{"id":216574,"date":"2021-02-15T01:13:51","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T19:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=216574"},"modified":"2021-02-22T01:41:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T20:11:37","slug":"i-killed-them-i-killed-them-ex-us-war-crimes-ambassador-says-gota-told-him-about-surrendering-ltte-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/i-killed-them-i-killed-them-ex-us-war-crimes-ambassador-says-gota-told-him-about-surrendering-ltte-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI Killed Them, I Killed Them\u201d: Ex-US War Crimes Ambassador Says Gota Told Him About Surrendering LTTE Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes and Global Criminal Justice <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=%22Stephen+Rapp%22\">Stephen Rapp<\/a><\/span> recalled during a webinar on Friday (12) that then Defence Secretary <span style=\"color: #ff6600;\"><a style=\"color: #ff6600;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Gotabaya+Rajapaksa\">Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> had admitted to killing LTTE leaders after they surrendered to the military in 2009 instead of putting them on trial.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at an online panel discussion on Justice and rule of law Rapp said he remembered a conversation with the former Defence Secretary and now President Gotabaya Rajapaksa regarding LTTE leaders who surrendered to the army. Rapp said the government \u201chated the LTTE\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XB2oW-j0A3o\" width=\"900\" height=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember raising this issue with defence secretary Gotabaya, now President Rajapaksa when I was there,\u201d Rapp said at the webinar.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI remember the defence secretary saying, \u201cOh, trials, trials, you know they go on so long and people get off\u201d. And then he said, \u201cI killed them, I killed them, I killed them\u201d, Rapp recalled.<\/p>\n<p>The former US Ambassador was responding to a question about why the LTTE was being held accountable by the UN and international community for atrocities committed during the war with the same vigor as the Sri Lankan military. Rapp noted that one way to have made the Tigers accountable for violations would have been to arrest leaders of the separatist movement and put them on trial. Rapp added: \u201cOf course, recalling, that many of the individuals (in the LTTE) that could have been charged were in fact, according to credible evidence, killed after surrender. The numbers are around 360 that were given out\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The Webinar was organised by the Global Tamil Forum, the Canadian Tamil Congress, Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice and the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at the New York University. The panel was moderated by Sri Lanka Campaign\u2019s Melissa Dring and also featured former UN Assistant Secretary General Charles Petrie, former UN Special Rapporteur on Transitional Justice Pablo de Greiff, TNA MP M.A. Sumanthiran, former commissioner for the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Ambika Sathkunanathan, activist Shreen Saroor and Muslim Congress International Affairs Director Ameer Faaiz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":216575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,6969,2375,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories","category-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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