{"id":100887,"date":"2020-04-08T04:32:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T11:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=100887"},"modified":"2020-04-08T04:34:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-08T11:34:48","slug":"us-president-nixon-pardon-vs-sri-lankas-president-gotabaya-rajapakses-pardon-of-corporal-sunil-ratnayake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/04\/08\/us-president-nixon-pardon-vs-sri-lankas-president-gotabaya-rajapakses-pardon-of-corporal-sunil-ratnayake\/","title":{"rendered":"US President Nixon’s Mai Lai pardon vs Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapakse\u2019s pardon of Corporal Sunil Ratnayake"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is much hullabaloo over the pardoning of Corporal Sunil Ratnayake\nby President Gotabaya Rajapake. The usual set of culprits are 24×7 preoccupied\nin carrying out a globally hyped campaign against the decision. Everyone does\nmake mistakes. People are afterall human. There is no 100% perfect entity. No\none is not unbiased. Plenty of Judges have given questionable verdicts. Plenty\nof lawyers have misled the jury. Plenty of witnesses have misled the Court too.\nIn such a scenario we must be able to use our common sense to derive our own\nconclusions. Let us compare the Mai Lai massacre with the Mirusuvil massacre\nthough the US illegally bombed & invaded Vietnam while Sri Lanka was dealing\nwith a non-international armed conflict against non-state actors who were terrorizing\nthe citizens fighting in uniform and in civilian clothing while engaging\ncombatants as young as 7 years with even a trained civilian armed force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

US in Vietnam<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

US decided to deliver democracy to Vietnam during 1962-1971 resulting in\nthe killing of 400,000 people and left 500,000 babies born with birth defects\nwith some 2million continuing to suffer cancer & related illnesses from the\n20million galloons of chemicals including Agent Orange dumped by US military on\nVietnam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A Vietnamese civilian with a gun pointed at the side of her head. (Photo by Keystone\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mail Lai village massacre took place on 16 March 1968 by some 100\nAmerican soldiers led by Lieutenant William L Calley.  11th Brigade Charlie Company is alleged to\nhave killed over 500 civilians ordered by Calley. Among them is the name of Private\nFirst Class Paul Meadlo who took part with Calley in the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

182 women \u2013\n17 were pregnant<\/p>\n\n\n\n

173 children\n\u2013 55 infants<\/p>\n\n\n\n

60 \u2013 old\naged men<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1968 Meadlo was 19years, married with 2 children while\nWilliam Calley was just 28years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calley\u2019s 3\nday court martial ended on 29 March 1971 (3 years after the Mai Lai Massacre) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Army\ninquiry it was disclosed how Calley allegedly even ran after a 2 or 3 year old boy, caught him and after\nshooting him dead <\/strong>threw him into the ditch where all other dead were.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army\njury convicted ONLY Calley of mass murder of 22 persons. The charge sheet\nhowever accused Calley of premeditated murder of 109 \u2018oriental human beings\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calley was\nsentenced to life of hard labor but President Nixon intervened and ordered\nCalley\u2019s release from Army prison. Calley was put under house arrest and then\nfreed 3 months after Nixon left office. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calley\nwas a free man by 1974.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even\nsongs were written for Calley \u2018Set Lt. Calley Free\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/blog.wfmu.org\/freeform\/2010\/10\/the-ballad-of-my-lai-mp3s.html<\/a>\nand hymns were also written \u2018Battle Hymn of Lt. Calley\u2019 https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=4JoacW7woBY<\/a>\nsold 2million records. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did Calley become a freeman? Evie Saloman\u2019s March 2014 article\nclaims Nixon attempted to cover up the Mai Lai massacre evident in the release\nof hand-written notes of meetings with his Chief of Staff H R Haldeman in 1987.\nOn 1st<\/sup> December 1969 the \u2018Task Force\u2019 was asked to adopt \u2018dirty\ntricks\u2019 and \u2018discredit one witness\u2019 in order to \u2018keep working on the problem\u2019 https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/document-points-to-nixon-in-my-lai-cover-up-attempt\/<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Who were the \u2018dirty tricks\u2019 meant to discredit? None other than pilot Hugh Thomson and gunner Larry Colburn\nwho from their helicopter saw the massacre in progress and tried to stop it and\neven saved a 8 year boy from the ditch and took him to hospital.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when they returned to US they were treated as traitors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colburn says “The U.S. claims\nto be concerned with collateral damage with civilians that are caught up in war\nzones, but I don’t believe that,”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colburn says. “That’s lip\nservice.”<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharaib detention camps and the scores of\nillegal invasions and bombings prove how correct Colburn\u2019s statement is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their story came out in 1998 \u2013 Back to Mai Lai\u201d produced by Tom\nAnderson, reported by Mike Wallace & aired on 29 March 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both travelled back to Mai Lai in 2001 and met the 8-year old boy they\nsaved who was now 41 years. Thompson died in 2006. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the\nmany articles on Mai Lai the series of articles by Seymour M Hersh are of\ninterest. He had visited Vietnam in the 1960s as a rookie journalist and again\nin 2015 at 78 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His 1971 article on Mai Lai was first published by the New Yorker and\nreissued in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2015\/03\/30\/the-scene-of-the-crime<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ironically\nthe US Army filed charges against 14 officers just like the 14 Sri Lanka Armed\nForces personnel arrested in connection with the Mirusuvil murder in Sri Lanka\nin 2000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nsoldiers claimed to have disobeyed Calleys orders but Private First Class Paul\nMeadlo had joined Calley in the shooting. The next day Meadlo had stepped on a\nland mine and his right foot had blown off. Instant karma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A GI also\nrecalls Meadlo cursing Calley when he was being evacuated to be treated God will punish you for what you made me\ndo,\u201d<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meadlo\u2019s\nmother was to say I sent them a good boy\nand they made him a murderer.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nrelevant detail in Hersh\u2019s article is the unpublished August 1967 report by\nretired Pentagon Official W Donald Steward at the request of Secretary of\nDefense Robert McNamara (later became President of World Bank) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report\nshowed that US troops in South Vietnam did not know the Geneva Conventions. The\nsoldiers, felt they were at liberty to\nsubstitute their own judgment for the clear provisions of the\nConventions. . . . It was primarily the young and inexperienced\ntroops who stated they would maltreat or kill prisoners, despite having just\nreceived instructions<\/em>\u201d on international law. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart\ntells Hersh that he understood why the report was suppressed <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People were sending their\neighteen-year-olds over there, and we didn\u2019t want them to find out that they\nwere cutting off ears.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This takes us to another important point for discussion. Everyone is\nquick to condemn military personnel claiming them to be a professional force\nand should act like one. That paradigm is not applicable when the military is\nfighting a non-state actor not bound to uphold laws except their own. Therefore,\nthose quick to quote the Conventions and Law Books must first imagine if they\ncould act with professionalism against a brutal terrorist group? The soldiers\nare not sent as guinea pigs to tabulate how successful the law manuals work\nduring hostilities. While the soldiers go to defend the nation & the\ncitizens the goal of the terrorists is to only kill and become martyrs by\nkilling. So no law can judge a national army on the same benchmark as that of\nterrorists. Terrorists supporters are today manipulating this area to draw for\ntheir terrorist groups undue publicity and empathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s\nalso not forget that President Trump in November 2019 pardoned 3 US military\npersonnel 2 US soldiers (who served in Afghanistan) & 1 sailor (served in\nIraq) who committed war-zone crimes. But the condemnation against that was\nprimarily simply to target President not so much based on any acts of crime\ncommitted by the 3 US military personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mirusuvil Massacre Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now let us go to Sri Lanka\u2019s Mirusuvil Massacre in Jaffna which\nallegedly took place on 19 December 2000 of 8 Tamils including a 5year old\nchild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike the Mai Lai massacre which involved an entire military unit of\n100 soldiers, and soldiers who admitted they committed shooting based on\norders, there is no evidence to show anyone witnessing Corporal Sunil Ratnayake\ncommitting the murders or even holding the weapon with which the murders were\ncommitted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunil Ratnayake\u2019s verdict was\nbased on CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE GIVEN BY A SOLE SURVIVOR (Maheshwaran) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maheshwaran\u2019s\ntestimony only accused Ratnayake of assault not murder. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maheshwaran has\nnot said that he saw Sunil Ratnayake killing anyone or even holding a weapon. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maheshwaran\u2019s account of the incident as sole \u2018witness\u2019 is an exercise\nin imagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only he was lucky to get blindfolded and beaten unconscious despite\nother men being present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only he had been carried by 2 Sri Lankan soldiers and tossed over the\nfence and he was so lucky that the blindfold got caught to the barbed fence so\nhe could see but he didn\u2019t see Sunil Ratnayake commit the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the lucky one to be even taken to the supposed sight of the\n\u2018murders\u2019 and shown the crime and we have to next imagine him running clad only\nin his underwear \u00bc mile to his aunts where the next morning he was again lucky\nenough for his father to come search & find him & both to complain to\nEPDP office   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corporal Sunil Ratnayake was arrested under a UNP government in 2002<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corporal Sunil Ratnayake was convicted of murder in June 2015 also under\nthe same Govt that arrested him which had come to power to form a legally questionable\n\u2018national government\u2019 cobbled after a Presidential Election in January 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corporal Sunil Ratnayake was convicted under the same government in June\n2015 while the Court acquitted the other 4 soldiers though all 5 were charged\nunder penal code sections 32, 146 and 296. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere in the judgement does\nit state that Ratnayake personally killed any of the 8 victims.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If same charges were brought\nagainst all 5 armed forces under penal code 32, 146 and 296 \u2013  why did 4 suddenly get acquitted on the ground\nthat their identities could not be established and only Sunil Ratnayake was\nconvicted. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer lay in the \u2018interpretation\u2019\nof Penal Code Section 32 that a criminal act done\nby several persons with common intent is equivalent to a single person committing\nthe act of crime alone. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How fair is it\nto declare death sentence based on an interpretation sans concrete evidence of\nanyone actually seeing him commit the murders?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How possible is it for ONE\nPERSON to commit all 8 murders, dig a large hole to hide dead bodies and dig\nanother large enough ditch to bury the bicycles while all others stood watching\n\u2013 even the Supreme Court admits this was \u2018highly improbable\u2019? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If so, is it fair to release\nall others and pass all blame to one man based merely on a penal code\ninterpretation? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Maithripala Sirisena released the very LTTE\nsuicide combatant who had attempted to kill him and the media clapped hands\nchirping the act to be an embodiment of reconciliation. The same media are\nhowling against the pardoning of a soldier based on circumstantial evidence\nwithout any proof that he committed the murders. They have completely\ncharacter-assassinated him as a \u2018murderer\u2019 and \u2018butcher\u2019 without any thought\nfor the long-term repercussion to him & his family. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Penal Code Section 32 was applied to LTTE it is more\nthan possible that some Tamil politicians linked to LTTE may also find\nthemselves behind bars! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Abrahamic justice of eye-for-an-eye as against\ncompassionate justice of Dharmic philoshophy is the reason why close to 12,000\nsurrendered LTTErs have not been charged for their crimes & why 594 child\nsoldiers were also given a presidential pardon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if justice is what is being sought then\ndefinitely it is LTTE and all those connected to LTTE who must end up being\ncharged for their crimes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lankan President\u2019s powers to pardon comes tagged to a process\nthat passes through the Attorney General, to the Minister of Justice for recommendation\nand thereafter to the President. Therefore, all those barking should first read\nArticle 34(1) of the Constitution before howling. The howlers should ideally question the system that has actually failed\nCorporal Sunil Ratnayake instead of demanding his death! <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have any of the entities issuing statements condemning the pardon even read the judgement? Probably not! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is much hullabaloo over the pardoning of Corporal Sunil Ratnayake by President Gotabaya Rajapake. The usual set of culprits are 24×7 preoccupied in carrying out a globally hyped campaign against the decision. Everyone does make mistakes. People are afterall human. There is no 100% perfect entity. No one is not unbiased. Plenty of Judges […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1498,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}