Shenali D Waduge

An excellent opportunity has now arise to catch red handed every person who ranted about 40,000 to 100,000 being dead. They have for years been going on and on about these ‘missing’ or ‘dead’ numbers without so much as producing a single name. Now the ball is in their court to prove their allegations by giving the names and details of the dead. The allegation of war crimes against a country and its national army rests on this crucial argument of proving that this quoted figure was ‘killed’, isolated cases cannot warrant war crimes against a state or its army. Isolated cases have to be proved and the soldier must be charged by a military court and sentenced if found guilty. This is where the calls for hybrid or any such other courts gets thrown to the dustbin as thus far there is nothing substantial in the UNHRC investigation report to concretely prove war crimes as per international charter were committed. So far other than well-funded campaigns and well-funded mouthpieces nothing substantial has been put out.

Here are the people who will need to now come out and produce the names of the dead from the ‘sources’ they claim to have got the figures. These are just a handful of examples given to show that anyone can throw numbers but now they are cornered to prove the numbers they have been quoting.

If none of the below can produce names and details of the dead the farce behind the war crimes must end. No court can commence until a name list is produced to show that people have been killed. To claim war crimes it must also be proved that orders were given to kill. Collateral damage or civilian combatants dying during hostilities cannot be included as war crimes. Also if individual soldier misadventures have taken place these also must be proved and thereafter a military court must take punitive action following investigations.

The GOSL has no moral right to agree to any court with international or local judges without proof of war crimes being committed. Why should all laws and even the Constitution be changed just to spend years and money to see if war crimes have been committed? Those who claim war crimes were committed by quoting dead figures must now come out and in the least produce the names of the dead. It is only then that the country should agree to move to stage 2. If cases produced with evidence are related individual soldier misadventures then a military court suffices to take action against them. A country or its national army cannot be slapped with war crimes charges for a handful of sporadic individual misadventures. It is hilarious to agree to implement hybrid courts when so far nothing has been proved with evidence except for a well-funded propaganda of numbers without names. First investigate the UNHRC report. Demand UNHRC to table it in the UNGA or UNSC.

US former envoy Robert Blak

• quoted 40,000 dead to the US Congressional Hearing, now he needs to come out with the names of these dead.

Gordon Weiss

• Name the 10,000 to 40,000 civilians you said were killed The sixteen-week siege led to the deaths of between 10,000 and 40,000 people.”

Siobhain McDonagh (UK Labor MP for Mitcham and Morden)

• Declared 100,000 dead and 40,000 as civilians. How she counted the dead from UK is baffling but giving benefit of doubt its now her opportunity to name these 40,000 dead.

Amnesty International

• in a report titled ‘When will they get justice? Failures of Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’ published in 2011 quoted 10,000 civilian deaths later to extensively quote 40,000 – now name them.

Charles Petrie

• Reviewing UNSG’s report 2012 came up with another figure 70,000 totally ignoring the UN Representative office figure of 7721. Petrie please produce the names of these 70,000 dead.

The University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna in a Special Report no. 32 of 10 June 2009 and Special Report No 34 of 13 December 2009 placed the dead between 20,000-40,000

• This group must now produce the names they claim to be dead.

Times of London

• Extensively quoted 20,000 dead – its now time for this newspaper to produce the names or the sources.

Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph

• claims 147,000 as missing (It is strange that he has not placed one single name of the missing with the Commission though he can rally numerous priests to sign letters and send to the UNHRC calling for international investigations against Sri Lanka. http://tamilguardian.com/article.asp?articleid=13890

 Alan Keenan the Project Director of International Crisis Group Sri Lanka

• placed civilians killed in the Vanni between 40,000 – 147,000 – now he must come out with the names of the dead.

The Guardian editorial

• (Sri Lanka: Evidence that won’t be buried(June 15, 2011),) – 40,000 – so let’s see the Guardian name the dead

Editorials by The Times and The Sunday Times 

• in late May 2009 related investigations the papers had conducted that revealed more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final battle – OK, now prove it.

Those quoting numbers have close association with LTTE fronts

Gordon Weiss

from late 2010 if not earlier, Gordon Weiss has been drawn increasingly closer to the networks of the Tamil Australian lobby associated with the LTTE in the past and with the politics of the Global Tamil Forum’s radical arms today.”(Prof. Michael Roberts)

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/09/12/the-truth-lies-of-gordon-weiss/

Siobhain McDonagh

• Invitee of Global Tamil Forum (initially included as LTTE front and removed without reason) http://www.ticonline.org/newsdetails.php?id=53
• Chair and Vice-Chair the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamil (APPG-T) and was facilitated by the Global Tamil http://srilankastateterrorism.blogspot.com/2011/07/british-mps-support-international.html

Amnesty International

• https://tamiltigeractivities.wordpress.com/2014/03/03/ltte-arm-funds-amnesty-international/

The University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna

• This entity has been caught red-handed for reporting on 13^th December 2009 that Kathiravel Thayapararaja was arrested in Sept 2009, tortured at a security camp in Avissawella, shot on 13^th Sept 2009 and died in Kalubowila hospital on 15^th September 2009. Kathiravel Thayapararaja was neither tortured, was missing or even dead… he is very much alive and was arrested by Indian Police on 5 May 2014. http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2016/03/29/missing-dead-found-alive-is-ekneligodas-story-another-kathiravel-thayaparaja-who-is-very-much-alive/

Bishop of Mannar, Rayappu Joseph

• Bishop of Mannar Rayappu Joseph – opened Eelam House in UK, he allowed LTTE to use Madhu Church, he allowed LTTE to run a radio station from inside the Church

This is a great opportunity to corner all the liars. Anyone can throw numbers, now they must come clean and name those they claimed were either missing or dead.

It is also wise to have the national list of dead also kept in case to double check the names as people who have died decades earlier may get their names re-entered into this list of ‘dead’ or ‘missing’.

Shenali D Waduge