Doublespeak of ICRC?
Posted on May 25th, 2011
– Kumar Moses
Credibility of ICRC officers who worked in Sri Lanka during the last phase of the war is highly dubious following their obvious doublespeak. The foregoing are examples and irrefutable proof of their manipulation of facts to suit the agenda of external interested parties who wish to see disintegration of the island nation.
ICRC sources claimed Sri Lankan troops shelled the PTK hospital during the final stages of the war. These sources claim according to the Sri Lanka Panel of Experts report page 25, that even the operating theatre was hit! These allegations are contained in ICRC Press Releases No.09/26 of February 1, 2009 and No. 09/29 February 4, 2009. In the latter press release ICRC officials have stated that, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-We are shocked that a medical facility has against sustained direct hitsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚.
In addition ICRC also laments that the Sri Lankan government prevented them from evacuating people trapped in the No Fire Zone (NFZ). It has also complained that the Sri Lankan government, Basil Rajapakse in particular, refused to extend the three days allowed to ICRC to evacuate trapped civilians. Citing various reasons, the ICRC didnƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t evacuate anyone during these three days and then demanded an extension! Obviously the ICRC was playing its part of LTTE cowards who wanted to extend the temporary truce as long as they could.
However, on February 14, 2009 the ICRC Geneva office sent the Sri Lanka Navy Commander a letter in which Head of Delegation of ICRC, Geneva, praises the noble role played by Sri Lankan security forces. Please read the copy of the letter in this article.
An excerpt of the letter is reproduced here.
In ICRC letterhead
Colombo 14 February, 2009
COL 09/485/PCA
Dear Sir,
Following the successful medical evacuations by sea that took place on 10 and 12 February, on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) I wish to express my sincere thanks to you and to the Navy for your valuable and effective collaboration, which helped to save many peopleƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s lives.
I know that it was a complex operation, which proved to be extremely demanding for all. Your men, either at sea or on land, succeeded in an exemplary manner to carry out their essential task to protect the State and its citizens and simultaneously care for the sick and the wounded. They displayed a strict discipline and respect of rules of engagement and at the same time a very respectful and kind attitude to help those in need.
In that regard in addition to all others who contributed to this medical evacuation, we wish to express our special thanks to the Director General for Operations, at the Navy HQ, the Officiating Commander Eastern Navel Command, in Trincomalee, and to the Deputy Area Commander North, in Jaffna. They spent many sleepless hours coordinating the operation and played a crucial role to make it a success.
These days demonstrated that soldiering is a noble profession.
Yours sincerely,
(signed)
Paul Castella
Head of Delegation
Adm. Wasantha Karannagoda
Navy Commander
Sri Lanka Navy Headquarters
Colombo 03
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
May 25th, 2011 at 7:21 am
Kumar Moses
1 ) “We are shocked that a medical facility has against sustained direct hits”.-February 1, 2009 and No. 09/29 February 4, 2009
2)the successful medical evacuations by sea that took place on 10 and 12 February
Both are true statements ! NO Doublespeak of ICRC !
We all know our prave forces liberat 320,000 civilians from LTTE terrarist. & they have killed 40,000 civilianes .
May 25th, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Andy,
Was the part, “These days demonstrated that soldiering is a noble profession.” in the letter itself? I don’t know because there is no original letter here. Looks like it was.
So why would the Red Cross say soldiering is a noble profession these days just 13 days after soldiers allegedly shelled a hospital? Either it is untrue or shelling the particular hospital at that particular time was a noble act that achieved a noble end. Although the letter was sent to the Navy commander, it broadly includes soldiering to include all. Most soldiers are from the army.
Well done soldiers.
May 25th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
During the end of the war the hoax hospital story came up about 7 times. The same hospital was shelled 7 times and there were some photoes published. These photoes were doctored hoax. A wall was broken but the nearby poll was intact. Inside room photo was shown , with a bottle not touched by the shell. The hospital story was created to stop the war. The 40,000 civilians killed was also similar fraud. May be by next year the numbers will go higher as usual.
May 25th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
This numbers game has been going on for a long time. In the 1983 riots the actual reported deaths according to the Police records were about 400- this number became 10,000 and more on the refugee status applications of the ‘fleeing’ Tamils and in the LTTE propaganda. It is the same ploy here- about the 40,000 ‘civilian’ deaths. It is not for nothing that they say ‘the truth is the first casualty of war’!
May 25th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Ramanie
1) Ok, in the 1983 only 400 civilians killed but this coulsd have been avoided if Hon JRJ imposed curfw immediatly ( even opposition leder Mr Amirthalingam was beging him ) .
2) ok, only 400 civilians killed in May 2009 but why our Hon President is saying Zero civilians killed !!!
May 25th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
andylingam
Zero civilian casualty was the government POLICY. What actually happens on ground is not 100% of policy. This is the case everywhere in the world.
Anyway even if 40,000 died it doesn’t matter because today there is peace for 20 million people thanks to those 40,000 dying. If the 40,000 was alive, we won’t have peace. We never had peace when they were alive. Good riddence.
May 25th, 2011 at 11:34 pm
Lorenzo
ok, We both can agreed, We lost , 27,000 Soldiers , 30,000 LTTE terrarist & 400 or 40,000 civilians in this end war for our future 20 million people who live in our Mother lanka Now.
– why our Presidant in every interview saying Zero civilian casualty even though on ground 400 (40,000) civiliams killed?
than How can We Tamils trust him? but my personal opinion He is the best We had in our Lanka Histroy !
May 26th, 2011 at 4:42 am
No one said zero civilians died. The POLICY was not to tolerate ANY civilian casualties. But practical realities were different. Had the government not followed even a POLICY of zero civilian casualties, many times more people would have died.
e.g. We had one of the largest cluster bomb stocks in the developing world. We could have FREELY used them on LTTE hideouts with massive collateral damage. But we didn’t.
STOCKPILERS OF CLUSTER MUNITIONS
85 countries have stockpiled cluster munitions:
Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya, Mali, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, North Korea, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zimbabwe
I don’t think he is the best in history. DS Senanayake was a better leader. Many Tamils trust him already. But no need to win the trust of Tamil Nadu Tamils and Diaspora Tamils. Don’t forget there are other people too apart from Tamils. Don’t only think of Tamil.
May 26th, 2011 at 8:02 am
Andy,
Yes there are a lot of ifs in the history. JRJ failed many things. If he was able to cought Prabha and stop the movement initially before it got out of hand many lives could have been saved. The main thing is to learn from past and move forward. All govts int he past failed to address the discrimination faced by Sinhalese in the North as well.
May 26th, 2011 at 8:56 am
Lorenzo, No one said zero civilians died
FYI, I was in Srilanka last year may 2010 in 1st year celepration speach Our Presidant said our brav sodliers libert more than 300,000 Tamils from tiger terrarist ( I was with people -in hall face )- ( ofcause in Sinhala – my dikka dikka Sinhala – that what I understood )
using cluster / nukliar boob used against LTTE terrarist not question Lorenzo, Have they used againt civilians ?
Sinhal Only Act – You said not discrimation Act- please can you explain me (I am not against your thinking)
Chintha
failed to address the discrimination faced by Sinhalese in the North as well
Agreed , after 1983 no sinhala bakery , no Gunasena’s largest books shop in standley road, no more all small Sinhala kadai (seenisampal food shops) in Jaffana.
All these people back in jaffna now , thanks to Presidant Rajapaksa !
I want in North & East every Maha vidyalayam shoud run free Sinhala & bhuddis class ( at for 6 month courese).
May 26th, 2011 at 2:02 pm
andylingam
Today all SLs live in peace thanks to the deaths of all those who died in Vanni. Good riddance.
No weapon was WASTED on civilians. Remember our weapons are precious and scant. We used them effectively against Tigers only. When Tigers were hiding inside people’s saris, they too were killed.
There was no “Sinhala Only Act”. Don’t be a racist. The act was called Official Language Act. There was discrimination. MOST democratic countries have ONE official language which is the language of the majority.
e.g. USA, UK, Australia, Japan, Norway, Germany, France, etc.
There are only FEW exceptions in developed democratic countries. We should follow developed democratic countries.
Is it discrimination in UK to have English only? No. So the same goes for SL’s Sinhala.
Anyway now Tamil is also an official language. There was no need to but it is.
May 26th, 2011 at 2:04 pm
Under the Official Language Act, reasonable use of Tamil was recognized.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbL5E5naR6s
May 26th, 2011 at 6:00 pm
Kumar, thanks for some well presented indisputable facts!
As Chinta said, this “hospital demolition by SLA artillery fire” HOAX was over and over again used by the LTTE vermin in the west hoping to stop the liquidation of their LTTE terrorists. They tried their best to do it with doctored photos (just like the Ch4 “execution videos”). It is true that a part of PTK hospital was damaged, but equally the truth is that is was willfully demolished by the LTTE terrorists who were desperate for photo-ops of “GOSL attacks against Tamil civilian” type of slogan that was running like wildfire in the west at that time. However, as was pointed earlier, upon closer scrutiny it was obvious that the damage (e.g. such as in the roof area) was done by attacks from below – i.e. not the type of damage one would see if the damage was done by blasting artillery shells falling from the sky!!! Basically, the photos (now in GOSL archives as they will be used I am told to ridicule these “war crimes” cries by the LTTE Diaspora Tamils) show damage from impact-damage and NOT explosive blast-damage!!!
Ada Andylingam: Did you know that there is a branch of investigation/assessment called “FORENSICS” and usually that’s how they get the bad guys – in this case the “hospital damage” HOAX by pro-LTTE vermin!
May 26th, 2011 at 6:39 pm
OaO Asithri
That is a very valid point you make.
Alleged hospital damage was actually caused by the terrorists themselves.
Why?
1. They knew very well they were fighting a losing battle.
2. When ICRC tried to move wounded terrorists to government controlled areas, terrorists stopped them. Had they been moved, vital information would leak to SLDF and oh boy didn’t we know HOW to use this information!
3. So the wounded terrorists became a liability to tigers.
4. Instead of just killing them off, they killed them and put the blame on the govt.
5. Somewhat like the Kamikazis and Nazi jokers during the final LOSING stages of their war. Many other Kamikazis and Nazi acts were copied by tigers including destroying bridges to stop our advance, kill off all the prisoners, using asses to pull artilery (tigers used two legged civilian asses to pull their artillery – there is a vidoe image of this).
6. But the leader was such a coward he didn;t shoot himself, didn’t eat the capsule but hoped he would be spared. We like such cowards! They are fun. Sadly he was dead when we found him! :(
Anyway I don’t care who killed them as long as someone did the RIGHT thing of killing terrorists. Getting tigers to do it (kill their own) is the mark of an EXCELLENT strategy by us. We have peace because they died. When they were alive we had no peace. That’s the bottomline.
May 27th, 2011 at 2:58 am
OaO Asithri / Lorenzo
I runaway from my motherland 1983 ( thanks JRJ) as economic regugee to London.
As Lorenzo said ,We have peace because they died. When they were alive we had no peace.
I ageed , When You say ,We please make sure All of us not, only Tamils or Sinhaleses.
T
hanks to All our three forces ( inc STF)
1) Last Two years no Air bombs – What excelant achivement in our 33 years histrory ( Thankas to GR , & Sarath Ponseha & all others .. ) .
2) Our Navy is chasing out All those ilgecal fisher man from Tamil Nadu & Kerala – excellant .
3) Our Amry idoing excellant job – help to build house & schools ( example: Skantdavarotha college – 70 to 80 Army per day working to build a block of school rooms ).
God bless to My mother LANKA & Long life to Presidant .