How come GTF predicts outcome of Geneva probe 6 months before its conclusion?
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said the Global Tamil Forum had already found the Sri Lankan government guilty of war crimes even before the conclusion of the investigation conducted by Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights.
by Shamindra Ferdinando
Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya yesterday said the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) had already found the Sri Lankan government guilty of war crimes even before the conclusion of the investigation conducted by Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Brig. Wanigasooriya was responding to a query by The Island as regards a statement made by GTF spokesperson Suren Surendiran at a panel discussion on Al Jazeera late last week. UPFA National List MP Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha and UNP National List MP Dr. Harsha De Silva participated in the programme.
Surendiran alleged that incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa had called for snap presidential election because the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) would bring a damning report accusing the Sri Lankan leader of war crimes and crimes against humanity in March 2015.
Alleging that President Rajapaksa, too, had been accused of genocide targeting Tamils, Surendiran said with certainty that he would be taken before The Hague based International Criminal Court (ICC) immediately after his defeat at the January 8, 2015 presidential election.
Surendiran asserted that the ICC action against President Rajapaksa would be on the basis of the military killing over 140,000 civilians during the last phase of the offensive on the Vanni east front.
Brig. Wanigasooriya said that the GTF spokesman should explain how he could predict the outcome of the OHCHR investigation several months before its conclusion. The official said that the GTF representative spoke as if he was part of the ongoing investigation, Brig. Wanigasooriya said, adding that the UK-based outfit had been propagating lies since the demise of LTTE terrorism.
Sri Lanka proscribed the GTF along with several other organizations and individuals for their involvement in terrorism/promoting terrorism early this year.
An External Affairs Ministry (EAM) official told The Island that the then UN human rights Chief Navanethem Pillay, in a letter dated June 5, 2014 informed EAM Prof. G. L. Peiris that the investigation team would be operational for a period of 10 months commencing from mid June 2014. Although Pillay revealed the appointment of Ms. Sandra Beidas as the coordinator of the investigators, the identities of persons conducting the inquiry hadn’t been revealed so far. The EAM official pointed out that according to Pillay’s missive, the process would continue till mid April, 2015, hence the GTF couldn’t have come to any conclusion.
Pillay said that a comprehensive report on accountability issues in Sri Lanka would be submitted to 28th Geneva session in March, 2015 in accordance with UNHRC resolution 25/1 adopted in last March.
Commenting on GTF accusations as regards genocidal war and the slaughter of over 140,000 Tamil civilians during eelam war IV, Brig. Wanigasooriya said that a UN report that dealt with the situation on the Vanni front during August 2008 to May 13, 2009, placed the number of dead and injured at 7,721 and 18,479, respectively. Surprisingly, those who had been demanding an explanation from the Sri Lankan government with regard to the conduct of its forces were conveniently silent on the UN report, In fact, the Panel of Experts (PoE) appointed by UNGS Ban ki-moon declined to accept the UN findings, the Brigadier said. The ridiculous GTF claim that over 140,000 civilians had perished on the Vanni battlefields should be studied in the backdrop of various casualty figures mentioned at different forums, the official said.