{"id":111731,"date":"2021-02-16T16:52:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T23:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=111731"},"modified":"2021-02-16T16:52:00","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T23:52:00","slug":"presidents-office-denies-ex-us-ambassadors-claim-killing-of-ltte-leaders-who-surrendered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/02\/16\/presidents-office-denies-ex-us-ambassadors-claim-killing-of-ltte-leaders-who-surrendered\/","title":{"rendered":"President\u2019s Office denies ex-US Ambassador\u2019s claim \u2018Killing of LTTE leaders who surrendered\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\u2026 recalls US Defence Advisor in Colombo contradicting battlefield executions<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s Office yesterday (15) strongly denied a claim by former US Ambassador for War Crimes and Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp (2009-2015) that wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had admitted to killing LTTE leaders followign their surrender to the Army in 2009. Rapp claimed Rajapaksa had told him so when he met the latter in Colombo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was absolutely no basis for Rapp\u2019s claim, the President\u2019s Office said when The Island <\/em>sought President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s response to the former Ambassador\u2019s accusation. The President\u2019s Office questioned the former US official\u2019s motive to make such a statement seven years after leaving office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The allegation was made on Friday (12) at an online panel discussion organised by a group of organizations targeting Sri Lanka led by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) on Justice and rule of law in the run-up to the 46th sessions of the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council. Rapp recalled a conversation with the then Defence Secretary and now President Gotabaya Rajapaksa regarding LTTE leaders who surrendered to the army. Rapp said the government hated the LTTE\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember raising this issue with defence secretary Gotabaya, now President Rajapaksa when I was there,\u201d Rapp said at the webinar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I remember the defence secretary saying, Oh, trials, trials, you know they go on so long and people get off\u201d. And then he said, I killed them, I killed them, I killed them,\u201d Rapp recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen J. Rapp is a Senior Fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum\u2019s Centre for Prevention of Genocide and at Oxford University\u2019s Centre for Ethics, Law & Armed Conflict.  He also serves as Chair of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former US Ambassador was responding to a question regarding Sri Lanka\u2019s suspicions about the failure on the part of the UN to inquire into atrocities committed by the LTTE as well as others, including the Indian Army. Rapp noted that one way to have made the Tigers accountable for violations would have been to arrest leaders and put them on trial. Rapp added: Of course, recalling, that many of the individuals (in the LTTE) that could have been charged were in fact, according to credible evidence, killed after surrender. The numbers are around 360 that were given out\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President\u2019s Office while pointing out Rapp visited Sri Lanka in 2012 and 2015, emphasized that the dramatic present accusation was meant for the Geneva sessions. Obviously, Rapp\u2019s claim was nothing but overall part of the campaign to discredit Sri Lanka, the President\u2019s Office said, drawing the former Ambassador\u2019s attention to a wartime US defence attach\u00e9 Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith declaration in 2011 in Colombo that battlefield executions didn\u2019t take place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President\u2019s Office said that the Office of War Crimes and Global Criminal Justice owed an explanation whether Rapp during his tenure as the head of that Office reported such a conversation with the then Sri Lankan Defence Secretary or whether Rapp shared information with UNHRC in the run up to 2015 Geneva sessions. Rapp should peruse Lt. Col\u2019s Smith\u2019s response to retired IPKF Maj. Gen. Ashok Metha\u2019s query, the President\u2019s Office said. Pointing out one-time LTTE mouthpiece TNA was represented at the webinar by its Jaffna District MP M.A. Sumanthiran, PC, the President\u2019s Office questioned how US and the TNA backed the then General Sarath Fonseka\u2019s candidature at the presidential election less than year from the conclusion of the war after having accused him and his army of genocide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President\u2019s Office said that Sri Lanka rehabilitated over 12,000 LTTE cadres. Hundreds of LTTE cadres now live abroad under assumed names and were holders of various foreign passports, the President\u2019s Office said adding that leaked US diplomatic cables revealed the Army could have finished off the LTTE with less casualties of its own but suffered losses due to ground commanders taking the civilian factor into consideration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President\u2019s Office said that human right campaigning is a lucrative industry where plenty of funds are disbursed among those groups and individuals following the Western agenda. The former Ambassador Rapp\u2019s claim reminded Sri Lanka of US-British campaign on WMDs leading to invasion of Iraq. Rapp\u2019s claim in a way could be compared with former Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran\u2019s August 2016 high profile claim the Army poisoned 104 surrendered LTTE cadres. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island \u2026 recalls US Defence Advisor in Colombo contradicting battlefield executions President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s Office yesterday (15) strongly denied a claim by former US Ambassador for War Crimes and Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp (2009-2015) that wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had admitted to killing LTTE leaders followign their surrender […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111731","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111731\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}