{"id":52547,"date":"2012-08-30T10:28:02","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T10:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=52547"},"modified":"2012-09-03T16:20:58","modified_gmt":"2012-09-03T16:20:58","slug":"wikileaks-mahinda-told-clinton-that-there-was-no-shelling-in-the-safe-zone-but-basil-told-yes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-mahinda-told-clinton-that-there-was-no-shelling-in-the-safe-zone-but-basil-told-yes\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Mahinda Told Clinton That There Was ‘No’ Shelling In The Safe Zone, But Basil Told ‘Yes’"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Colombo Telegraph<\/a>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Rajapaksa is the first Sri Lankan official who has been forthcoming when discussing Sri Lankan Army shelling of the safe zone. However, we were disappointed to hear him claim that medical supplies were reaching the wounded in the safe zone when it is clear from Embassy Colombo reporting that there have not been shipments since February 20. His comments on visas for ICRC staff were unhelpful, but unsurprising given the Sri Lankan government,s attitude towards international aid workers” US State Department wrote to US Embassy Colombo.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Mahinda and Basil<\/p><\/div>\n

A classified diplomatic cable which details a meeting the US\u00a0Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Boucher<\/a><\/span> has had with\u00a0Sri Lankan Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> on March 18, 2009.\u00a0The\u00a0Colombo Telegraph<\/a>\u00a0found the related US diplomatic cable from the\u00a0Secretary of State\u00a0section of the WikiLeaks<\/a><\/span> database. The cable was classified as \u201cConfidential\u201d signed by Hillary Clinton<\/a><\/span> on March 19, 2009.<\/p>\n

Under the subheading “Sri Lankan Army Shelling” the\u00a0US State Department wrote “Boucher inquired about Sri Lankan Army shelling into the safe zone. Rajapaksa admitted that there may be some shelling of the safe zone, but that top military leadership had instructed field commanders not to target the safe zone or respond to fire from the safe zone. He noted that the Sri Lankan Army has taken many casualties, including 200 injured and 70 killed on March 17. Boucher emphasized that the Sri Lankan President had told Secretary Clinton that there was no shelling in the safe zone and there should be no shelling. He requested that Rajapaksa ensure that the Army Commanders orders are respected by the field officers.”<\/p>\n

“Turning to the ongoing civil war, Boucher thanked Rajapaksa for working closely with US Ambassador Blake in Colombo and asked Rajapaksa about the Sri Lankan government,s plans for the last days of the war, indicating that any kind of major military sweep through remaining Tamil Tiger territory would &be a major international problem.8 Rajapaksa indicated that the government is not planning for this kind of intervention, but has been working with Catholic bishops in the conflict area to find a land route by which civilians can leave.”\u00a0the\u00a0US State Department further wrote.<\/p>\n

Boucher and Basil also discussed the issues re economy, medical shipments to safe zone GOSL refusal of\u00a0visas for ICRC Staff,\u00a0accepting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights request for a fact finding mission to Sri Lanka. Read the cable below for further details;<\/p>\n

P 192145Z MAR 09\r\nFM SECSTATE WASHDC\r\nTO AMEMBASSY COLOMBO PRIORITY<\/pre>\n
C O N F I D E N T I A L STATE 026714 \r\n\r\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 03\/19\/2019\r\nTAGS: PHUM<\/a> KDEM<\/a> PREL<\/a> CE<\/a>\r\nSUBJECT: ASSISTANT SECRETARY BOUCHER SPEAKS WITH  BASIL\r\nRAJAPAKSA \r\n\r\nClassified By: Richard Boucher for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) \r\n\r\n\u00b6<\/a>1.  (C) Summary: On March 18, Assistant Secretary for\r\nSouth and Central Asian Affairs Boucher met with Sri\r\nLankan Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapaksa regarding\r\nthe humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka. He pressed\r\nRajapaksa to halt the continuing Sri Lankan Army\r\nshelling of the safe zone and emphasized the need to\r\nallow medical supplies to reach the wounded.  A\/S\r\nBoucher asked Rajapaksa to inquire into Sri Lankan\r\nvisas which have been denied to workers from the\r\nInternational Committee for the Red Cross and urged him\r\nto permit a UN High Commission for Human Rights fact-\r\nfinding mission to visit Sri Lanka.  Boucher emphasized\r\nthat the US government has continued to work quietly\r\nwith the Sri Lankan government, but our concerns are\r\nrising and we may need to make them more public. End\r\nSummary. \r\n\r\nEconomy\r\n--------\r\n\u00b6<\/a>2. C) Boucher and Basil Rajapaksa began their meeting\r\nby discussing the state of the Sri Lankan economy.\r\n(Note: Rajapaksa has come to Washington for talks with\r\nthe International Monetary Fund.)  Rajapaksa noted that\r\npart of Sri Lanka,s economic problems were caused by\r\nglobal financial turmoil and the high price of oil\r\nimports, and that the IMF program would would help\r\naddress Sri Lanka,s dwindling foreign exchange\r\nreserves.  He indicated that there was a 12 percent\r\ngrowth in agriculture and a 28 percent growth in\r\nfisheries exports in the previous year.  Boucher\r\nindicated that standard terms and conditions would\r\napply to any assistance. \r\n\r\nThe End of the Conflict\r\n-----------------------\r\n\u00b6<\/a>3. (C) Turning to the ongoing civil war, Boucher\r\nthanked Rajapaksa for working closely with US\r\nAmbassador Blake in Colombo and asked Rajapaksa\r\nabout the Sri Lankan government,s plans for the last\r\ndays of the war, indicating that any kind of major military\r\nsweep through remaining Tamil Tiger territory would &be\r\na major international problem.8  Rajapaksa indicated\r\nthat the government is not planning for this kind of\r\nintervention, but has been working with Catholic\r\nbishops in the conflict area to find a land route by\r\nwhich civilians can leave.  He suggested that there\r\nmight be a possibility for civilians to leave to the\r\nnorth of the safe zone from the Chalai side. \r\n\r\n\u00b6<\/a>4. (C) Rajapaksa indicated that the government was\r\ndoing its best to persuade the Tigers lay down arms and\r\nthat they have told the Tigers the government will give\r\nthem amnesty and allow them to surrender to the\r\nInternational Committee of the Red Cross.  He said the\r\nSri Lankan government is open to other suggestions on\r\nhow to address the situation, and that the government\r\nis talking with a Tamil National Alliance\r\nparliamentarian from the Mullaitivu region to find ways\r\nto persuade the Tigers.  Boucher noted that Tamil\r\npolitical inclusion is important and will become more\r\nimportant as the war finishes. \r\n\r\nSri Lankan Army Shelling\r\n------------------------\r\n\u00b6<\/a>5. (C) Boucher inquired about Sri Lankan Army shelling\r\ninto the safe zone.  Rajapaksa admitted that there may\r\nbe some shelling of the safe zone, but that top\r\nmilitary leadership had instructed field commanders not\r\nto target the safe zone or respond to fire from the\r\nsafe zone.  He noted that the Sri Lankan Army has taken\r\nmany casualties, including 200 injured and 70 killed on\r\nMarch 17.  Boucher emphasized that the Sri Lankan\r\nPresident had told Secretary Clinton that there was no\r\nshelling in the safe zone and there should be no\r\nshelling.  He requested that Rajapaksa ensure that the\r\nArmy Commanders orders are respected by the field\r\nofficers. \r\n\r\nMedical Shipments\r\n-----------------\r\n\u00b6<\/a>6. (C) Rajapaksa denied that medicine has not reached\r\nthe safe zone several weeks.  He told Boucher that the\r\nrequired medicines (including anesthetics) were\r\nreaching the conflict area regularly, but that the\r\ngovernment was only sending a few days worth at a time\r\nso that the medicine did not go to waste or spoil.\r\nBoucher noted that we have reports to the contrary and\r\nrequested that Rajapaksa check again on medical\r\nshipments.  (Note: Embassy Colombo,s e-mail regarding\r\nno medicine shipments on the March 18 ICRC ship was not\r\nreceived until after the meeting with Rajapaksa.) \r\n\r\nVisas for ICRC Staff\r\n--------------------\r\n\u00b6<\/a>7. (C) Rajapaksa told Boucher that visas for Red Cross\r\nstaff had been refused because they were not justified.\r\nHe said that the burden is on the Red Cross to prove\r\nthe need for those visas and to prove that local staff\r\ncannot be recruited for the same purposes.  He\r\nindicated that their presence was no longer needed in\r\nthe Eastern Province, Jaffna, or Omanthai because there\r\nare no longer any security checkpoints between\r\nGovernment and Tamil Tiger-controlled areas.  When\r\nBoucher pushed Rajapaksa, offering that some of the\r\nstaff were replacements for those in the conflict zone,\r\nRajapaksa replied that the decision rests with the line\r\nministry responsible for activities. \r\n\r\nUNHCHR Fact Finding Mission\r\n---------------------------\r\n\u00b6<\/a>8.  (C) Finally, Boucher requested that Rajapaksa\r\naccept the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights\r\nrequest for a fact finding mission to Sri Lanka.  He\r\nsaid that the Sri Lankan government should facilitate\r\nthe visit and that it would be an important signal to\r\nthe international community.   Boucher pointed out that\r\nthe Sri Lankan government was democratically elected\r\nand will be measured by those standards.  He noted that\r\nthe US government first raises issues of concern with\r\nthe Sri Lankan government bilaterally, but that as\r\nconcerns rise and the American public (including the US\r\nCongress) become more and more interested, it may be\r\ndifficult for us to remain publicly silent.  He\r\nindicated that there would probably be another UN\r\nSecurity Council discussion on the issue. \r\n\r\nComment\r\n-------\r\n\u00b6<\/a>9. (C) Rajapaksa is the first Sri Lankan official who\r\nhas been forthcoming when discussing Sri Lankan Army\r\nshelling of the safe zone.  However, we were\r\ndisappointed to hear him claim that medical supplies\r\nwere reaching the wounded in the safe zone when it is\r\nclear from Embassy Colombo reporting that there have\r\nnot been shipments since February 20.  His comments on\r\nvisas for ICRC staff were unhelpful, but unsurprising\r\ngiven the Sri Lankan government,s attitude towards\r\ninternational aid workers.  End Comment. \r\n\r\nCLINTON<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":52552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,2375,27],"tags":[1273,4248,4251,4247,4245,4246,4250,4249,4244],"class_list":["post-52547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-stories","category-wikileaks","tag-basil-rajapaksa-in-wikileaks","tag-hillary-clinton-on-sri-lanka-wikileaks","tag-mahinda-rajapakse-in-wikileaks","tag-s-attitude-towards-international-aid-workers-in-wikileaks","tag-sri-lankan-army-shelling-of-the-safe-zone-wikileaks","tag-sri-lankan-government","tag-un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-request-for-a-fact-finding-mission-to-sri-lanka","tag-us-assistant-secretary-for-south-and-central-asian-affairs-boucher-on-sri-lanka","tag-us-sri-lanka-relations-in-wikileaks"],"yoast_head":"\nWikiLeaks: Mahinda Told Clinton That There Was 'No' Shelling In The Safe Zone, But Basil Told 'Yes'  - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-mahinda-told-clinton-that-there-was-no-shelling-in-the-safe-zone-but-basil-told-yes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WikiLeaks: Mahinda Told Clinton That There Was 'No' Shelling In The Safe Zone, But Basil Told 'Yes'  - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-mahinda-told-clinton-that-there-was-no-shelling-in-the-safe-zone-but-basil-told-yes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-30T10:28:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-03T16:20:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Mahinda-and-Basil.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"420\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"302\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-mahinda-told-clinton-that-there-was-no-shelling-in-the-safe-zone-but-basil-told-yes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-mahinda-told-clinton-that-there-was-no-shelling-in-the-safe-zone-but-basil-told-yes\/\",\"name\":\"WikiLeaks: Mahinda Told Clinton That There Was 'No' Shelling In The Safe Zone, But Basil Told 'Yes' - 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