Ambassador Rapp tells Defence Secy:‘Instead of rehabilitating terrorists, you should have prosecuted them’
Posted on January 10th, 2014
By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy Island
Sri Lanka’s post-war rehabiliation project to reintegrate former LTTE combatants into society has come in for criticism from the United States. The US has faulted President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government for releasing those who had fought for the LTTE without prosecuting them.
Ambassador-at-Large, Office of Global Criminal Justice, Stephen J. Rapp has told Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa that LTTE terrorists should have been prosecuted instead of being rehabilitated.
The meeting took place at the Defence Ministry on January 6. He was accompanied by Michele J. Sison, US ambassador in Colombo.
Ambassador is on his second visit to Colombo since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009.
The army captured nearly 12,000 LTTE cadres during the final phase of the Vanni offensive east of the Kandy-Jaffna A9 road. Of them over 11,000 were released in batches after rehabilitation.
A senior Defence Ministry official told The Island that the government had decided to release, after rehabilitation, the vast majority of those who had surrendered or been captured on the Vanni front or arrested in the South in a bid to reassure the Tamils. He said the government had involved the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in the rehabilitation project, the official said.
Asked whether any other country had objected to rehabilitation of ex-LTTE cadres, the official emphasised that many countries including the Netherlands, Norway, Japan and UK financially backed the initiative. Responding to a query, the official said that the US had never faulted Sri Lanka’s rehabilitation project before. In fact, many US officials had appreciated the project though the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was largely silent, he said.
January 10th, 2014 at 4:26 pm
ABSOLUTELY! We said this long before. They are WAR CRIMINALS.
“A senior Defence Ministry official told The Island that the government had decided to release, after rehabilitation, the vast majority of those who had surrendered or been captured on the Vanni front or arrested in the South in a bid to reassure the Tamils.”
So did that reassure Tamils?
What a set of idiots!
They are getting just desserts for foolishness!
Compassion is a damn foolish thing when wasted on TERRORISTS. Now it has come to screww the country in TWO WAYS – war crime, LTTE regrouping.
January 10th, 2014 at 6:43 pm
Lorenzo,
This is what army spokesman ended his statement on Holy liars Kassipu Joseph and Sunnni Nayagam.
“It is unfortunate that personalities of high eminence fall prey to such fallacies,” .
How long this stupid nice guy attitude continue ?
Why can they prosecute these two mad dogs appearing as Bishops ?
Why can’t your Church remove them from being Bishops ?
January 10th, 2014 at 7:04 pm
Why can’t your Church remove them from being Bishops ?
Dear Nanda,
Your question is most appropriate. It is a question every thinking Catholic constantly asks.
It is time we change the titles of Church dignitaries. We could begin by calling the archbishop NOT ‘Your Grace’ BUT ‘Your Disgrace’.
Mario Perera
Kadawata
January 10th, 2014 at 8:13 pm
Nanda,
I’m no Catholic so I don’t know the procedure.
But the LAW must punish him whatever the church says.
IF 6 amendment CANNOT be implemented (no backbone in govt.) at least FRAME him for child sex offences.
Otherwise there is always MY option. Low cost, clean, FAST and reliable.
January 10th, 2014 at 10:39 pm
Well I have cry “It is our fault ” again.
We made a simple widow of a terrorist ” a councillor”.
We made this liar terrorist who preach and teach how to lie ” Bishops”.
PM is going to legalise Bikkhuhood. How about the “Bishophood” ?
I cannot agree to the clean method. There should be a cleaner way.
LKY method. Something like “FRAME him for child sex offences”.
LKY once prosecuted a opposition MP for charging taxi fare for non-official use.(S$ 10 or something).
HE made JB Jeyaratnam ( opposition leader) bankrupt by suing him for defamation repeatedly.
He sent a strong criticizer to Sentosa jail for 30 years until he became physically weak.
He too accumulated wealth, made his son PM but he got rid of the corruption 99%.
Police (0%) corrupt
Politicians ( <1%)
government workers <%)
Custom officers ( <1%)
Look at the country now compared to 1960.
January 10th, 2014 at 10:45 pm
Look at this.
” Sri Lanka police are searching for the main suspect of a British tourist’s murder after a court issued a warrant for his arrest Thursday for failing to appear in court.
The police said the main suspect of the murder of British tourist Khuram Shaikh, former Tangalle Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Sampath Vidanapathirana is being sought following an arrest warrant issued by the Colombo High Court.
Colombo High Court Judge Rohini Walgama issued the arrest warrant Thursday after the suspect who was on bail failed to a make a routine court appearance as required by the bail conditions.
A guarantor of the bail produced himself in the court and said the suspect was too ill to appear in court and he has been admitted to a private hospital.
However, the hospital, upon inquiry has told the police the suspect was discharged from the hospital on January 8th.
The Police have pledged to arrest the suspect “today or tomorrow” although his exact whereabouts are not known, BBC reported.
Vidanapathirana and seven others are accused of the murdering the 32-year-old British Red Cross worker and sexual assaulting his girlfriend at a party in a hotel at Tangalle on the Christmas Eve 2011.
In addition they are charged with unlawful assembly in a hotel, possession of unlicensed weapons and intimidation.”
How many time Maha Ranee has done this ?
This is a murder case. How dare we readers accuse USA when this happens regularly at our own backyard ?
How dare we praise our leaders for 1 second ?