{"id":3738,"date":"2012-01-21T11:17:58","date_gmt":"2012-01-21T11:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=3738"},"modified":"2012-04-07T21:54:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T21:54:27","slug":"wikileaks-basil-rajapkasa-admitted-military-shelling-into-the-safe-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-basil-rajapkasa-admitted-military-shelling-into-the-safe-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Basil Admitted Military Shelling Into The Safe Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Colombo Telegraph &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Norwegian Ambassador commented that in two recent meetings with Rajapkasa he acknowledged military forces were shelling into the safe zone, but was not comfortable discussing the subject.\u201d The US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3744\" style=\"width: 319px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/shelling.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3744\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3744\" title=\"Shelling\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/shelling.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"309\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/shelling.jpg 309w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/shelling-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 309px) 100vw, 309px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3744\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Satellite images show &#39;disappearing&#39; temporary structures in the safe zone, indicating heavy fire<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d and recounts details of a meeting the US Ambassador has had with Co-Chair Ambassadors on March 5, 2009. The cable was written on March 5, 2009 by the US Ambassador to Colombo, Robert O. Blake.<\/p>\n<p>Ambassador Robert O. Blake wrote \u201cAmbassador opened by summarizing a meeting (reported septel) he and USAID Director Cohn had the previous day with Basil Rajapaksa, the GSL&#8217;s Senior Coordinator for all humanitarian issues. In response to the Ambassador&#8217;s concerns about the first credible reports of possible starvation in the safe zone in the north, Rajapaksa undertook to arrange an immediate delivery of an additional 200 metric tons of food by the end of March 6 and to work with the WFP to schedule more regular shipments. He also reported that the Government is arranging to bring a larger ship from Colombo equipped with a crane that will make possible the transport of greater quantities of food and more efficient off-loading. Rajapaksa reported that the ICRC delivered a shipment of medicine to the safe zone earlier in the week, but Ambassador noted there are still shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRajapaksa was not as forthcoming to the Ambassador&#8217;s concerns about credible reports of shelling of the safe zone on several successive days recently. Rajapaksa lamely pointed out that GSL forces had come under fire from LTTE artillery within the safe zone and they had to defend themselves. Ambassador pointed out such retaliatory shelling had killed many civilians and was a reversal of the government&#8217;s own commitment not to use heavy weapons. The Norwegian Ambassador commented that in two recent meetings with Rajapkasa he acknowledged military forces were shelling into the safe zone, but was not comfortable discussing the subject.\u201d Blake further wrote.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Headline of this article has been revised to reflect the following correction:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Correction: 1.20 pm January 21, 2012<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>An earlier version of the headline said that &#8220;WikiLeaks: <strong>President<\/strong> Rajapkasa admitted military shelling into the safe zone.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Below we give the relevant part of the cable;<\/p>\n<pre>VZCZCXYZ0000\r\nOO RUEHWEB\r\n\r\nDE RUEHLM #0252\/01 0641344\r\nZNY CCCCC ZZH\r\nO 051344Z MAR 09\r\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\r\nTO RUEHC\/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9515\r\nINFO RUEHNE\/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 2739\r\nRUEHNY\/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 4733\r\nRUEHPG\/AMEMBASSY PRAGUE PRIORITY 0052\r\nRUEHKO\/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 3833\r\nRUEHBS\/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY\r\nRHHMUNA\/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY\r\nC O N F I D E N T I A L COLOMBO 000252\r\n\r\nSIPDIS\r\n\r\nSTATE FOR A\/S BOUCHER\r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 03\/05\/2019\r\nTAGS: <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PREL_0.html\">PREL<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PTER_0.html\">PTER<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PGOV_0.html\">PGOV<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/CE_0.html\">CE<\/a>\r\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA: CO-CHAIR AMBASSADORS DISCUSS WAYS TO\r\nPRESSURE GSL AND LTTE\r\n\r\nClassified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr. for reasons\r\n1.4 (b) and (d).\r\nSituation Update\r\n\r\n<a id=\"par2\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2009\/03\/09COLOMBO252.html#par2\">\u00b6<\/a>2.  (C) Ambassador opened by summarizing a meeting (reported\r\nseptel) he and USAID Director Cohn\r\nhad the previous day with Basil Rajapaksa, the GSL's Senior\r\nCoordinator for all humanitarian issues.\r\nIn response to the Ambassador's concerns about the first\r\ncredible reports of possible starvation in the\r\nsafe zone in the north, Rajapaksa undertook to arrange an\r\nimmediate delivery of an additional 200 metric\r\ntons of food by the end of March 6 and to work with the WFP\r\nto schedule more regular shipments.  He\r\nalso reported that the Government is arranging to bring a\r\nlarger ship from Colombo equipped with a crane\r\nthat will make possible the transport of greater quantities\r\nof food and more efficient off-loading.  Rajapaksa\r\nreported that the ICRC delivered a shipment of medicine to\r\nthe safe zone earlier in the week, but Ambassador\r\nnoted there are still shortages.  Rajapaksa was not as\r\nforthcoming to the Ambassador's concerns about\r\ncredible reports of shelling of the safe zone on several\r\nsuccessive days recently.  Rajapaksa lamely pointed\r\nout that GSL forces had come under fire from LTTE artillery\r\nwithin the safe zone and they had to defend\r\nthemselves.  Ambassador pointed out such retaliatory shelling\r\nhad killed many civilians and was a reversal\r\nof the government's own commitment not to use heavy weapons.\r\nThe Norwegian Ambassador commented\r\nthat in two recent meetings with Rajapkasa he acknowledged\r\nmilitary forces were shelling into the safe zone,\r\nbut was not comfortable discussing the subject.\r\nBLAKE<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,53,1,63,26,27],"tags":[1812,1161,1134,1815,1816,1817,1818,1298,6983],"class_list":["post-3738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disappearance","category-global-politics","category-news","category-politics-2","category-war-crimes","category-wikileaks","tag-co-chair-ambassadors","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-human-rights","tag-icrs","tag-killing-civilians","tag-military-shelling","tag-military-tactics","tag-sri-lankans-in-wikileaks","tag-war-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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