H. L. D. Mahindapala

Last week Sen. Christine Milne, the Leader  of the Greens Party in Australia, attacked in Parliament the human rights record of Sri Lanka echoing the usual anti-Sri Lankan rhetoric of the Tamil diaspora and  the I/NGOs. The Greens have been the virtual spokespersons for Tamil separatist lobby  in Australia. Some Tamil expats have been  promoted as candidates in  elections though none won. Tamils are also known to be funders of the Greens.

In reply to her speech H. L. D. Mahindapala has sent the following reply. It has been circulated among  Australian Parliamentarians.

The following is the full text of Mahindapala’s reply:

Sen. Christine Milne
Leader of the Greens Party
Canberra

Dear Senator,

     The  Greening of human rights

I wish to thank you for raising the Sri Lankan human rights issues as described by you in the Senate. (Wednesday 12^th February, 2014). As a Senator with hands-on experience in the UN your intervention in the Senate is most welcome. It is also heartening to note that the Greens continue to engage in raising human rights issues in various fora.

You would agree, particularly with your first-hand experience at the UN, that the goal of human rights is to serve all of humanity without being selective. Human rights cannot be hijacked to serve either one segment of a population at the expense of the other, or to serve partisan politics of do-gooders with an agenda of their own. Consequently, any evaluation of the human rights conditions in Sri Lanka must be judged fairly and justly covering all aspects of the longest running war in Asia  — 33 years in all, give or take a few days, starting from May 14, 1976 when the Tamil leadership declared war in the Vadukoddai Resolution of the same date. This war ended on May 18, 2009 with the defeat of the Tamil separatists on the bank of Nandikadal Lagoon, Jaffna.

You would also agree that the universality of human rights is a sacred tenet which cannot be violated by Big Powers, political parties, Churches, or even by the Greens who are  leading devotees of human rights. Accordingly, I regret to note that the main focus in your speech has not adhered to the sacred  principle of serving  human rights.  It may be an oversight. I hope so. Your speech is limited  to the last phase of the 33-year-old Vadukoddai War. You back the UK-US-Indian resolution against Sri Lanka – a resolution which focuses only on the last five months of 33-year-old war. You will agree that neither commonsense reasoning nor sophisticated logic can justify the limiting of human rights issues to the last five months of a 33-year-old war.

Two examples from history will expose the fallacy of this position embedded in the UNHRC resolution moved by US and UK:

1. Were the Nazis tried at Nuremberg on their conduct in the last five months of World War II?
2. And were there any trials to judge the Allies on the conduct  of closing stages of World War II which included the genocidal attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the fire-bombing of Dresden by Winston Churchill to bring ” the boys back home”?

On the basis of known international precedents set by the leading democracies you will note that it is rather incongruous and unacceptable to focus only on the last five months as you have done in your speech, following the conditions laid down in the US-UK resolution. Since there is no rationale for  limiting your judgment to five months of a 33-year-old war I don’t have to emphasize that your speech lacks balance and objectivity. If I am to push your argument to its logical end, I can only conclude that the preceding  32 years and seven months were fought not with live bullets but with roses without thorns.

Besides, your speech has omitted a key player in the 33-year-old war. You have accused, repeating the contents in the US-UK resolution, only Sri Lanka and the LTTE as having violated humanitarian law. Anyone who knows the basics of the Sri Lanka crisis will agree that it is irrational to accuse only two military forces in a war in which there were three military forces. India, you may recall now, was the only foreign military force that intervened directly in the Sri Lankan crisis. India’s biggest  export to Sri Lanka was Tamil tiger terrorism, as you may recall now. India trained, financed, armed and exported the Tamil militants to destabilize a friendly neighbor, violating international law. This was the primary cause that prolonged the war and caused the gross human rights violations.

It didn’t take long for India to realize that its short-sighted policies of pursuing subversive interventions in neighbouring or small nations had boomeranged on them. To cut a long story short, India agreed to send its military force to defang and tame the Tigers it exported to  Sri Lanka. The Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) landed in 1987 and retreated in 2000 as a defeated army, neither farewelled by Sri Lankans nor received triumphantly in India. Why? India’s brutal role shocked both the Tamils in Sri Lanka and the Indians who were expecting IPKF to return covered in glory. The Tamils who expected the Indians to be their savior also were aghast when they realized that the Indian had turned into ruthless oppressors. One of the most obscene horrors was when  the IPKF walked into a hospital and slaughtered the patients and doctors for no reason at all, except to teach the Indian-trained Tamil Tigers a lesson for attacking the IPKF soldiers.

The former Indian Defence Minister George Fernandez condemned the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka as “India’s Vietnam”. After seeing the massacre in the hospital Fernandez branded it as “India’s My Lai”. I am attaching below  an  abridged account of Indian atrocities published in Tamil Weekly for your information.

In a recent interview Col. R. Hariharan, the head of the Intelligence Unit of IPKF in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, between 1987 – 1990,  confessed that India has been unwilling to either investigate or punish the offenders. Here’s the quote verbatim: He said: “There are a few issues involved in analysing the allegations of atrocities by Indian troops after 25 years. In COIN (Counter Insurgent Operations) operations there are always innocent civilians killed, usually described as collateral damage in the fire-fight between two sides. This happened in Sri Lanka also. But there were specific instances where serious allegations were levelled. I remember two of them: massacre of patients and doctors by troops in Jaffna teaching hospital and retributive killings in an ambush in Valvettithurai. I think both the Army leadership and Government (of India) failed to institute transparent investigations to get at the truth and disprove them or punish the culprits. But in 1987-88 human rights was not a big issue worldwide as it is now. India was no exception to this. Bigger killings were taking place in Afghanistan where the US was fighting a proxy war against Soviets. India itself did not pay much attention to human rights accusations against it. But all this is hindsight wisdom.” (International Law Journal of London,  Interviewer Parasaran Rangarajan, Editor — – Feb. 6, 2014).

The date of the interview is  important – February 6, 2014. This means that even after 25 years there are living witnesses to the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the IPKF.

Please also note this comment of Col. Hariharan: “I think both the Army leadership and Government (of India) failed to institute transparent investigations to get at the truth and disprove them or punish the culprits.”

Why? It is partly because the human rights activists are obsessed only with the alleged violations of human rights by Sri Lankan forces and not those committed by India. I am sure as a committed human rights activist you will not allow India to sweep its human  rights violations under the carpet any longer. As a believer in the universality of human rights I believe that you will stand up for the victims of human rights violations whether it is by Sri Lankan or Indian forces. After all both India and Sri Lanka fought the Tamil Tiger terrorists on Sri Lankan soil. So why should only Sri Lanka be held responsible and not India?

Since you have raised the issue of human rights violations of Sri Lanka and the LTTE I believe that you will take it to the next moral level and insist on US and UK including the violations of human rights by the IPKF in their resolution due to be presented at UNHRC in March.

The attached report from the Tamil Weekly gives you the gist of the crimes committed by India against the people of Sri Lanka.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need further information on the role of India in Sri Lanka.

Awaiting an early reply

Your sincerely

H. L. D. Mahindapala

Editor, The Observer (1990 -1994)

President, Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association ( 1991 – 1993)

Secretary-General, South Asia Media Association ( 1993 -1994)

Address: 53, Galahad Crescent, Glen Waverley, Vic, 3150

e-mail: mahinda8@bigpond.com

Phone: 03-98876176

Here is the abridged version  of the human rights  violations committed by the IPKF: India as Mediator

by Old Jaffna Man

The Indian Army came with the designation Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) but when they left it was felt that they were a Indian People Killing Force. There were no people to send them off in Trincomalee and no one to receive them when they landed in Madras.

Civilians Massacred by IPKF

Jaffna Hospital:- Perhaps the worst atrocity committed by the IPKF was the massacre of 68 innocent civilians inside the Jaffna Teaching Hospital in Oct. 1987.

The names of the people massacred are:- Dr. A. Sivapathasuntheram, Dr. M. K. Ganesharatnam, Dr. Parimelalahar, Mrs. Vadivelu, Matron, Mrs. Leelawathie, Nurse, Mrs. Sivapakiam, Nurse, Mrs. Ramanathan, Nurse, Mr. Shanmugalingam, Ambulance Driver, Mr. Kanagalingam, Telephone Operator, Mr. Krishnarajah, Works Supervisor, Mr. Selvarajah, Works Supervisor, Eleven (11) Minor employees and forty six (46) patients. One of the doctors killed was a Consultant Paediatrician and he was coming down the stairs wearing his cloak and with his stethoscope. When he saw the Indian soldier, he shouted “Doctor, but Was shot down.

Duraiswamy brothers :- On the way to the hospital, the soldiers passed the ancestral home of late Sir Waithilingarn Duraisamy, Speaker in the State Council. Two of his sons, retired and past 70 years, were residing in their ancestral home next to the Jaffna Clock Tower. One was R. Duraiswamy (SLAS) Retd. Secretary. Ministry of Local Government and M. Duraiwswamy Retd. Staff Officer Bank of Ceylon. Both were shot and killed.

Sivasubramaniam Family:- Mr. S. Sivasubramaniam, retired Director of Irrigation (now designated Director General), his wife, Mrs. Sivasubramaniam, retired teacher and their only son, a brilliant boy who had studied at St. John’s College, scored 4A’s in the GCE (AL) and was in the second year of Medical College.

Mr. Sivasubramaniam was a personal friend, a quiet soft spoken gentleman, brilliant in his professional field. His entire family was erased from the face of the earth.

Chief Justice Sharvananda’s sister and her family :– Chief Justice S. Sharvananda’s sister, her husband, son and two domestic helpers were shot dead.
Justice Sharvananda, far from attending his sister’s funeral, did not even know for over one week that his sister and family had perished. There was blanket censorship over what was being done to the Tamils in Jaffna.

Other Civilians Killed in Jaffna:- Prof. P. Chandrasekeram, University of Jaffna, Dr. R. W. Crossette Thambiah (must have been 80 at the time), Dr. Selvaratnam Former DMO Maskeliya, Dr. S. Pararajasingham JMO, L. F. M. Samuel Rtd. Teacher (St. Thomas College, Mt. Lavinia & Royal College, Colombo – older Thomians and Royalists might remember him), K. J. Sambanthar Retd. DLO & Asst. Land Commissioner, Jaffna, Mrs. S. Sivanandaraja (mother), Mohanraj (son) Technical Officer, Irrigation Dept., Mrs. Krishnam, Mrs. M. Sebastiampillai, Mrs. N. R. Thuriappa, Mrs. V. Ruthiralingam, C. S. Aaron.

Urumpirai:- A. Subramanium Attorney at Law, Mr. & Mrs. Pancharatnam, Rtd. Teachers, K. Navaratnam Rtd. Divisional Supdt. of Post Offices, S. Nadarajah,
Formerly SLBC, Tamil Service, P. Arooran , M. Nadaraja, S. Rasanayagam Rtd. Credit Controller CCC Ltd.

Anaikoddai:- Mrs. M. Weerasegaram Pillai, (Mother), Pillai Yasotha Weerasegararn (Daughter), Mrs. S. Thanapalasingham (Mother) Miss N. Thanapalasingham. (Daughter) S. Kulasegerampillai, Retd. Station Master, Mrs. M. Arumugam Mrs. R. Gnanamuttu, A. Candappu Rtd. State Officer, S. Selvaranee.

Pirampadi, Kokuvil etc.:- A large number of civilians were killed in Pirampadi and Kokuvil and buried in mass graves. The whole matter requires a book to do full justice. Among those who managed to escape was late Justice K. Palakidner, who was then High Court judge Jaffna, his wife and two daughters.

More than our relatives, we mourn the death of the elder son of the chief priest of our temple, Subramaniya Kurukkal. He performed the ancient Hindu marriage ceremony for me and my wife in 1962. Young Kannan Iyer, 28 years old, very fair, very handsome, well versed in Sanskrit and Hindu neethi and also a fully qualified Accountant, managing his own Accounting firm in Jaffna told his father to stay at home and that he would go by bicycle by a circuitous route to the temple to light the lamps.

Instead of going to the temple, he went to heaven. He was shot just outside their gate and as it was raining heavily and the curfew was in force, nobody discovered what had happened till the following day. Twenty six persons lost their lives in my village alone, during the Indian army’s campaign to gain control of Jaffna Peninsula in October-November 1987.” (Tamil Weekly,  November 13 – 19, 2005)

Rape by Indian Soldiers

The IPKF Operation in Jaffna did not stop with massacres of civilians. A large number of women were raped. The following quotation is taken from Prof. Daya Somasundaram’s book Scarred Minds – The Psychological Impact of War on Sri Lankan Tamils. Prof. Daya Somasundararn is the Professor of Psychiatry in the University of Jaffna.

” Although the total number of rapes during the Indian army operations are not known, it seemed to reach epidemic proportions. It has been verified that quite a large number, ranging from young girls who had just attained puberty to old women well past the menopause stage, were brutally raped.

Rape became common in the context of total war as it obtained in the months of October to December (1987), when all the customary discipline and restraint
operative in the army disappeared.
The public was seen as being too sympathetic to the Tigers, harbouring and helping them against the Indian army. Thus terror became an instrument of control, a punishment for the lack of support and a lesson to the public.

But rape was much more gruesome as it was aimed specifically at women. It was carried out with considerable brutality and impersonality, where the victims were publicly defeminised and destroyed.

The screams and pleading of a young, attractive girl, whom three soldiers were trying to rape at gun point, still echoes in my ears. She fell at their feet and begged, ‘Please, brother, shoot me, but don’t do this…’ Fortunately for her, her pleading got through to an officer who took pity and let her go, after slapping her. A young rape victim in Tinnavelly immediately attempted to commit suicide by jumping into a well.

Inside our village temple, where people had gathered as refugees, young village girls were molested by the Indian soldiers. Dr. W. Paramanathan, great
grandson of Proctor V. Casipillai who had rebuilt the temple in 1900, after its destruction during the Portugese occupation, was an eye witness. “My blood boiled; but I was helpless” he told me. In fact, being a young man, he was taken out twice to be shot as a Tiger and only the strong pleadings of his aunt Miss K. Charavanamuttu, retired Principal of Vadamarachchy Hindu Ladies College saved his life. Dr. Paramanathan has migrated to the United States and is living there.

Plunder by IPKF

The 21 day curfew proved to be a golden opportunity- to the Indian soldiers. They broke into every house, broke open every almyrah and stole the valuables inside. As everyone knows, all Jaffna Tamil Hindu women wear a lot of gold jewellery. When they had to flee at half an hour’s notice, they could not remove all their valuables. When the families returned, they found their gold jewellery, imported watches and Parker pens missing. In 1987, India was still a closed economy and these imported items were not available in India. Not merely the soldiers, even the officers helped themselves. This is what the Island of 22 Feb. 1988 reported.

“IPKF Major Returning to India Apprehended – Alleged Contraband Jewellery:

A Major of the IPKF who is said to have returned to India from Jaffna on a month’s holiday is alleged to have been apprehended at Chandigarh airport with having carried jewellery believed to be contraband.

A news report appearing in the “Rani Weekly” of January 31, 1988 published in Tamil Nadu state that this Major serving in Jaffna had flown to Madras by plane and then to Chandigarh in Punjab on a month’s holiday. The Police there had searched him like any other passenger and found in his possession 100 sovereigns of jewellery consisting of bangles, broken chains, necklaces etc”.

The story states “The Police suspect that he might have snatched them from Sri Lankan Tamils. But he says they were bought by him. The magazine asks, “if they were bought by him, could the jewellery be broken in pieces?”

India’s My Lai – the Valvettiturai Massacre

On 2 August 1989, the so called Indian Peace Keeping Force deliberately killed over 50 Tamil civilians in Valvettiturai in the Jaffna Peninsula in a massacre that was later described as India’s Mylai.

David Housego reported in the London Financial Times on 17 August 1989:
“On… Tuesday I was the first western reporter to visit Valvettiturai, a small coastal town near Jaffna, where Indian troops carried out reprisals on August 2 after the Tamil Tigers, the -Tamil guerrilla movement, ambushed one of their patrols close to the main square, killing six Indian soldiers and wounding several, others.

After 4 1/2 hours of walking around the town and questioning many people, it becomes clear that angered soldiers deliberately shot dead unarmed civilians, burnt a large number of houses, and brutally beat many of the boys and men they caught.

The local Citizens Committee has identified 52 bodies and says that over 120 houses were burnt – making it by far the worst atrocity alleged against Indian troops in the two years they have been in Sri Lanka.

Most of the killings took place in the hours after the ambush, but the burning and ransacking continued , for another two days while Valvettiturai was under curfew and surrounded by Indian troops.

What is also certain is that the official Indian explanation for the deaths – that civilians were caught in crossfire in the wake of the ambush – has no credibility. Mr. S. Selvendra, the president of the Citizens Committee and a chartered accountant, is calling for a public inquiry.

Almost a fortnight after the event, a smell of charred remains hangs over Velvettiturai. Of the 15,000 people perhaps half have left in fear or despair. Many who remain are distraught over the loss of relatives or belongings, and uncertain how to begin again or where. What seems to have happened an August 2 is that two patrols of Indian Peace keeping Force (IPKF) troops about 30 men in all approached the centre of the town on foot in parallel columns at about 11.15 in the morning. This was market time, when the streets were most crowded. They were ambushed by firing from the roof and the street. Six soldiers were killed and 13 injured, including an officer…

What follows are abbreviated eyewitness’ accounts of four particular incidents that occurred after the ambush.

Mr. N. Senthivadivel, 50, was in his photographer’s shop overlooking the square when the firing began. He threw himself to the ground. Later he was taken out and made to sit cross legged with about 25 people on the square. From there he saw soldiers set fire to some of the shops and throw kerosene to add to the flames.

At about 2 p.m. a soldier came along and said in broken English that he was going to shoot them. Two jeeps arrived and firing began. The soldier then turned round to those seated and fired on them. Two people, Mrs. K. Sivapackiyam, a washerwoman, and Mr. K. Thangarajah were killed and 10 more injured.

S. Rajeswary, 52, is the wife of the head of the divisional land survey office. After the firing about 50 people sought shelter in her house well over 200 yards from the square – because it has a concrete roof and thus offers protection against shelling.

About 1.30 p.m., four soldiers broke into the house. She came out of the kitchen into the hall with her husband; they were holding their hands up. She pleaded with her husband not to step forward but he advanced to speak to the soldiers. They shot him.
They then called for the other men and shot four of them.

After that they sprayed bullets killing four more people and injuring nine. Apart from her husband, Mrs. Rajeswary also lost her eldest son, 28, who was trapped in his shop which had been set on fire.

Mr. A R. Sivaguru., 68, a retired postmaster. With some 70 other people – he took shelter in the house of Mr. Sivaganesh which also has a concrete roof. About 4 p.m., some six soldiers climbed over the back wall of the house and entered the courtyard. Women fell at their feet crying and pleading with them not to shoot but were kicked aside.

A sergeant then separated off the young men ages ranging from 18-35 and told them to sit in front of the cow shed next to the house. The soldiers then fired on them, killing four. When one woman screamed at her husband’s death she was told to be silent otherwise she would be killed.

Mr. Nadarajah Anantharaj, principal of a local school and secretary of the Citizen’s Committee, still bears the mark on his face of wounds he received. This account of his treatment at the Udupiddy IPKP camp nearby is taken from his sworn affidavit. “There (at the camp) I saw many people who came along with me bleeding and crying. Four Sikh soldiers then started beating me with heavy wooden rods and with their fists.

“One soldier dashed my head against the wall. One soldier pressed a wooden rod on my throat and was standing on the rod which was preventing my breathing. At that time I heard a voice shouting “Kill him, kill him.” I was almost losing consciousness when I managed to push the rod on my throat away, toppling the person who was standing on it.

Why did the Indians respond so brutally? Part of the answer is that their troops have been under great strain in the Vadamaratchi region, with isolated patrols coming under fire and the Tigers firing rockets into the IPKF camp. This has left officers and men with nerves on edge.

Were the killings and the brutality the result of soldiers running amok or did they have the approval of their officers? With substantial reinforcements brought into Velvettiturai in the wake of the ambush, officers were certainly present in the town during the shooting and the burning of homes. Some inhabitants believe that senior officers gave their tacit approval to the reprisals, if not more.

One of my informants claimed that he had heard a senior officer say in anger not long before “I will burn Point Pedro” (a neighbouring town where there has also been trouble). “I will kill everybody.’ This may have been ill chosen words of intimidation not meant literally…”

George Fernandez, Indian Opposition M.P. one time Cabinet Minister and later Defence Minister commented a few months later:

“When in early August, 1987, 1 had said that Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s military adventure in Sri Lanka would be India’s Viet Nam, I had not anticipated that India’s Viet Nam would also have its own My Lai. Of course, I was aware and I had also said repeatedly that soldiers everywhere alike, their training and the rigours of their life, not to speak of the brutalisation caused by war, making them behave in the most inhuman ways when under pressure.

Now, in Velvettiturai, the Indian army has enacted its My Lai. London’s Daily Telegraph commenting editorially on the barbarism exhibited by the Indian army in Velvettiturai says that, if anything “this massacre is worse than My Lai. Then American troops simply ran amok. In the Sri Lankan village, the Indians seem to have been more systematic; the victims being forced to lie down, and then shot in the back”.

Valvettiturai was uncovered by David Housego, the Delhi-based correspondent of London’s Financial Times who visited the scene of the massacre 13 days after the black deed had been done on August 2. His report appeared in his paper on August 17, though London’s Telegraph had carried on August 13 a story on the incident from its New Delhi correspondent, Jeremy Gavron, based on the information that was already circulating in India’s capital.

The Indian press – a miniscule section of it – caught up with it only on September 3, with a report by Rita Sebastian in the Indian Express. In fact, there was a planned black out of the news of Velvettiturai by the Indian government, in which a large section of the Indian press was only too happy to collude. The armed forces are India’s most sacred cow at the best of times, but when they indulge in atrocities, they are more so…”

(End of quotation)