u2019s in the camps under international and military supervision. So, the headline news-nugget he presented was quite misleading.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ban Ki-Moon\u2019s readings display one of the major problems bedevilling the assessments of the war\u2019s toll: namely, the gross incompetence of powerful players arising from their limited experience of war theatres and infantry battles<\/strong>.If Ban Ki-Moon had taken note of the aerial pictures of that very same war zone BEFORE the final battles occurred therein,<\/a>[20]<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0he would have seen that it had been immensely crowded and was in fact a tent city in many parts, with the existing houses being only in certain localities and that too in a pattern that was not wall-to-wall. We are fortunate that a cameraman stringer was in the same helicopter as Ban Ki-Moon, so we do have a set of pictures<\/a>with which to assess the same scenes<\/a>[21]<\/strong><\/a>\u2013 and to note the several undamaged red roof-tops<\/a>[22]<\/strong><\/a>as part of this process \u2026 and thus proceed to qualify Ban-Ki Moon\u2019s misleading summary.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Scene on 1st of May 2009| Pic from TamilNet<\/p><\/div>\n

Moon\u2019s venture into the island heralded the line of punishing action that the Western world and its UN handmaidens took over the next months and years<\/strong>.<\/strong>Sri Lanka was literally hauled over the coals by UNHRC or UN resolutions from 2009 to 2012.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most significant project on these lines was the UN Panel of Experts appointed in June 2010 with Marzuki Darusman as Chairman and Yasmin Sooka<\/a>and Steven Ratner as members. Its investigations and its report from afar<\/a>without visits to the island were characterised by glaring deficiencies in its range of sources. A competent team from the Marga Institute in Colombo evaluated its methodology as slipshod<\/a>. For instance, the UNPoE Report paid no heed to \u201cthe restricted battle space\u201d involving LTTE fighters (many without uniforms) amidst a mass of civilians in most localities within the coastal strip which was the focus of battle from mid-April-mid May. To present just one illustration from this Marga analysis:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report focuses only on civilian casualties and gives no information of Tiger units coming under fire in close proximity to the civilians, something which many eyewitnesses have admitted to seeing themselves. Leaving this out of the Panel\u201fs narrative suggests that there was very little or no military activity in the areas around the civilians, and that therefore there was no reason for any shelling by the SL Army.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, UNPoE\u2019s findings dominated the world\u2019s media waves. Its most significant finding was that (A) \u201cA number of credible sources<\/strong>have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths. \u2026. [and] \u00a0multiple sources of information indicate that a range of up to 40,000 civilian deaths cannot be ruled out at this stage;\u201d leading to the statement that (B) these \u201ccredible allegations<\/strong>, \u2026 if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law was committed by both the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity\u201d (emphasis added).<\/p>\n

But what happened from then on.<\/p>\n

As a Sri Lankan observer with the nom de plume Harshula has documented<\/a>, a troupe of respectable HR organisations and media outfits<\/strong>converted \u201ccredible allegations\u201d into \u201c<\/strong>credible evidence\u201d in wielding and disseminating this quotation worldwide.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Amnesty International and International Crisis Group abroad as well as \u00a0Groundviews<\/em>in Sri Lanka were among those who perpetuated this deceit<\/a>. Only Groundviews <\/em>altered the reference when Harshula assiduously pinpointed the error. Thus armed, such media personalities as Kerry O\u2019Brien, Amanda Hodge and Gordon Weiss in Australia and Jon Snow of Channel Four in Britain disseminated this distorted quotation<\/a>[23]<\/strong><\/a>during a visceral campaign against their figure of hate:<\/a>[24]<\/strong><\/a>viz., the Government of Sri Lanka and its head, Mahinda Rajapaksa. One British MP, Lee Scott, even went so far as to assert that \u201c40,000 had been \u201cslaughtered.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The kind of duplicity, amplification and specious thinking that resulted in such definitive exaggerations<\/strong>should not be allowed to occlude the gross reasoning behind the figures peddled by the UNPoE chaired by Darusman. From the very beginning in 2009 it was patently clear that few people had any idea of the number of people (whether civilians, conscripted civilians or fighters) assembled within the \u201cVanni Pocket\u201d in, say, January-February 2009. The figures presented by the GoSL were gross underestimates; but so too were those noted by Ambassador Blake in some of his despatches: for instance, that of 19th<\/sup>March referred to the \u201cUS and some others being engaged in intensive efforts to protect the estimated 120-150,000 civilians \u2026 from shelling\u201d (Wikileaks).<\/p>\n

Our calculations of the total civilian-cum-fighter population circa February 2009 must move into the 300,000 range, while yet making adjustments over time to take account of the numbers escaping by sea<\/a>[25]<\/strong><\/a>or foot or being evacuated by agreements on both sides via ICRC ships under SL Navy escort.<\/a>[26]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Over the course of February 2009 a Government Agent in that Vanni Pocket, one Parthipan, had essayed a census based on statistics from household and tent sites collected by his underling grama sevakas<\/em>and produced the figure of 336,00 as the total number of residents in what was remnant Thamililam<\/em>\u2013 a gross figure<\/a>[27]<\/strong><\/a>that is suspect because it is not a head count and because 31,694 Tamil civilians escaped by foot or by sea, or been formally evacuated, during the month of February.<\/p>\n

It appears that the UN Panel arrived at the guesswork figure of 40,000 dead by subtracting the rough figures for the number of survivors (both those deemed LTTE and those deemed IDP) in the camps under government control in May-June 2009 from this crude Parthipan estimate. So, at best, it was an approximate calculation.<\/p>\n

Parthipan\u2019s estimate of 336,000 for the total population was also overshadowed by the figure of 436,000 which Bishop Rayappu plucked from thin air \u2013 a figure which encouraged some writers (e. g. Frances Harrison) to suggest that the death toll could even be 146,000 (436,000 less 290,000 survivors).<\/a>[28]<\/strong><\/a>Thus, with the alternatives of 146,000 or 70,000 or 40,000 civilian deaths being touted by various international agencies, some observers from afar may have considered the lower figure to be a reasonable option.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A graph of the various estimates prepared by Mamgo 2014<\/p><\/div>\n

For anyone to weight this kind of estimate as \u201ccredible\u201d is amazing. <\/strong>It indicates that the members of the United Nations Panel had infantile understandings of battlefield conditions.<\/a>[29]<\/strong><\/a>They were oblivious to one of the cardinal statistical \u2018rules\u2019 relating to casualty figures: namely, that the wounded or \u201cWounded in Action\u201d (WIA) always outnumber the dead or \u201cKilled in Action\u201d (WIA), \u00a0One medical report that reviewed the casualty ratios in wars from 1940 to 1988 reached this verdict: the \u201cnumber of people wounded is at least twice the number killed and maybe 13 times as high.\u201d<\/a>[30]<\/strong><\/a>During the Korean War the ratio for US soldiers was over three: 103,284 WIA against 33,651 KIA.<\/p>\n

Versed as they should have been in the travails faced by the Australian and Allied troops during the Gallipoli campaign in 1915-16, one would have thought that such Australian media men as O\u2019Brien and Weiss would have brought some of this experiential sense into their evaluation of the UNPoE\u2019s statements. Within the restricted physical arena<\/a>[31]<\/strong><\/a>of Gallipoli in 1915 the casualties on all sides were heavy. In this context, 8,709 Australians were killed (KIA) and 19,441 were wounded: thus, the ratio of WIA to KIA was 2.23.<\/a>[32]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The UN Panel and its other experts as well as numerous commentators with university degrees in their belt do not seem to have asked a simple question: <\/strong>if 40,000 Tamils had died, where were the 80,000 wounded?<\/strong>As it happens, in May-June 2009\u2013the UN personnel in Colombo had computed figures for the wounded in hospitals and detention centres. This computation is referred to in passing by the UNPoE: \u201c<\/em>The United Nations Country Team is one source of information; in a document that was never released publicly, it estimated a total figure of 7,721 killed and 18,479 injured from August 2008 up to 13 May 2009<\/a>, after which it became too difficult to count\u201d [paragraph 134, UNPoE]. The UN experts simply bypassed the implication of this data \u2013 a mark, perhaps, of their office room blindness compounded by imbecility.<\/p>\n

Thus, we see that a wide range of commentators and political figures in both the West as well as Sri Lanka failed to transcend their office-room deficiencies in the ways in which they sought numerical counts for the death toll. In surmise, it seems to me that<\/strong><\/p>\n

* some were also directed by their sympathy for the SL Tamils because they believed that the Tamil people had been denied \u201cidentity, belonging and dignity<\/a>\u201d in the course of Sri Lankan politics<\/a>[33]<\/strong><\/a>from 1956-to-2009 and subject to terrible onslaughts during the pogrom of July 1983; and<\/p>\n

* some were animated by moral righteousness taken to blinding degrees and<\/p>\n

* some may have been directed by a visceral dislike for Mahinda Rajapaksa and his regime because of its various excesses; andsome powerful figures in the corridors of Western states were determined to pursue their political goals in the Indian Ocean and desired to wreak vengeance on little Lanka for defying its dictates in the period 2006-09.<\/a>[34]<\/strong><\/a>When no less a person that the US Ambassador to the UNHRC, Eileen Donahoe, spat out<\/a>\u201cwe will get you\u201d to her SL counterpart Tamara Kunanayakam within the stately corridors of the UNHRC in Geneva,<\/a>[35]<\/strong><\/a>we know that the primeval desire for revenge had been provoked within powerful entities.<\/p>\n

It is as ironic as tragic that such big-power strategies are supported by personnel attached to strands of secular fundamentalism in ways that persuade them to support interventions in favour of fascist dictatorships (the LTTE in this instance) and sunder friendships in visceral anger. As illustration, take Radhika Coomaraswamy<\/a>\u2019s reaction when I criticised Gordon Weiss and other people of righteousness<\/a>: \u201cMichael, I think you have lost it. Please don\u2019t send me any more of these really offensive articles- people have suffered so much and you are still on with your bogey of imperialism. I have been to so many conflict areas and voices like yours are just so crass and insensitive. Maybe you should meet one victim from any war\u00a0before you speak. Please don\u2019t e-mail me again. RC.\u201d<\/a>[36]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Individuals with capacious hearts who lament victimization and death to the degree that they cannot decipher crunch situations of the sort faced in Sri Lanka in 2008-09 and proceed to favour political settlements with the Hitlers of this world are truly a godsend for the Hitlers of this world. This is doubly so when they have positions<\/a>[37]<\/strong><\/a>and friends in the corridors of the UN as Radhika Coomaraswamy did. Our old friendship is well and truly sundered.<\/p>\n

\n

BIBLIOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n

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De Silva-Ranasinghe, Sergei<\/strong>\u00a02009b \u201cThe Battle for the Vanni Pocket,\u201d\u00a0Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter<\/em>, March 2009, Vol. 35\/2, pp. 17-19. \u2026 and http:\/\/www.dtic.mil\/dtic\/aulimp\/citations\/gsa\/ 2009157395\/156554.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Gamage, Daya<\/strong>\u00a02014 \u201cThe American Agenda for Sri Lanka\u2019s National Issues,\u00a01970s-2014<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a05 July 2014,\u00a0 https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/07\/05\/the-american-agenda-for-sri-lankas-national-issues-1970s-2014\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jeyaraj, D. B. S.<\/strong>2010 \u201cKP speaks out ~ 2 \u2013 An interview with the former LTTE chief,\u201d 13 August 2010, http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/archives\/1631<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jeyaraj, D. B. S. <\/strong>2011 \u201cKP\u201d speaks out: An Interview with former Tiger Chief<\/em>, Vavuniya: Kum Pvt.<\/p>\n

Kurukulasuriya, Lasanda<\/strong>2018 \u201cWar crimes charges Sri Lanka Army takes battle to propaganda front,\u201d 25 May 2018, http:\/\/www.dailymirror.lk\/article\/War-crimes-charges-Sri-Lanka-Army-takes-battle-to-propaganda-front-150170.html<\/a><\/p>\n

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LTTE War Video \u00a02013 <\/strong>\u201cLTTE war video recovered by the Government \u2014 revealing\u00a0episodes<\/a>,\u201c\u00a0<\/strong>13 February 2013, \u00a0https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/02\/13\/ltte-war-video-recovered-by-the-government-revealing-episodes\/<\/p>\n

Mango<\/strong>\u00a02014 \u201cSri Lanka\u2019s War In Its Last Phase: Where WIA Figures Defeat The Gross KIA Estimates,\u201d 14 February 2014, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-war-in-its-last-phase-where-wia-figures-defeat-the-gross-kia-estimates\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Marga \u00a02011 <\/strong>Preliminary Summary re the Marga Seminar on the UNPoE Report\u201d drafted by Godfrey Gunatilleka,http:\/\/www.margasrilanka.org\/Darusman-Seminar%20Report.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Marga<\/strong>\u00a02011\u00a0An Analysis and Evaluation of The Report of the Advisory Panel to the UNSG nn the Final Stages of the War in Sri Lanka, <\/em>https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/s\/0eybj1ynej6spaa\/The%20Darusman%20Report-%20Final%20doc-2.doc<\/a><\/p>\n

Marga <\/strong>2011 Truth and Accountability. The Last Stages of the War in Sri Lanka<\/em>, http:\/\/www.margasrilanka.org\/Truth-Accountability.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Noble, Kath<\/strong>\u00a02013\u201cNumbers Game reviewed by Kath Noble: The full monty,\u201d 14 July 2013,https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/07\/14\/numbers-game-reviewed-by-kath-noble-the-full-monty\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Prasad, Kanchan <\/strong>2011 \u201cMullivaikkal Hospital in NFZ Last Redoubt,\u201d in http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/thuppahi\/sets\/72157626797848747\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Prasad, Kanchan<\/strong>2011 \u201cTwo Indian Reporters\u2019 Post-War Pictures at the LTTE\u2019s Last Redoubt, May 14-19, 2009<\/a>,\u201d ed. by Roberts, June 2011, http:\/\/asiapacific.anu.edu.au\/blogs\/southasiamasala\/<\/a>2011\/06\/10\/two-indian-reporters%E2%80%99-post-war-pictures-at-the-ltte%E2%80%99s-last-redoubt-may-14-19-2009[Nessman, Ravi] 2014 <\/strong>\u201cThe War in Sri Lanka: Ravi Nessman\u2019s Slanted Story for USA on the Tavis Smiley Show, 18 February\u00a0200<\/a>9.\u201d\u00a0 31 January 2014, <\/strong>https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/31\/the-war-in-sri-lanka-ravi-nessmans-slanted-story-for-usa-on-the-tavis-smiley-show-18-february-200\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Noble, Kath<\/strong>\u00a02013 \u201cNumbers Game reviewed by Kath Noble: The Full Monty,\u201d 14 July 2013,\u00a0https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/07\/14\/numbers-game-reviewed-by-kath-noble-the-full-monty\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Rajasingham, Narendran<\/strong>2009 \u201cRise and Fall of the LTTE \u2014 An Overview,\u201d Sri Lanka Guardian<\/em>, 7 Feb. 2009, http:\/\/www.srilankaguardian.org\/2009\/02\/rise-and-fall-of-ltte-overview.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rajasingham, Narendran<\/strong>2010 \u201cPro-LTTE Diaspora pursue Eelam Agenda without Any Thought about Tamils living in Sri Lanka,\u201d 26 May 2010, http:\/\/transcurrents.com\/tc\/2010\/05\/proltte_diaspora_pursue_eelam.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rajasingham, Narendran, 2014 \u201c<\/strong>Harsh Ground Realities in War: Decomposing Bodies and Missing Persons and\u00a0Soldiers<\/a>,\u201d 28 January 2014, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/28\/11702\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Reddy, B. Muralidhar <\/strong>2009 \u201cAn Escape from Hellhole,\u201d http:\/\/www.hindu.com\/ 2009\/04\/25\/<\/a>stories\/2009042558390100.html.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael \u00a0<\/strong>2013 \u201cBBC-Blind: Misreading the Tamil Tiger Strategy of International Blackmail, 2008-13,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a08 December 2013, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/12\/08\/bbc-blind-misreading-the-tamil-tiger-strategy-of-international-blackmail-2008-13\/#more-11221<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2013 \u201cWitnesses to \u201cWar Without Witnesses\u201d \u2026 Voiceless? Buried Foreign Reporters?\u201d30 December 2013, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/12\/30\/11504\/<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014\u00a0\u201cGenerating Calamity, 2008-2014: An Overview of Tamil Nationalist Operations and Their Marvels,\u201d<\/strong>\u00a010 April 2014, http:\/\/groundviews.org\/2014\/04\/10\/generating-calamity-2008-2014-an-overview-of-tamil-nationalist-operations-and-their-marvels\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong>\u00a02013 \u201cCongestion in the \u201cVanni Pocket\u201d January-May 2009: Appendix IV for \u201cBBC Blind,\u201d https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2013\/12\/09\/congestion-in-the-vanni-pocket-january-may-2009- appendix-iv-for-bbc-blind\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014\u00a0\u201cBall-by-Ball through Wikileaks: US Embassy Despatches from Colombo, 2009:\u00a0ONE<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d<\/strong>27 August 2014, <\/strong>https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/08\/27\/ball-by-ball-through-wikileaks-us-embassy-despatches-from-colombo-2009-one\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014\u00a0 \u201cSaving Talaivar Pirap\u0101haran<\/strong>,\u201d 6 April 2016, \u00a0 \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026 https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2016\/04\/06\/saving-talaivar-pirapaharan\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael <\/strong>2014 Tamil Person and State. Essays<\/em>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong>2014 Tamil Person and State. Pictorial<\/em>,<\/strong>Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications.<\/p>\n

Roberts, Michael<\/strong>2014 \u201cReading \u201cdevastation\u2019: Botham, CMJ and Ban Ki-Moon,\u201d in Tamil Person and State. Essays<\/em>, Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, pp. 259-73.<\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2014 \u201c<\/strong>Winning the War: Evaluating the Impact of API WENUWEN\u00a0API<\/a>,\u201d<\/u>1 September 2014, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/09\/01\/winning-the-war-evaluating-the-impact-of-api-wenuwen-ap\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael <\/strong>2015 \u201cTargeting Sri Lanka by playing ball with Tamil Extremism,\u201d 24 July 2015, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/wpadmin\/post.php?post=17127&action=edit&postpost=v2<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael <\/strong>2015 \u201cAmbassador Blake in Never-Never-Land: Misreading LTTE Capacity in Early 2009,\u201d 26 August 2015, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2015\/08\/26\/ambassador-blake-in-never-never-land-misreading-ltte-capacity-in-early-2009\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael<\/strong>2015 \u201cAmerican Action and Inaction on Sri Lanka, 2008\/09: A Critical\u00a0Evaluation<\/a>,\u201d 15 September 2015, https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2015\/09\/15\/american-action-and-inaction-on-sri-lanka-200809-a-critical-evaluation\/#more-17725<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2016 <\/strong>\u201cDavid Miliband\u2019s Imperious Intervention in Lanka left in\u00a0Tatters<\/a>,\u201d 5 July 2016, \u00a0<\/strong>https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2016\/07\/05\/david-milibands-imperious-intervention-in-lanka-left-in-tatters\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2016 <\/strong>\u201cGotabaya Rajapaksa Clarifies, III: American Volte Face in\u00a02008<\/a>,\u201d 10 March 2016, <\/strong>https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2016\/03\/10\/gotabaya-rajapaksa-clarifies-iii-american-volte-face-in-2008\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2015<\/strong>\u201cA Drama in Four Acts: Dishonest Reportage by Amnesty International and Aussie Journalists remains\u00a0Unmasked<\/a>,\u201d 2 September 2015, https:\/\/wordpress.com\/post\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/17560<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2017 \u201c<\/strong>Revisiting Critical Issues in Eelam War IV: Summarizing Citizen Silva\u2019s The NUMBERS\u00a0GAME<\/a>,\u201d 10 November 2017, \u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u00a0 https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2017\/11\/10\/revisiting-critical-issues-in-eelam-war-iv-summarizing-citizen-silvas-the-numbers-game\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2018 \u201cThe Gash Files III: Trapped Tamils out by Sea,\u201d 20 April 2018,<\/strong>https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/09\/the-gash-files-iii-trapped-tamils-out-by-sea-in-2009\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2018 \u201c<\/strong>Reflections: Interpreting the Gash Files\u00a0IV<\/a>,\u201d 29 April 2018, \u00a0<\/strong>https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2018\/04\/29\/reflections-interpreting-the-gash-files-iv\/#more-30031<\/a><\/p>\n

Roberts,<\/strong>Michael 2018<\/strong>\u201cWhere USA sought to arm-wrestle Sri Lanka in March-April-May\u00a02009<\/a>,\u201d 11 May 2018,\u00a0 https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2018\/05\/11\/where-usa-sought-to-arm-wrestle-sri-lanka-in-march-april-may-2009\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Rajasingham, Narendran<\/strong>2009 \u201cRise and Fall of the LTTE \u2014 An Overview,\u201d Sri Lanka Guardian<\/em>, 7 Feb. 2009, http:\/\/www.srilankaguardian.org\/2009\/02\/rise-and-fall-of-ltte-overview.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rajasingham, Narendran<\/strong>2010 \u201cPro-LTTE Diaspora pursue Eelam Agenda without Any Thought about Tamils living in Sri Lanka,\u201d 26 May 2010, http:\/\/transcurrents.com\/tc\/2010\/05\/proltte_diaspora_pursue_eelam.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Times 2011 <\/strong>TIMES Aerial Images, NFZ Last Redoubt, 23 May 2009,\u201d http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/ photos\/thuppahi\/sets\/72157626922360092\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Shanmugarajah, V<\/strong>. 2014\u00a0 \u201cDr. Veerakanthipillai Shanmugarajah\u2019s Affidavit Description of Conditions in the Vanni Pocket in Refutation of Channel\u00a0Four<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0 5 January 2014 \u00a0https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/05\/dr-veerakanthipillai-shanmugarajahs-affidavit-description-of-conditions-in-the-vanni-pocket-in-refutation-of-channel-four\/<\/a><\/p>\n

UNPoE<\/strong>2011 Report of the Secretary-Generals Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka<\/em>, 31 March 2011, http:\/\/www.un.org\/News\/dh\/infocus\/Sri_Lanka\/POE_Report_Full.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Vidura <\/strong>2009 \u201cThe Great Escapes,\u201d Sunday Leader<\/em>, 17 May 2009.<\/p>\n

***\u00a0\u00a0 ***<\/p>\n

END NOTES<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>[1]<\/a>Ishanka Jayathilaka has pinpointed this aspect of US policy in Sri Lanka as unusual and added that in 2015 the ambassador in Colombo<\/a>, Atul Keshap, too had a key role in preparing the US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC in 2015 (email, !4 October 2018).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2]<\/a>I am hardly an expert in this murky field and would be happy to entertain articles from those who have such expertise. However, I note one illustration of this differentiation: when Col Lawrence Smith (Military Attache at the US Colombo embassy from 2008) broke ranks \u2013 so to speak \u2013and spoke out at a Defence Seminar in Galle in 2011: see\u00a0\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026. www.sundaytimes.lk\/110605\/Columns\/cafe.html<\/a>and Kurukulasuriya 2018.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3]<\/a>Roberts, \u201cInterpreting \u2026 Gash IV\u201d 2018 (quoting a secret document only recently aired).\u00a0 Also see https:\/\/thuppahi.wordpress.com\/2014\/02\/13\/ltte-war-video-recovered-by-the-governrment-revealing-episodes\/<\/a>\u2026 and the SL Army photographs of dead bodies arranged on the ground after battles as the corpses were assembled for mass burials,<\/p>\n

<\/a>[4]<\/a>See Roberts, \u201cGenerating Calamity \u2026,\u201d 2014. Note a subsequent discovery that sustains his assessment; \u201cWithout the presence of the IDPs the LTTE would be subjected to unrestricted air and artillery strikes, so have no incentive to release them\u201d -Gash in his secret despatch of 28th<\/sup>Jan 2009 (see Roberts, <\/strong>\u201cInterpreting \u2026 Gash IV\u201d 2018).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[5]<\/a>Also see Roberts, \u201cBBC Blind \u2026,\u201d 2013.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[6]<\/a>KP aka Selvarasa Kumaran<\/a>was from VVT like Pirapaharan and was the latter\u2019s best man at his wedding in India in 1984. He was placed in charge of the LTTE\u2019s international operations at anearly stage and was based in Thailand. He proved to be a mastermind in this work and it is arguable that his displacement and the appointment of Castro and others to this role contributed to the decline of the LTTE in the first decade of the 21st<\/sup>century.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[7]<\/a>See Jeyaraj, \u201cKP\u201d speaks out: An Interview with former Tiger Chief<\/em>, 2011, pp.23-25. The countries in the Tiger scheme were Eritrea, South Africa and East Timor (p. 34).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[8]<\/a>See Salter 2015, pp. 348-49 & 355-56. Salter does not give the precise date of this meeting in Kuala Lumpur or even the date or source of Blake\u2019s subsequent note on pp. 355-56. We can surmise that these omissions are deliberate.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[9]<\/a>Namely, V. Rudrakumaeran from USA and Jay Maheswaran in Australia.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[10]<\/a>See Roberts, \u201cWhere USA \u2026,,,,\u201d 2018.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[11]<\/a>Roberts \u201cAmbassador Blake in Never-Never Land \u2026,\u201d 2015 and Roberts, \u201cBall-by-Ball through Wikileaks,\u201d 2014.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[12]<\/a>This was conveyed to Washington in Despatch No. 283 of 12 March 2009. while a little later another despatch on the 18th<\/sup>March 2009 Blake indicated that he had cautioned Foreign Minister Bogollagama by noting that \u201cSri Lanka would likely meet war crime charges\u201d if they continued their military advance. Note that, on this occasion on 12th<\/sup>March, Gotabhaya played poker: he said that the SL Army \u201cwould take a passive stance.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>[13]<\/a>Salter 2015: 352.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[14] Even now in September 2018 a senior Sri Lankan reporter told me (telephone chat) that it was \u201ca war without witnesses,\u201d This was the catch-phrase constantly repeated by Ravi Nessman of Associated Press from the moment that he spoke to America on The Tavis Smiley show<\/a>on the 18th<\/sup>February 2009. However, he had been snapped on a SLAF plane en route to the front on the 24th January and then pictured as he interviewed Colonel Udawatte at the rear arena of the war front (photos by Kanchan Prasad from India)..<\/p>\n

<\/a>[15]<\/a>This is a list I extracted from an SL Army officer who was at a talk on the IDP Camps which I presented at ICES in 2011. It is reproduced in Roberts, TPS. Pictorial,<\/em>2014, pp. 252-63. I note here for the benefit of lay readers that it is rare for reporters to gain access to the interface of fighting in any war situation where battle lines are sharply drawn in rural terrain. Where reporters have been caught in cross-fire, it has usually been in locations where the fighting is in mosaic patches and in confused and swirling urban landscapes.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[16]<\/a>As an Indian journalist in Colombo noted sarcastically: \u201cnone of these westerners raised any inquiries as to how the various Tamil informants in LTTE terrain had access to satellite phones.\u201d As further indictment of Nessman and Weiss I note here that (A) Weiss was reprimanded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for using the term \u201cbloodbath\u201d in an aired interview for Associated Press in early April 2009 and that (B) on the 13th<\/sup>May 2009 Nessman regurgitated the claims of severe shelling and many deaths presented by human rights agencies in UK who were repeating claims on TamilNet.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a>[17]<\/a>Roberts, \u201cDavid Miliband\u2019s Imperious Intervention in Lanka left in\u00a0Tatters<\/a>,\u201d 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[18]<\/a>See Roberts, \u201cReading \u2018devastation\u2019: Botham, CMJ and Ban Ki-Moon,\u201d 2014. There were no human beings THEN on 22\/23 May because the civilians had fled or been rescued and taken to IDP camps, while most Tiger personnel had been killed or captured. Note, too, that this coastal area was wind-swept and the abandoned tents and gear would be subject to the force of such elements. See the selection of snaps in Times 2009.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[19]<\/a>Annex I \u2013 Military Expert Opinion by Major General (Retd) John Holmes, in Paranagama Commission Report, 2015. pp. 243-44.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[20]<\/a>That is why some of the pictorial evidence of the civilian settlements in the \u201cLast Redoubt\u201d on the coast in the period February to early May 2009 which are available in TamilNet<\/em>and a range of sources are so valuable. For a selection, see Roberts,TPS. Pictorial<\/em>, 2014<\/p>\n

<\/a>[21]<\/a>See \u201cTimes Aerial Images,\u201d http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/ photos\/thuppahi\/sets\/72157626922360092\/<\/a>and for commentary on some snaps, see Roberts, TPS. Essays<\/em>, 2014, Figs. 11-16. Also see Prasad \u201cTwo Indian Reporters \u2026,\u201d 2014.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[22]<\/a>All the houses in this part of the coast would have been new dwellings built after the arena was flattened by the tsunami of 26th<\/sup>December 2004.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[23]<\/a>See Harshula 2011.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[24]<\/a>The horrendous assassination of the respected Editor of The Sunday Leader<\/em>, Lasantha Wickrematunga, on 8th<\/sup>January 2009 \u2013 clearly, at face value, by elements in the Sri Lankan defence establishment \u2014 had raised the bar of hostility in media circles in Sri Lanka and the West; while alienating liberal thinkers in both domains.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[25]<\/a>At least 3389 escaped by sea according to the reports provided by Lt. Col. Gash (see Roberts, \u201cGash Files III,\u201d 2018).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[26]<\/a>Citizen Silva somehow tracked ICRC summaries and recorded 31 voyages between 9th<\/sup>February and 9th<\/sup>May. carrying 13,794 persons. Figures from 23 of these trips show a total of 10,103 with the following breakdown: 1789 injured\/sick males; 3537 injured\/sick females; and 3,471 children -the rest being defined as \u201ccaretakers.\u201d \u2013 See Roberts, TPS. Pictorial<\/em>, 2014, Fig. 95 on page 140.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[27]<\/a>See details from Citizen Silva, \u201cNumber\u2019s Game\u201d reiterated in Roberts, \u201cRevisiting Critical Issues,\u201d 2017 as well as Frances Harrison, 2012: 337.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[28]<\/a>Harrison 2012: 238.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[29]<\/a>The British Major Genl Holmes said as much \u2013 see Quotations and summary in Kurukulasuriya 2018. This is one illustration: \u201cThe figure of 40,000 civilians killed which has been repeatedly published is, in my view, extremely difficult to sustain on the evidence which I have seen.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>[30]<\/a>See Coupland & Meddings 1999 and Mango 2014.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[31]<\/a>The confined physical extent of the area to which the LTTE and its remaining \u2018sandbags\u2019 of civilian people had been reduced by April 2009 was not dissimilar to that of the Gallipoli Peninsula, though the latter was hilly and criss-crossed with gullies.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[32]<\/a>Roberts, \u201cDrama in Four Acts,\u201d 2015.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[33]<\/a>Note Hattotuwa, \u2018Identity,\u201d 2018.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[34]<\/a>In my surmise the key drivers behind USA\u2019s targeting of Sri Lanka appear to have been Hillary Clinton (Secy-of-State), Samantha Power, Susan Rice and Richard Armitage. It is Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who mentioned Rice and Power when I suggested that it was Clinton who initiated a sharper line towards Sri Lanka from late 2008\u00a0 (see\u00a0 \u201cGotabaya clarifies,\u201d 2016 ). From her researches Ishanka Jayatilleka is convinced (personal communication) that Richard Armitage engineered a shift towards a hard line against Sri Lanka from circa 2006 \u2013 arising in part from a close allegiance with Norwegian circles.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[35]<\/a>Kunanayakam 2016.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[36]<\/a>This email note was dated 23 June 2011. I complied readily.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[37]<\/a>Radhika Coomaraswamy was a Co-Director of the ICES in Colombo with Neelan Tiruchelvam and also became the Chairperson of the\u00a0Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission<\/a>in 2003. She also has worked as the\u00a0United Nations Special Rapporteur<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Violence against Women<\/a>\u00a0(1994-2003). In 2014, she was appointed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as lead author on a\u00a0Global Study<\/a>\u00a0on the implementation of UNSC resolution 1325, on women, peace and security<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":164808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nEelam War IV & Aftermath: Western Complicity, Deceit & Revenge - 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\/eelam-war-iv-aftermath-western-complicity-deceit-revenge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eelam War IV & Aftermath: Western Complicity, Deceit & Revenge - 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