![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/prasad_s_b-colombotelegraph2.jpg\" "\\"prasad_s_b")
<\/a>Although the Army was not in favor, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa gave the order to proceed. Samarasinghe said the original plan was to suspend the roundups on Friday, June 8, but pursue them with renewed vigor over the weekend.<\/p><\/div>\n
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as \u201cSECRET\u201d and discuses the removal of non-Colombo based Tamils temporarily residing in Colombo lodges and hostels . The cable was written by the Ambassador Robert O. Blake and classified by A\/DCM Robert Gabor.<\/p>\n
The cable, dated June 8,2007, updated the Secretary of State on the eviction and asked strictly protect Military Spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe as their source.<\/p>\n
The Ambassador wrote \u201cSpeaking before the Supreme Court stayed the Ministry of Defense’s order, Samarasinghe told us confidentially that the original plan was to suspend the action on Friday, June 8, while Parliament is in session, but pursue the removals with renewed vigor over the weekend. It is not clear what impact the Supreme Court’s stay will have on plans to continue the removals on Saturday and Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn June 8 the Sri Lanka Supreme Court stayed the removal of non-Colombo based Tamils temporarily residing in Colombo lodges and hostels (ref A). The Court ruled in favor of a Fundamental Rights Application filed by the NGO Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA). Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe (strictly protect) told us that the idea for the forced removals came from the police. Although the Army was not in favor, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa gave the order to proceed. Samarasinghe said the original plan was to suspend the roundups on Friday, June 8, but pursue them with renewed vigor over the weekend. It is not clear what impact the Supreme Court’s stay will have on plans to continue the removals on Saturday and Sunday. In the meantime, at least a couple of hundred Tamils are being housed inside a school in Vavuniya without adequate water or sanitation. The Red Cross is helping to care for them. There were unconfirmed reports the GSL planned to move many Tamils across the Forward Defense Line through the Omanthai checkpoint into the Tiger-controlled Vanni. Although the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) stated that the people would be welcomed in the Vanni, they denied that there have been contacts with the GSL on this subject. Numerous members of Parliament, including several moderate members of the governing coalition, have objected to the Government’s actions. Embassy issued a press release calling for an immediate halt to further deportations.\u201d Blake further wrote.<\/p>\n
Related news;\u00a0WikiLeaks: A Top Sri Lankan Major General Is A US\u00a0Informer<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Below we give the relevant part of the cable;<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":4709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,57,1,63,26,27],"tags":[1987,1988,1962,1922,1923],"class_list":["post-4705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-judiciary","category-law-and-order","category-news","category-politics-2","category-war-crimes","category-wikileaks","tag-cpa-on-eviction","tag-forced-removals-of-tamils","tag-gotabhaya-in-wikileaks","tag-prasad-samarasinghe-in-wikileaks","tag-us-informers"],"yoast_head":"\nVZCZCXRO9615\nOO RUEHBI RUEHLMC\nDE RUEHLM #0820\/01 1591020\nZNY SSSSS ZZH\nO 081020Z JUN 07\nFM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO\nTO RUEHC\/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6213\nINFO RUEHRL\/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 0450\nRUEHKA\/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 0171\nRUEHIL\/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 7152\nRUEHKT\/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 5259\nRUEHLO\/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3807\nRUEHNE\/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1054\nRUEHNY\/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 3879\nRUEHOT\/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 1112\nRUEHKO\/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 2964\nRUEHCG\/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 7740\nRUEHBI\/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 5402\nRUEHON\/AMCONSUL TORONTO PRIORITY 0230\nRUEHLMC\/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION PRIORITY\nRHEFDIA\/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\nRUEHGV\/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 2102\nRHEHAAA\/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY\nRHHMUNA\/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY\nRUEHBS\/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY\nS E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 COLOMBO 000820\n\nSIPDIS\n\nSIPDIS\n\nDEPARTMENT FOR SCA\/INS\nMCC FOR S GROFF, D TETER, D NASSIRY AND E BURKE\n\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 06\/08\/2017\nTAGS: PGOV<\/a> PREL<\/a> PTER<\/a> PHUM<\/a> MOPS<\/a> CE<\/a>\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA: SUPREME COURT STAYS ORDER EXPELLING\nTAMILS FROM COLOMBO LODGES\n\nREF: A. COLOMBO 809\n\n \u00b6<\/a>B. COLOMBO 805\n\nClassified By: A\/DCM ROBERT GABOR, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D)\n\n\u00b6<\/a>1. (S) SUMMARY: On June 8 the Sri Lanka Supreme Court\nstayed the removal of non-Colombo based Tamils temporarily\nresiding in Colombo lodges and hostels (ref A). The Court\nruled in favor of a Fundamental Rights Application filed by\nthe NGO Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA). Military\nspokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe (strictly protect)\ntold us that the idea for the forced removals came from the\npolice. Although the Army was not in favor, Defense\nSecretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa gave the order to proceed.\n\nSIPDIS\nSamarasinghe said the original plan was to suspend the\nroundups on Friday, June 8, but pursue them with renewed\nvigor over the weekend. It is not clear what impact the\nSupreme Court's stay will have on plans to continue the\nremovals on Saturday and Sunday. In the meantime, at least a\ncouple of hundred Tamils are being housed inside a school in\nVavuniya without adequate water or sanitation. The Red Cross\nis helping to care for them. There were unconfirmed reports\nthe GSL planned to move many Tamils across the Forward\nDefense Line through the Omanthai checkpoint into the\nTiger-controlled Vanni. Although the Liberation Tigers of\nTamil Eelam (LTTE) stated that the people would be welcomed\nin the Vanni, they denied that there have been contacts with\nthe GSL on this subject. Numerous members of Parliament,\nincluding several moderate members of the governing\ncoalition, have objected to the Government's actions.\nEmbassy issued a press release calling for an immediate halt\nto further deportations. END SUMMARY.\n\nSUPREME COURT STAYS THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE ORDER\n--------------------------------------------- ----\n\n\u00b6<\/a>2. (C) On June 8 the Sri Lanka Supreme Court stayed the\nMinistry of Defense (MoD) verbal directive to round up and\nremove non-Colombo based Tamils staying in Colombo lodges and\nhostels. The text of the Supreme Court order has not been\nreleased, but Attorney Mohan Balendra told us that the order\ndoes not affect those Tamils already removed, except that\nthey may possibly be allowed to return to Colombo. It is\nunclear whether the Supreme Court's stay is a permanent order\nor a temporary stay pending further hearing. In any case,\nthe Supreme Court has made an initial finding that that the\nforced removal of Tamils from Colombo violates Sri Lanka's\nConstitution.\n\n\u00b6<\/a>3. (C) Supreme Court Chief Justice Sarah Nanda Silva,\nappointed by former President Chandra Kumaratunga in 1999,\nalso has political ties to the Sinhalese chauvinist, Marxist\nJanatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP, or People's Liberation\nFront). As Chief Justice, Silva has the power to decide\nwhich three of the five Supreme Court Justices will hear any\nparticular matter before the Court. The JVP has consistently\nargued that Tamils in the Tiger-held Vanni were prisoners of\nthe LTTE, and that it was the duty of the Sri Lankan\ngovernment to liberate them. The JVP joined opposition\nparties such as the United National Party and the Tamil\nNational Alliance to condemn the government's forced removal\nof Tamils. In this case, it appears that Chief Justice Silva\nhas aligned himself with the JVP political ideology, rather\nthan with President Rajapaksa.\n\nMILITARY NOT ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT ENFORCING THE ORDER\n--------------------------------------------- ------\n\n\u00b6<\/a>4. (S) Military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe\n(strictly protect) told us that the idea for the forced\n\nCOLOMBO 00000820 002 OF 003\n\nremovals came from the police, not the Army, which was not in\nfavor of the plan. However, Defense Secretary Gothabaya\nRajapaksa gave the orders to proceed with the police plan.\nOn June 6 and 7, the Army helped police round up Tamils from\napproximately 20 hostels in Colombo. Speaking before the\nSupreme Court stayed the Ministry of Defense's order,\nSamarasinghe told us confidentially that the original plan\nwas to suspend the action on Friday, June 8, while Parliament\nis in session, but pursue the removals with renewed vigor\nover the weekend. It is not clear what impact the Supreme\nCourt's stay will have on plans to continue the removals on\nSaturday and Sunday.\nBLAKE<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"