{"id":38398,"date":"2012-04-15T00:11:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T00:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=38398"},"modified":"2012-05-07T21:01:22","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T21:01:22","slug":"wikileaks-gota-softens-tone-on-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-gota-softens-tone-on-war-crimes\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Gota Softens Tone On War Crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-gota-softens-tone-on-war-crimes\/g_rajapaksa\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-38401\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-38401\" title=\"g_rajapaksa\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/g_rajapaksa.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/g_rajapaksa.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/g_rajapaksa-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>By <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/\">Colombo Telegraph <\/a><\/span>&#8211;\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cDefense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa seemed to soften his tone on calls for accountability over possible violations of international human rights. In an earlier interview with the BBC, the Defense Secretary had vigorously opposed any international investigation into possible violations. In a February 8 interview with the local Island newspaper, however, Rajapaksa said &#8220;no one would oppose a genuine investigation initiated by the international community&#8221; and that the Defense Ministry would take punitive action against any military personnel guilty of war crimes or criminal activity.\u201d the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/\">Colombo Telegraph<\/a><\/span>\u00a0found the related leaked \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable was written on February 10 , 2010 by the Charge D\u2019Affaires Valerie Fowler.<\/p>\n<p>Placing a comment Fowler wrote \u201cThe Foreign Secretary&#8217;s clarification that Fonseka was under detention to further the investigation appears to reflect the government&#8217;s consolidation of its position on his case, making sure they do not box themselves in with any procedural complexities. His arguments about the government&#8217;s handling of the case with &#8220;complete transparency&#8221; resembled the government&#8217;s response to the EU&#8217;s report on the removal of GSP-plus preferential tariffs. In both instances, a strong statement was made that Sri Lankan laws did not allow for any misdeeds, and therefore nothing questionable could have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Below we give\u00a0the relevant part of the confidential cable;<\/p>\n<pre>VZCZCXRO0502\r\nOO RUEHAG RUEHROV RUEHSL RUEHSR\r\nDE RUEHLM #0108\/01 0411231\r\nZNY CCCCC ZZH\r\nO 101231Z FEB 10\r\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\r\nTO RUEHC\/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1294\r\nINFO RUCNMEM\/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY\r\nRUEHKA\/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 2414\r\nRUEHIL\/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 9436\r\nRUEHKT\/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 7691\r\nRUEHLO\/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 5442\r\nRUEHNE\/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 3852\r\nRUEHNY\/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 0028\r\nRUEHOT\/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0228\r\nRUEHMD\/AMEMBASSY MADRID PRIORITY 0179\r\nRUEHKO\/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 4491\r\nRUEHCG\/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 9996\r\nRUEHBI\/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 7231\r\nRUEHON\/AMCONSUL TORONTO PRIORITY 0223\r\nRHEFDIA\/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\r\nRUEHGV\/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0134\r\nRHHMUNA\/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY\r\nRUEHBS\/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY\r\nRHEHAAA\/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\r\nRUEKJCS\/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY<\/pre>\n<pre>C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000108 \r\n\r\nSIPDIS \r\n\r\nDEPARTMENT FOR SCA\/INSB \r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 02\/09\/2020\r\nTAGS: <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PGOV_0.html\">PGOV<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PREL_0.html\">PREL<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PREF_0.html\">PREF<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PHUM_0.html\">PHUM<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PTER_0.html\">PTER<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/EAID_0.html\">EAID<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/MOPS_0.html\">MOPS<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/CE_0.html\">CE<\/a>\r\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA HOT TOPICS: FONSEKA, BUDDHIST CRITICISM\r\nOF GSL, ACCOUNTABILITY, PARLIAMENT DISSOLUTION \r\n\r\nCOLOMBO 00000108  001.2 OF 003 \r\n\r\nClassified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES VALERIE C. FOWLER.  REASONS: 1.4 (B, D\r\n)<\/pre>\n<pre>DEFENSE SECRETARY SOFTENS\r\nTONE ON ACCOUNTABILITY\r\n------------------------- \r\n\r\n<a id=\"par9\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2010\/02\/10COLOMBO108.html#par9\">\u00b6<\/a>9. (C) Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa seemed to soften\r\nhis tone on calls for accountability over possible violations\r\nof international human rights.  In an earlier interview with\r\nthe BBC, the Defense Secretary had vigorously opposed any\r\ninternational investigation into possible violations.  In a\r\nFebruary 8 interview with the local Island newspaper,\r\nhowever, Rajapaksa said \"no one would oppose a genuine\r\ninvestigation initiated by the international community\" and\r\nthat the Defense Ministry would take punitive action against\r\nany military personnel guilty of war crimes or criminal\r\nactivity. \r\n\r\nCOMMENT\r\n------- \r\n\r\n<a id=\"par10\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2010\/02\/10COLOMBO108.html#par10\">\u00b6<\/a>10. (C) The Foreign Secretary's clarification that Fonseka\r\nwas under detention to further the investigation appears to\r\nreflect the government's consolidation of its position on his\r\ncase, making sure they do not box themselves in with any\r\nprocedural complexities.  His arguments about the\r\ngovernment's handling of the case with \"complete\r\ntransparency\" resembled the government's response to the EU's\r\nreport on the removal of GSP-plus preferential tariffs.  In\r\nboth instances, a strong statement was made that Sri Lankan\r\nlaws did not allow for any misdeeds, and therefore nothing\r\nquestionable could have happened.<\/pre>\n<pre>FOWLER<\/pre>\n<pre><\/pre>\n<pre><\/pre>\n<pre><\/pre>\n<pre><strong>CORRECTION<\/strong><\/pre>\n<p><strong><em>This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: Earlier version of this article said that the cable date was \u00a0<\/em>June\u00a014, 2007\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Correction: It was\u00a0February 10 , 2010<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<pre><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":38406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,2375,27],"tags":[1962,1481,2530,2244,2417],"class_list":["post-38398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-stories","category-wikileaks","tag-gotabhaya-in-wikileaks","tag-gotabhaya-rajapaksa-war-crimes","tag-sri-lanka-on-violations-of-international-human-rights","tag-sri-lanka-war-crimes","tag-sri-lanka-war-crimes-latest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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