{"id":4028,"date":"2012-01-30T11:57:22","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T11:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=4028"},"modified":"2013-06-20T13:38:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-20T08:08:46","slug":"wikileaks-stf-murdered-trinco-students-basil-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-stf-murdered-trinco-students-basil-to-us\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: &quot;STF Murdered Trinco Students&quot; Basil To US"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Colombo Telegraph &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8220;We know the STF did it, but the bullet and gun evidence shows that they did not. They must have separate guns when they want to kill some one. We need forensic experts. We know who did it, but we can&#8217;t proceed in prosecuting them.&#8221; President\u2019s advisor and his brother Basil Rajapaksa told US Ambassador Robert O.Blake.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4031\" style=\"width: 430px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/basil_rajapaksa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4031\" class=\" wp-image-4031  \" title=\"basil_rajapaksa\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/basil_rajapaksa.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"420\" height=\"309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/basil_rajapaksa.jpg 784w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/basil_rajapaksa-300x220.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-4031\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Basil - They must have separate guns when they want to kill some one<\/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 US Ambassador to Colombo has had with President\u2019s advisor and his brother Basil Rajapaksa on October 04, 2006. The cable was written by the US Ambassador to Colombo, Robert O. Blake.<\/p>\n<p>Under the subheading \u00a0&#8220;President is Keen on Human Rights&#8221; Blake wrote \u201cBasil told the Ambassador that the President genuinely seeks the help of the Co-chairs, and the US in particular, to improve Sri Lanka&#8217;s human rights capability by lending experts, assisting with inquiries, and building up the indigenous Human Rights Commission (HRC). The Ambassador agreed that President Rajapaksa and Development and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe have strong reputations as human rights advocates, but noted the UNHCR lacked credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpeaking with surprising candor, Rajapaksa explained the GSL&#8217;s efforts to prove that members of the Security Task Force (STF) murdered five students in Trincomalee in January: \u2018We know the STF did it, but the bullet and gun evidence shows that they did not. They must have separate guns when they want to kill some one. We need forensic experts. We know who did it, but we can&#8217;t proceed in prosecuting them.\u2019&#8221; the ambassador further wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Ambassador Blake wrote \u201c He said that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been sufficiently trained in human rights, but that the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has been credibly implicated in harassment and human rights violations. \u2018We have few complaints in areas of SLA presence, but we have a problem with the SLN,\u2019 Rajapaksa explained. \u2018We didn&#8217;t expect them to work with civilians and they weren&#8217;t trained.&#8221; He said the President has prioritized human rights training for the Navy. Rajapaksa added that with a new law requiring that police notify the magistrate before they can detain a suspect for longer than 24 hours, \u2018We have minimized harassment by the police.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Placing a comment the ambassador wrote \u201cThe Ambassador&#8217;s first meeting with Basil Rajapaksa sparked a candid response from the Presidential Advisor and laid the foundation for a pragmatic relationship with the embassy. Rajapaksa&#8217;s frank discussion of the GSL&#8217;s human rights struggles with its security forces and request for international assistance in human rights capacity building is welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Below we give the relevant part of the cable;<\/p>\n<pre>C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 001622\r\n\r\nSIPDIS\r\n\r\nSIPDIS\r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 10\/04\/2016\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\/PHUM_0.html\">PHUM<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PREF_0.html\">PREF<\/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: PRESIDENTIAL ADVISOR BASIL RAJAPAKSA\r\nSPEAKS FRANKLY ABOUT HUMAN RIGHTS AND KARUNA FACTION\r\n\r\nREF: A. COLOMBO 1617 AND PREVIOUS\r\n     <a id=\"parB\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2006\/10\/06COLOMBO1622.html#parB\">\u00b6<\/a>B. COLOMBO 1604 AND PREVIOUS\r\n\r\nClassified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake for reasons 1.4(b,d).\r\n\"President is Keen on Human Rights\"\r\n-----------------------------------\r\n\r\n<a id=\"par5\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2006\/10\/06COLOMBO1622.html#par5\">\u00b6<\/a>5. (C) Basil told the Ambassador that the President genuinely\r\nseeks the help of the Co-chairs, and the US in particular, to\r\nimprove Sri Lanka's human rights capability by lending\r\nexperts, assisting with inquiries, and building up the\r\nindigenous Human Rights Commission (HRC).  The Ambassador\r\nagreed that President Rajapaksa and Development and Human\r\nRights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe have strong reputations\r\nas human rights advocates, but noted the UNHCR lacked\r\ncredibility.\r\n\r\n<a id=\"par6\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2006\/10\/06COLOMBO1622.html#par6\">\u00b6<\/a>6. (C) Speaking with surprising candor, Rajapaksa explained\r\nthe GSL's efforts to prove that members of the Security Task\r\nForce (STF) murdered five students in Trincomalee in January:\r\n\"We know the STF did it, but the bullet and gun evidence\r\nshows that they did not.  They must have separate guns when\r\nthey want to kill some one.  We need forensic experts.  We\r\n\r\nCOLOMBO 00001622  002 OF 002\r\n\r\nknow who did it, but we can't proceed in prosecuting them.\"\r\n\r\n<a id=\"par7\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2006\/10\/06COLOMBO1622.html#par7\">\u00b6<\/a>7. (C) He said that the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) has been\r\nsufficiently trained in human rights, but that the Sri Lanka\r\nNavy (SLN) has been credibly implicated in harassment and\r\nhuman rights violations.  \"We have few complaints in areas of\r\nSLA presence, but we have a problem with the SLN,\" Rajapaksa\r\nexplained.  \"We didn't expect them to work with civilians and\r\nthey weren't trained.\"  He said the President has prioritized\r\nhuman rights training for the Navy. Rajapaksa added that with\r\na new law requiring that police notify the magistrate before\r\nthey can detain a suspect for longer than 24 hours, \"We have\r\nminimized harassment by the police.\"\r\nComment\r\n-------\r\n\r\n<a id=\"par11\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2006\/10\/06COLOMBO1622.html#par11\">\u00b6<\/a>11. (C) The Ambassador's first meeting with Basil Rajapaksa\r\nsparked a candid response from the Presidential Advisor and\r\nlaid the foundation for a pragmatic relationship with the\r\nembassy.  Rajapaksa's frank discussion of the GSL's human\r\nrights struggles with its security forces and request for\r\ninternational assistance in human rights capacity building is\r\nwelcome.\r\nBLAKE<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":4031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,57,1,26,27],"tags":[1540,1161,1859,1298,1860,6983],"class_list":["post-4028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disappearance","category-law-and-order","category-news","category-war-crimes","category-wikileaks","tag-extra-judicial-killings-in-sri-lanka","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-murdered-trinco-students","tag-sri-lankans-in-wikileaks","tag-stf-killings","tag-war-crimes"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WikiLeaks: &quot;STF Murdered Trinco Students&quot; 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