The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d and recounts details of meetings the US Embassy official Charge d’Affaires James R. Moore has had with Presidend Rajapaksa and his officials. The cable was written on May 5, 2009 by the Charge d’Affaires James R. Moore.<\/p>\n
Charge d’Affaires Moore wrote \u201cOn May 4, Charge met with Foreign Minister Bogollagama to discuss reports that Government forces were shelling into the Government-designated \u2018safe zone\u2019 even after the President’s April 27 declaration of the end of combat operations. Charge presented two declassified satellite images taken on April 26 and 28 of the civilian \u2018no-fire zone\u2019 showing probable artillery impact craters. Referring to widely-circulated but unofficial UN estimates of thousands of civilian deaths and injuries since late January (which have elicited strongly-worded refutations by Government officials), Charge noted that the U.S. is not in position independently to verify numbers of civilian casualties, but that it is clear there have been many. Bogollagama replied (implying the LTTE had shelled its own positions) that the satellite images did not provide enough information to indicate the source of fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Placing a comment Charge d’Affaires wrote \u201cAt the beginning of the preceding meeting with Co-Chair Ambassadors (septel), the President asked Charge for an assessment of the current situation, noting wryly, “you are probably better informed than I am.” Post considers it possible that individual field commanders or the Army command might have resorted to the use of heavy weapons while protecting the Commander-in-Chief from this information. Rajapaksa has been known to call individual battlefield commanders in the past to ask for frank assessments when he feels out of touch with ground realities. While the senior officials we spoke with concerning the satellite images conceded nothing, our effort still could lead to the President conducting his own inquiries and a possible change of the Sri Lankan Army’s conduct of the battle in progress. The President remarked at lunch before this meeting that India had satellites and was monitoring the ground situation in Sri Lanka. It will now be equally clear to the Sri Lankan government that we are watching, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the cable below for further details;<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3731,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,53,1,26,27],"tags":[1812,1139,1161,1134,1167,1813,1298,6983,1814],"class_list":["post-3729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disappearance","category-global-politics","category-news","category-war-crimes","category-wikileaks","tag-co-chair-ambassadors","tag-democracy","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-human-rights","tag-ltte","tag-sri-lankan-war","tag-sri-lankans-in-wikileaks","tag-war-crimes","tag-war-via-satellites"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/last-phase-of-war-via-satellites.jpg\" "\\"last")
<\/a>\u201cOn May 5, President Mahinda Rajapaksa held a meeting of Co-Chair Ambassadors. Charge took the opportunity afterwards to pull aside President Rajapaksa and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona to share privately satellite images released for this purpose by Department. The President noted he had already seen the images Charge provided to the Foreign Minister the previous day. Charge informed the President and Foreign Secretary that he had been instructed to share these satellite images with the Sri Lankan government. These \u2018before and after\u2019 satellite images dated April 27 through May 3 document apparent shelling damage in the “safe zone” even after the April 27 declaration by President Rajapaksa, he noted. Charge stated that we were sharing the satellite images in the hope the shelling would stop.\u201d Moore further wrote.<\/p>\nO 051403Z MAY 09\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\nTO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9926\nINFO AMEMBASSY ATHENS PRIORITY\nAMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY\nAMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY\nAMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY\nAMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY\nAMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY\nAMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY\nAMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY\nAMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY\nAMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY\nAMCONSUL TORONTO PRIORITY\nHQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY\nDIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\nUSEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY\nWHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\nC O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000495\n\nDEPARTMENT FOR SCA\/INS\n\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 05\/05\/2019\nTAGS: PREL<\/a> PHUM<\/a> MOPS<\/a> PREF<\/a> PTER<\/a> CE<\/a>\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA: EMBASSY SHARES IMAGES OF SAFE ZONE WITH\nPRESIDENT\n\nClassified By: Charge d'Affaires James R. Moore, for reasons 1.4\n(b & d).\n\n\u00b6<\/a>1. (C) SUMMARY: In a May 5 meeting with President Mahinda\nRajapaksa and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona, Charge\nprovided satellite images taken since April 27 of new\nshelling damage within the Government-designated \"safe zone.\"\n The President maintained that Government forces have not\nbeen shelling into the \"safe zone\" since his April 27\nstatement announcing the end of heavy artillery and aerial\nbombing in this area. In a meeting with Foreign Minister\nBogollagama the previous day, Charge provided other satellite\nimages and inquired about reports of Government shelling in\nthe safe zone. The Foreign Minister insisted that satellite\nimages did not provide information needed to determine the\nsource of fire. End summary.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>2. (C) On May 4, Charge met with Foreign Minister\nBogollagama to discuss reports that Government forces were\nshelling into the Government-designated \"safe zone\" even\nafter the President's April 27 declaration of the end of\ncombat operations. Charge presented two declassified\nsatellite images taken on April 26 and 28 of the civilian\n\"no-fire zone\" showing probable artillery impact craters.\nReferring to widely-circulated but unofficial UN estimates of\nthousands of civilian deaths and injuries since late January\n(which have elicited strongly-worded refutations by\nGovernment officials), Charge noted that the U.S. is not in\nposition independently to verify numbers of civilian\ncasualties, but that it is clear there have been many.\nBogollagama replied (implying the LTTE had shelled its own\npositions) that the satellite images did not provide enough\ninformation to indicate the source of fire.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>3. (C) On May 5, President Mahinda Rajapaksa held a meeting\nof Co-Chair Ambassadors. Charge took the opportunity\nafterwards to pull aside President Rajapaksa and Foreign\nSecretary Palitha Kohona to share privately satellite images\nreleased for this purpose by Department. The President noted\nhe had already seen the images Charge provided to the Foreign\nMinister the previous day. Charge informed the President and\nForeign Secretary that he had been instructed to share these\nsatellite images with the Sri Lankan government. These\n\"before and after\" satellite images dated April 27 through\nMay 3 document apparent shelling damage in the \"safe zone\"\neven after the April 27 declaration by President Rajapaksa,\nhe noted. Charge stated that we were sharing the satellite\nimages in the hope the shelling would stop.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>4. (C) Rajapaksa responded by saying that before government\nforces occupied about half of the Government-designated\ncivilian safe zone, the LTTE did not allow civilians to enter\nthe southern end of the zone, as the LTTE had established\nbases in that area. The President further asserted there was\nno hospital in the area where the LTTE has claimed a hospital\nwas shelled on May 2. (Charge countered that it was a\nmakeshift facility.) Kohona noted (without specifying a\nprecise time frame) that government forces had indeed bombed\nthis area before unilaterally declaring it a safe zone\nbecause there were LTTE \"Sea Tiger\" bases along that strip of\ncoast.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>5. (C) The President then claimed that Government forces\nwould not shell civilian areas, confiding that the Army has\nDeep Penetration Units (Tamil-speaking agents operating in\nLTTE-controlled areas) within the safe zone who are\nattempting to organize people to breach the LTTE earth berms\nand allow civilians to escape. Rajapaksa stated that\ncasualty rates among Government forces have gone up because\nthey are not responding with heavy weapons to outgoing heavy\nweapons fire from the LTTE. He commented that the military\nbelieves the graves documented in the satellite images are\nlikely for LTTE cadres killed in action. Kohona added that\nthere was little reason for the Government continuing to\nshell the safe zone, since \"such sporadic shelling would not\nserve any military objective.\" He referred to an article on\nthe Defense Ministry website alleging that the LTTE had\nstaged photographs of the damage at the hospital.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>6. (C) Charge inquired how the Government currently intended\nto pursue the end game of its campaign against the Tigers.\nRajapaksa staed that Government forces will proceed slowly,\nwthout proceeding to a final assault, believing tha they\ncould secure the surrender of the remainingLTTE combatants\nwithin a few weeks. Rajapaksa insisted that the Government\ndoes not plan, however, to give the LTTE any breathing room\nto reorganize.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>7. (C) COMMENT: At the beginning of the preceding meeting\nwith Co-Chair Ambassadors (septel), the President asked\nCharge for an assessment of the current situation, noting\nwryly, \"you are probably better informed than I am.\" Post\nconsiders it possible that individual field commanders or the\nArmy command might have resorted to the use of heavy weapons\nwhile protecting the Commander-in-Chief from this\ninformation. Rajapaksa has been known to call individual\nbattlefield commanders in the past to ask for frank\nassessments when he feels out of touch with ground realities.\n While the senior officials we spoke with concerning the\nsatellite images conceded nothing, our effort still could\nlead to the President conducting his own inquiries and a\npossible change of the Sri Lankan Army's conduct of the\nbattle in progress. The President remarked at lunch before\nthis meeting that India had satellites and was monitoring the\nground situation in Sri Lanka. It will now be equally clear\nto the Sri Lankan government that we are watching, too.\n\nMOORE<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"