{"id":2280,"date":"2011-12-01T05:46:36","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T05:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=2280"},"modified":"2011-12-01T05:46:36","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T05:46:36","slug":"exclusive-the-extra-judicial-killings-had-been-ordered-by-gota-the-international-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/exclusive-the-extra-judicial-killings-had-been-ordered-by-gota-the-international-says\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: The extra-judicial killings had been ordered by Gota \u2013 The International says"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Colombo Telegraph –<\/p>\n

\u201cThe source told the lawyer taking his deposition, which was\u00a0witnessed by a public official of the state of New York, that the killings\u00a0had been ordered by from the Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka, Mr. Gotabaya\u00a0Rajapaksa. The source claims that he was informed that the Defence\u00a0Secretary had passed on \u2018some instructions to a field commander to get rid\u00a0of those\u00a0LTTE\u00a0cadres who are surrendering.\u201d New York base The International<\/em> reports today.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Gotabaya Rajapaksa<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIn a crucial exchange recorded in the source\u2019s testimony, he was asked:\u00a0\u2018Who would have given the order\u2026that this is the way to handle the\u00a0hardcore\u00a0LTTE\u00a0cadres?\u2019 The source replied: \u2018It should come from either the\u00a0secretary of the defense [sic], with the knowledge of the president\u00a0involved. He also has to be kept informed. The commanders could not\u00a0undertake such decisions.\u2019\u201d The International <\/em>further reports.<\/p>\n

Below we give the full story The International published;<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan army ordered extra-judicial killings and assassinations\u00a0during the final days of the country\u2019s civil war, according to\u00a0allegations made by a former member of the army. The source made the\u00a0statements in an affidavit, obtained by The International as a part of an\u00a0investigative report on the\u00a0civil war, published today. The allegations were also accompanied by\u00a0statements made by a witness who claims that he saw a number of serious war\u00a0crimes being committed against civilians.<\/p>\n

The assertions of the first source, who held a very senior position in\u00a0the armed forces during the final period of the war, are perhaps the most\u00a0significant. Having access to the flow of orders and strategy and holding a\u00a0high level security clearance, his testimony appears to corroborate many\u00a0claims made by the United Nations, prominent human rights organizations and\u00a0a series of reports made by Channel 4 news regarding abuses carried out by\u00a0the army.<\/p>\n

The source alleges that extra-judicial killings of surrendering or captured\u00a0members of the rebel Tamil Tiger group were committed as “standard\u00a0operating procedure” during the last months of the war.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the source told the lawyer taking his deposition, which was\u00a0witnessed by a public official of the state of New York, that the killings\u00a0had been ordered by from the Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka, Mr. Gotabaya\u00a0Rajapaksa. The source claims that he was informed that the Defence\u00a0Secretary had passed on “some instructions to a field commander to get rid\u00a0of those\u00a0LTTE\u00a0cadres who are surrendering.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Evidence - extra-judicial killings<\/p><\/div>\n

In a crucial exchange recorded in the source\u2019s testimony, he was asked:\u00a0“Who would have given the order\u2026that this is the way to handle the\u00a0hardcore\u00a0LTTE\u00a0cadres?” The source replied: “It should come from either the\u00a0secretary of the defense [sic], with the knowledge of the president\u00a0involved. He also has to be kept informed. The commanders could not\u00a0undertake such decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such a view appears to agree with statements made by American diplomat\u00a0Patricia Butenis in a memo released by Wikileaks last year, in which she\u00a0suggests that the responsibility for the alleged crimes rests with the\u00a0country\u2019s senior civilian leadership. In a cable dated 15 January 2010, she\u00a0wrote: “responsibility for many of the alleged crimes [during the war] rests with the country\u2019s senior civilian and military leadership, including\u00a0President (Rajapaksa) and his brothers and opposition candidate General\u00a0Fonseka.”<\/p>\n

In his testimony, the source also alleges that a former member of the LTTE\u00a0who had been involved in extra-judicial killings was given “a freehand” to\u00a0do so by the Sri Lankan military. This figure, known by the Nom de Guerre\u00a0of Colonel Karuna, and also by the name of Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan,\u00a0now holds the position of “Minister for National Integration” in the Sri\u00a0Lankan government. The Karuna group broke away from the\u00a0LTTE\u00a0after an\u00a0internal dispute in 2004, and shortly afterwards started fighting their\u00a0former comrades in co-operation with government forces.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Evidence - extra-judicial killings<\/p><\/div>\n

A Wikileaks-released US State department memo, dated May 17th 2007,\u00a0referring to the Karuna group, records what appears to be the opinion of a\u00a0US diplomat that they helped the army “fight theLTTE, to kidnap suspected\u00a0LTTE collaborators, and to give the GoSL a measure\u00a0of deniability.” She writes that similar reports had been made by a “number of trusted Embassy contacts, often at personal risk” who “have\u00a0described in detail the extent of the GoSL\u2019s involvement with paramilitary\u00a0groups.”<\/p>\n

Such statements, again, corroborate the allegations made by the source.<\/p>\n

In other statements, the source admitted to the existence of “white vans” that\u00a0were allegedly used for kidnappings during the same period. These vehicles\u00a0were mentioned by a UN report in April this year as one of the many\u00a0“credible allegations” made against the Sri Lankan government. The “white\u00a0vans,” according to the source\u2019s testimony, were used by what he describes\u00a0as “hit squads” of a few elite assassins hand picked by the Defence\u00a0Secretary. When asked by the lawyer if Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s “predecessor [had] a\u00a0hit squad” \u00a0the source replied “no, it\u2019s a new thing” which began with the\u00a0present minister\u2019s appointment in 2005.<\/p>\n

In another claim, the source alleges that the 12-year-old son of Villai\u00a0Prabhakaran, the late leader of the Tamil Tigers, was interrogated and\u00a0killed. The source states: “I got to know at the latter stages that they\u00a0found out where Prabhakaran is, through his son\u2026 And subsequently, I got\u00a0to know that [the boy] had been killed.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Evidence - extra-judicial killings<\/p><\/div>\n

The military source also stated that he was aware of threats or actual\u00a0killings of journalists who criticised the government, including that of\u00a0Lasantha Wickremathunge, who predicted his own murder at the hands of the\u00a0government in an editorial published in the Sunday Leader newspaper in\u00a0January 2009. \u00a0Mr. Wickremathunge wrote just before his death that “[w]hen\u00a0finally I am killed, it will be the government that kills me” adding, in a\u00a0direct address to the President, “we both know who will be behind my death,\u00a0but dare not call his name. Not just my life, but yours too, depends on\u00a0it.”<\/p>\n

The source believed that a prominent cabinet minister was responsible for\u00a0the killing, but added that he believed that the President sanctioned it.\u00a0He told the lawyer: “this type of thing is coming from the top itself\u2026the\u00a0president\u2026he is ultimately responsible.”<\/p>\n

If either the Defence Secretary or the President were aware of or ordered\u00a0any of the alleged acts that the source claims occurred during the war, or\u00a0for any extra-judicial killings, then they could be subject to prosecution\u00a0for crimes against humanity under the Geneva Conventions. The Sri Lankan\u00a0government has consistently denied that any such practices occurred.<\/p>\n

What is particularly significant about the allegations made by the source,\u00a0beside the seniority of the source and the legally-binding nature of his\u00a0testimony, is that they appear to corroborate many of the most serious\u00a0claims levelled at the government of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

The UN, in a report published in April this\u00a0year, described allegations of extra-judicial killings and the “disappearances [of]\u00a0numerous persons\u2026 perceived by the Government to critical of its approach\u00a0or sympathetic to the\u00a0LTTE”.<\/p>\n

In responding to alleged video footage of extra-judicial killings broadcast\u00a0by Channel Four last year and also recently, Philip Alston, Special\u00a0Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions, stated that\u00a0the documentation appeared to be “authentic.” He added that the apparent\u00a0killings should be investigated “as if they had occurred” and that it was\u00a0essential to find out if the alleged execution in the film “was part of a\u00a0widespread pattern.”<\/p>\n

The claims made by the military figure indicate that this is the case.<\/p>\n

The testimony of the source that the order to kill surrendering LTTE\u00a0fighters are also corroborated by other allegations made by members of the\u00a0military, as recorded in a Channel Four news report in May this year. In\u00a0the report, an anonymous soldier stated “Yes, our commander ordered us to\u00a0kill everyone. We killed everyone”, and another was quoted as saying:\u00a0“Definitely, the order would have been to kill everybody and finish them\u00a0off\u2026It is clear that such orders were, in fact, received from the top.”<\/p>\n

In the second statement obtained by The International, a civilian witness\u00a0also alleges that the Sri Lankan army committed war crimes. This source,\u00a0who cannot be named for his own safety, has stated that the Sri Lankan army\u00a0directed \u201cseveral attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure\u201d\u00a0including the use of civilians as “human shields.” He related that he\u00a0“specifically [remembers] . . . the hospital bombing of Matalan in March\u00a02009 after being treated in a ward there,” and was “present when the UN\u00a0food distribution point was hit by Government attacks in Sudandarpuram in
\nJanuary 2009,” resulting in the deaths of “a lot of children, pregnant\u00a0women and mothers.” He also said that he “witnessed the bombing of a church\u00a0in Raddaivaaikaal in March 2009.”<\/p>\n

The civilian source claims that the most ferocious atrocities occurred near\u00a0Nandikadal Lagoon, in the north east of Sri Lanka, the location where the\u00a0body of Villai Prabhakaran (the former leader of theLTTE) was found shot\u00a0dead.<\/p>\n

Describing the area as being “full of people” the source alleges that the\u00a0“Army was advancing and chasing people in front of them towards the Tamil\u00a0Tiger (also known as the\u00a0LTTE) frontlines” and used them \u201cas shields in\u00a0between them and the\u00a0LTTE.\u201d He also remarked that: “When the\u00a0LTTE\u00a0shelled\u00a0[the army]\u2026. the Army retaliated by shooting and shelling the people.\u00a0People were dying in masses.”<\/p>\n

The source added that civilians with “white flags” were also used as human\u00a0shields: “people were climbing up \u2026in groups to run with white flags to\u00a0the Army, but the Army often chased them back to the frontlines\u2026 to use\u00a0them as their buffer.” He described the attacks on civilians as\u00a0“intentional” and “indiscriminate”, stating that he estimated that he saw\u00a0around three thousand dead bodies in the area affected.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-long civil war between Sri Lanka\u2019s armed forces and the\u00a0separatist group known as the “Tamil Tigers” or Liberation Tigers of Tamil\u00a0Eelam (LTTE), cost up to 100,000 lives between its beginning in July 1983\u00a0and its conclusion in May 2009, according to estimates by the United\u00a0Nations. At present, there are two major inquiries investigating\u00a0allegations of war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government: a United\u00a0Nations inquiry which is ongoing, and an internal inquiry within Sri Lanka,\u00a0headed by a “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee” which is made up\u00a0of a body of eight senior civilian figures, many of whom have served in\u00a0legal roles for the government prior to and during the Rajapaksa\u00a0administration. It is headed by Mr Chitta Ranjan De Silva, who was\u00a0attorney-general of Sri Lanka from 2007 to 2009.<\/p>\n

No one has been prosecuted to date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,31,57,1,26,27],"tags":[1540,1161,1220,1134,6984,1185,1298,1541,6983],"class_list":["post-2280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-politics","category-judiciary","category-law-and-order","category-news","category-war-crimes","category-wikileaks","tag-extra-judicial-killings-in-sri-lanka","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-gotabhaya-rajapaksa","tag-human-rights","tag-judiciary","tag-patricia-a-butenis","tag-sri-lankans-in-wikileaks","tag-the-international","tag-war-crimes"],"yoast_head":"\nEXCLUSIVE: The extra-judicial killings had been ordered by Gota \u2013 The International says - 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\/exclusive-the-extra-judicial-killings-had-been-ordered-by-gota-the-international-says\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE: The extra-judicial killings had been ordered by Gota \u2013 The International says - 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