U.N.: Sri Lanka’s crushing of Tamil Tigers may have killed 40,000 civilians
Onlanka News – By Walter Jayawardhana
The Washington Post newspaper reported that Sri Lanka’s decisive 2008-09 military offensive against the country’s separatist Tamil Tigers may have resulted in the deaths of as many as 40,000 civilians, most of them victims of indiscriminate shelling by Sri Lankan forces, according to a U.N. panel established by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The newspaper in a report by Colum Lynch further said that the UN panel recommended that Ban set up an “independent international mechanism” to carry out a more thorough probe into “credible” allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which held more than 300,000 civilians “hostage” to enforce a “strategic human buffer between themselves and the advancing Sri Lankan army.”
It further highlighted that Extensive portions of the report were published over the past several days by a Sri Lankan newspaper, the Island, and have been quickly repudiated by Sri Lankan authorities. “U.N. officials,” the Post said, ” confirmed the authenticity of the report but said the disclosure was incomplete. They said Thursday that the release of the report had been delayed amid discussions with Sri Lanka over the possibility of including a rebuttal in the report.” Other US based publications published reports that the Sri Lankan government may have leaked them to a pro-government newspaper to take the advantage of not publishing the report in full.
“The panel’s findings constituted a devastating indictment of the country’s military conduct during the final stage of the 28-year war, accusing government forces of shelling hospitals, no-fire zones and U.N. facilities, and blocking the delivery of humanitarian aid to victims of the war. The panel calls on Sri Lanka to “issue a public acknowledgment of its role in and responsibility for extensive civilian casualties in the final stages of the war.”
The Washington Post further added, “But investigators also faulted the United Nations for failing to take actions that might have protected civilians” and called on Ban to conduct a “comprehensive review” of the U.N. system’s response to the crisis.
The following is the balance of the report: “The Sri Lankan government launched an all-out offensive in 2008 in an effort to crush the Tamil Tigers, one of the world’s most violent and ruthless insurgencies. The operation, which centered on a Tamil stronghold in the Vanni region of Sri Lanka, succeeded in wiping out the armed movement in May 2009. But the operation took a devastating toll on ethnic Tamil civilians, who were largely trapped between the rival forces.
“This campaign constituted persecution of the population of Vanni,” according to the panel, headed by University of Michigan legal scholar Steven Ratner. “Around 330,000 civilians were trapped in an ever-decreasing area, fleeing the shelling but kept hostage by the LTTE. . . . From February 2009 onwards, the LTTE started point-blank shooting of civilians who attempted to escape the conflict zone, significantly adding to the deal toll in the final stages of the war.” “The Sri Lankan government challenged the report’s finding as “fundamentally flawed.” In a statement, the country’s Foreign Ministry said the “report is based on patently biased material, which is presented without any verification.”
“Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G.L. Peiris urged Ban not to publish the report, saying it could undercut efforts to promote reconciliation between the ruling Sinhalese and the Tamils. “The publication of this report will cause irreparable damage to the reconciliation efforts of Sri Lanka,” he told reporters, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. “It will damage the U.N. system too.”
“After the war, Sri Lanka established an eight-member commission to address abuses during the last seven years of the civil war and recommend ways to avoid a recurrence. The U.N. panel said that the commission “represents a potentially useful opportunity to begin a national dialogue on the Sri Lanka conflict” but that “it has not conducted genuine truth seeking about what happened in the final stages of the armed conflict.”
“The Sri Lankan commission is “deeply flawed, does not meet international standards for an effective accountability mechanism and, therefore, does not and cannot satisfy the joint commitment of the President of Sri Lanka and the [U.N.] secretary general to an accountability process,” according to the report.
“The report offers an implicit criticism of Ban’s attempts to use quiet diplomacy to persuade Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, a longtime friend, to bring a halt to the worst excesses in the conflict. It also faulted the U.N. reluctance to publish casualty estimates to rally international pressure against Sri Lanka.
“At the time, the United Nations had informed diplomatic missions that more than 7,000 civilians may have been killed during the final stages of the conflict but was reluctant to make those figures public. Some U.N. officials in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, thought that the toll was far higher.
“Although senior international officials advocated in public and in private with the government that it protect civilians and stop the shelling of hospital and United Nations or [International Committee of the Red Cross] locations, in the panel’s view, the public use of casualty figures would have strengthened the call for the protection of civilians while those events in the Vanni were unfolding.”
“Still, human rights groups praised Ban for authorizing the panel’s examination of excesses in the Sri Lankan war and pressed the United Nations, the United States and other key governments to establish an international investigation into the alleged crimes.
“The Sri Lankan government has thus far gotten away with doing the very thing the Security Council stopped [Moammar] Gaddafi from doing in Libya,” said Tom Malinowski, Human Rights Watch’s advocacy director in Washington. “The least the council can do is to pursue the truth about these tens of thousands of civilians who died.”
Malinowski said it would be reckless for the United States and other key powers to turn a blind eye to Sri Lankan excesses, saying it would encourage others to ignore the rules of war in prosecuting wars on their own insurgencies.
“The Sri Lankan commission is “deeply flawed, does not meet international standards for an effective accountability mechanism and, therefore, does not and cannot satisfy the joint commitment of the President of Sri Lanka and the [U.N.] secretary general to an accountability process,” according to the report.
“The report offers an implicit criticism of Ban’s attempts to use quiet diplomacy to persuade Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, a longtime friend, to bring a halt to the worst excesses in the conflict. It also faulted the U.N. reluctance to publish casualty estimates to rally international pressure against Sri Lanka.
“At the time, the United Nations had informed diplomatic missions that more than 7,000 civilians may have been killed during the final stages of the conflict but was reluctant to make those figures public. Some U.N. officials in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, thought that the toll was far higher.
“Although senior international officials advocated in public and in private with the government that it protect civilians and stop the shelling of hospital and United Nations or [International Committee of the Red Cross] locations, in the panel’s view, the public use of casualty figures would have strengthened the call for the protection of civilians while those events in the Vanni were unfolding.”
“Still, human rights groups praised Ban for authorizing the panel’s examination of excesses in the Sri Lankan war and pressed the United Nations, the United States and other key governments to establish an international investigation into the alleged crimes.
“The Sri Lankan government has thus far gotten away with doing the very thing the Security Council stopped [Moammar] Gaddafi from doing in Libya,” said Tom Malinowski, Human Rights Watch’s advocacy director in Washington. “The least the council can do is to pursue the truth about these tens of thousands of civilians who died.”
“Malinowski said it would be reckless for the United States and other key powers to turn a blind eye to Sri Lankan excesses, saying it would encourage others to ignore the rules of war in prosecuting wars on their own insurgencies.” (EOM)
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UNSG had no mandate from UNGA or UNSC to set-up such an advisery panel to draw up this report. UNSG is a pawn of the imperial West. His eye is on a 2nd term in office. If USA says “jump” he jumps.
USA and Britain are furious that our Hon President totally annhilated the LTTE military wing and its leader. As was revealed to the Asian Tribune by an ex-TNA MP recently a first hand account of the final days of the War of Liberation, the shelling was done by the LTTE themselves on their own Tamil civilians held hostage by the brutal LTTE as a human shield , which in itself is a war crime. The LTTE cadres were under orders from VP to shoot indiscriminately all Tamil civilians who try to flee to the SL army side. VP saw it as a betrayal. Hence he ordered mass killing of his own Tamils. He then used these killings, for propaganda purposes, as committed by SL army. Many civilians who escaped to SL army side revealed the truth. So did the firsat hand account of TNA ex-MP in his interview with Asian Tribune. His was a factual first hand report. But the 3 member panel appointed by UNSG without authority of UNSC or UNGA is a totally false account, a biased report of third and fourth hand diaspora LTTE, INGOS and NGOS, paid for by imperial West with vested interests. As I have said before the report is fit only for toilet use in SL.
The noose is catching up Nicholas; your barking will not shoo it away; await with patience and patriotism Nicholas, the chair doesn’t actually hurt its occupant.
UN what has happened to Irak,Afgahanistan who killed innocent civilians from those countries?They were not terrorist like Tamil tigers.who killed more than many thousand of civilians from srilanka. and last 30years they terroraised entire srilanka with the help of foreign countries and their money.Last two years in srilanka we are having real freedom and Peace,all the srilanken are enjoying after the 30years of bloody tamil tigers war.therfore i am asking for all the srilanken to get together and please stand against the our enemy.
Mr Pillaiyan, for 30 years, you and your relatives killed innocent sinhala people. Now you are asking about Iraqi and Afghani’s.
Mr Pillaiyan, you and your relatives are taking a rest now and soon you will starting the killing again.
Please pack your bags and go to TN and join your big mama, Jeya Lalidha, and stay there forever. It is clear we do not want you here but ubfortunately, you and your sleeper people are not getting the message.
So, Mr Pillaiyan, please go away and leave us in peace. If you go away, Mr Moon will not need any Panel and no problems to anyone.
So agin I am telling you on behalf of the sinhala veerayas, please take your brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, fathers and mothers, kids and your dogs, and go away.
Western countries are the main criminals of this problem source, who brought tamil slavers here & sucked the blood of asian countries.! They had made all these problems in asia before they had to left these countries. Now those slavers are in europe & push west to revenge from us. West also want to do it because they couldn’t force on Sinhalese nation.!
DC, as Guru said, go back to big mama, Jayalalita, and sleep with Kanimozhi. Take with you all the kallathonis who came by stealth in their fishing boats. TNA and the other eelamists can go and jump in the Palk strait. They are not welcome in SL either, as they do not want peace and reconcilliation extended by Hon President, despite all the evil visited on the country by the evil LTTE and their hangers on. Enough is enough. No more peace and reconcilliation. I say to all those peace loving Tamils like Pillaiyan you are welcome to stay as long as you act as patriots of mother Lanka and help to build a better future for yourself, your children and all the fellow countrymen of SL.
As for the corrupt Korean goon, Ban Ki Moon, you are a corrupt man bribed by the diaspora LTTE and the imperial West to dance to their tune. You do noit represent UN. You have acted illegally by appointing a biased panel to write a concocted wild report against SL. Your reward is a 2nd term in office. I call to China and Russia to vote this corrupt puppet of the imperial West and kick this arse out. Restore the UN’s good name. Stop the monstrous crimes of imperial West against Lybia on the pretext of shielding rebel civilians, who are actually Al Qaeda terrorists supported by CIA, as they did once in Afghanistan. USA and Britain are involved deeply in playing dirty to grab oil reserves of Lybia for themselves. Otherwise their economies will come to a grinding halt.
DC, JS and Mahakotiya, your day will come to sit on the electric chair courtesy of SL. But you may prefer to swing at the end of a rope from a palmyrah tree in Yalpanam/Killinochchi.
ND, you are my brother. Your absolute turnaround demonstrated in Blog 6 is the most welcome piece of news I have received in a long, long time.
ban Fuck with your mother if live
Maswedda sidukala Geevitha hani gena Muun Monawada kale, kiwwe. Eya hitiye edawaswala hadeda? Mun yawnna Ona Pissankotuwata misa Eksath jathinge maha putuwata sudussek Nam newe.
Dear Guru
I have always stood against diaspora LTTE, TNA and rump LTTEin SL. I have not changed by stance. They do not want peace and reconcilliation extended by Hon President as they have the backing of imperial West not to do so, through vested interests. The diaspora LTTE and TNA seek their own independent state of eelam. They failed to achieve it by armed terrorist war, now they are trying to achieve it by plitical means with the backing of imperial West. These eelamist kallathonis have no place in SL. They should return to TN, the way they came in fishing boats across the Palk Straits, to enjoy the comforts of Jayalalitha and Kanimozhi bitches.
Jayalalitha is shamelessly beating the LTTE drum, calling for the Hon President to be charged with war crimes and sent to eletric chair. This silly fat old bitch is shamelessly garnering radical Tamil nationalist votes for the up-coming elections. Has she forgotten so soon that VP wanted her dead? She is engaged in inflaming eelamist sentiments for her petty political gain. She has no conscience, no morals. What a shame such people aspire for politcal power! While milions of Tamils in TN are in dire poverty she is rolling in wealth through corruption. What is she doing about poverty in TN. An aspirant to position of CM in TN should be addressing this issue and not inerfering in SL politics. She has bettered her own life but not the lives of fellow Tamils in TN. While SL has re-settled in purpose built proper houses within 2 years 230,000 SL Tamil hostages, who were held as human shield by the brute VP and freed by the valliant SL army in the War of Liberation, what has Jayalalitha done in 30 years for the Tamil refugees in TN? They are still living in squalor and dire poverty.
The final War of Liberation against LTTE was to end the 30 years of terrorism and to free the Tamil hostages. While UNO acknowledged this, and UNSC and UNGA voted hugely in favour of SL against the imperial West sponsored resolution for an investigation into the final days of the war, and infact praised the heroism of the SL Defence Forces, the Defence Secretary and the Hon President, Ban ki-Moon on the other hand, the Korean puppet of imperial West and the diaspora LTTE, acted contrary to UNSC and UNGA resolutions by appointing on his own initiative a 3 member pro-LTTE panel to write a biased report against SL. The objective of this exercise is to pass through the back door a censure motion against SL and call for arrest and charging of SL President, the Defence Secretary and some commanders of SL armed forces of war crimes. What a brazen act of deception by UNSG! He is ofcourse acting at the behest of his master the imperial West. He has acted illegally.
Now the imperial West, the diaspora LTTE and the slavish media of the imperial West are working feverishly to accept the report as factual, to demonise our HOn President and commanders of Defence Services as war criminals. This is vindictive act of imperial West to punish our President for not towing the imperial West line not to annhilate the LTTE. The diaspora LTTE is also seeking revenge for the total destruction of VP and the so-called invincible LTTE militants. We cannot allow such brazen deceit of the imperial West and their puppets!
Their hypocrisy, double standards, and their brazen acts of human right abuse and war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan cry to high heaven!
UNSG stands accused of blatant and brazen corruption. He has shamelessly brought disgrace to the office of UNSG by his deceit and corruption. He should be kicked out for gross misconduct.
I call urgently for the super powers, Russia and China to call for Ban ki-Moon’s immediate resignation or expulsion for gross misconduct.
Guru, please do not attack Rani, my sister, for writing in Sinhala. I enjoy her comments and she is free to write in our mother tongue.
Nicholas
Thank you. Guru Pissek. Mama Ipadune singhalin. Kathakaraneth Sinhala. Mereneth Sinhalin. Rata Giya kiyala Aselwesihemomakiyanawa Nowenaswa inna Ekamakena mamai.
rani oya demala nemei sinhala unath katath wadak na,api katha karanne ape lankawa wenuwen.Guru kiyanne harima wedanawen inna UNP hari JVP karek U kamathi na api kotti nathi keruwata.
Pillayan
Mama Demala Minnisun Ekka Tharahak Neha Wairayak neha. Mage Wasagama Singhala, Govigama, Namata Amma Rani Kiyala Demmata. Temil Newe. Mama Kula bedayak Balanne Nethi Kenek. Mama Yalu wela inne Karawe Kenek ekka. mage Mawbasawata Mama Adaraya karanawa. Lankawa Wenuwen Mama Kepawela inne. Samaharunta Jeewarani Kiyala Thiyenawa, demala newe. Mama dannawa Keepa denek Rani namin demala newe.
Pillayan
Oya hari. Api APe rata wenuwen Demala wunath Singhala Wunath Ekawage Den negitinna ona Awasthawai Ape nidahasa Wenuwen, Englanwalawath, Emarikawata onavidiyatawath Ape Rata Palanaya Karanna Denna beha. Ape Rate Praschna Apima Visadaganna Onna.