Ira de Silva London, Canada

Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
United Nations, Geneva,
Switzerland.

Dear Sir:

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Reference your letter of December 18,2009 to the Government of Sri Lanka regarding the circumstances of the deaths of three senior members of the LTTE namely Nadesan, Pulidevan and Ramesh as well as their family members in the night of May 17 to 18 May,2009, I have to commend you on your prompt action. With regard to the LTTE it appears that your reaction is immediate. There are still no reports on any action or response from your esteemed office regarding the many deaths caused by actions of the western forces in Iraq or Afghanistan where there are continuous attacks on supposedly suspected terrorists. Compared to the numbers of “terrorists” and thousands of civilians killed in the process, those killed on May 17 to 18 pale into insignificance. Also, these LTTE members belonged to a recognized terrorist organization by their own admissions. The others being killed elsewhere do not have that claim. Do you ignore them because they are not self confessed terrorists while the west is supposedly killing them in their war on terror?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Regarding your letter I bring the following to your attention:

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The statement attributed to General Fonseka on December 13, he claimed immediately was not accurate. He subsequently made a statement which said that there were no persons attempting to surrender holding pieces of cloth. In your haste to condemn Sri Lanka you have chosen to base your letter on one set of media reports and conveniently ignored all other statements made by General Fonseka. Why? Although you state that you do not “wish to prejudge” your letter confirms that you have already done so in keeping with the attitude of the western countries who have not given up on trying Sri Lanka for war crimes it did not commit.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Government of Sri Lanka on many occasions called on the LTTE to stop military actions and surrender. This was well publicised. The LTTE rejected this call on every occasion and it was Nadesan as the spokesperson of the LTTE who made continuous statements to the world at large via the BBC and other western news organizations that rejected the call to surrender. This is verifiable and documented. What has been documented regarding the claim that the three terrorists wanted to surrender? Surely having access to the world media they could have stated their intentions as they continually did before May 17th. Western media, as always sympathetic to the LTTE, would have immediately broadcast it to the world. There was no such move.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ If you knew anything about Sri Lanka you would know that thousands of LTTE cadres surrendered to the Sri Lankan forces and were subsequently in the IDP camps. Why not these three and their families? It is possible that had they made known their intentions to surrender they would have been killed by the LTTE themselves as has been LTTE practice over the years?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ I would also point out to you that several instances were reported during the war that LTTE fighters and high ranking personnel had approached sentry points waving white flags pretending to be wanting to surrender and shot at army personnel. One suicide bomber pretending to be an IDP, blew herself up killing several army personnel and civilians even as the IDP’s were crossing over to government held territory. Under these circumstances what proof have you been provided that the Sri Lankan government forces had been notified that these terrorists were wanting to surrender and that a place and time had been established? Had the LTTE agreed to hold fire until they crossed over?

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ You state “the accounts of journalists embedded with the SLA 58th Brigade confirm some of the alleged circumstances of the death of Messrs. Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh and their families”. Do you not find it strange that eight months after May 17th none of these journalists have made definitive statements regarding this supposed attempt to surrender? Now that the former army commander has entered into politics and in the rough and tumble of politics is supposed to have made a statement against a key member of his political rival, you feel you must call for explanations from the Government of Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Your letter merely indicates that you are biased against Sri Lanka or that you have time on your hands. Either way it does not reflect well on either you or the UN which is supposedly an impartial world organization.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Yours truly,

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Ira de Silva
London, Canada