{"id":115380,"date":"2021-06-19T17:38:12","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T00:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=115380"},"modified":"2021-06-19T17:38:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T00:38:12","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-c4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/06\/19\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-c4\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 20 C4"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

One way of erasing the Eelam victory is by declaring that the\nofficers, who led the military campaigns, had committed war crimes.  Critics observed that army officers who led\nfront line fighting formations in the Eelam war were relentlessly pursued on\nthe basis of unsubstantiated war crime allegations, not proved in a court of\nlaw.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 19 May\n2009, the Sri Lankan military effectively concluded its 26-year operation\nagainst the LTTE<\/a>. The 58 Division<\/a> of the Sri\nLankan Army led by Brig. Shavendra Silva, 59 Division<\/a> led by Brig.\nPrasanna de Silva and the 53 Division<\/a> commanded by\nGen. Kamal Gunaratne, after having boxed in the remaining LTTE cadres into a\nsmall area of territory near Nandikadal\nlagoon<\/a>. The battle for the last patch of LTTE held territory was led by\nBrig. Shavendra Silva, one of the Gajaba Regiment veterans handpicked by Lt.\nGen. Fonseka for the Vanni offensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shavendra\nSilva commanded the celebrated formation that killed the most number of\nterrorists, recovered the most number of weapons and brought the large parts of\nwestern and eastern Vanni under government control, said  Major General Chagi Gallege. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shavendra\nSilva refused to join the peacekeeping mission to Haiti, despite the financial\nbenefit that would result, as he thought he should remain on the battlefield at\nthe height of operations.  <\/em>  The offer of Haiti was   probably  \nmade to remove this capable officer from the war campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 58 Division\nwas Sri Lanka\u2019s most successful fighting Division. It was not only the best,\nbut the youngest Division which fought alongside eight other formations on the\nVanni front paving the way to the final battle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 58 Division, formerly known as the Task Force I, played a\nsignificant role in eradicating the LTTE\u2019s conventional fighting capability in\nthe Vanni region. It fought its way from\nMannar to Vellamullivaikkal -a distance of 201 kms. No other fighting formation\nhad even come close to challenging the 58 Division\u2019s record, though the\nbattlefield success was due to the combined efforts of the armed forces, said\nShamindra Ferdinando.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 58 Division\u2019s biggest achievement was the unprecedented\noperation at Anandapuram, where it killed over 600 LTTE cadres, including the\nmost experienced LTTE commanders. The operation conducted together with 53 Division,\nhelped hasten the collapse of the LTTE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shavendra\nSilva who led the 58 division became the main target of those prosecuting war crimes.\nShavendra Silva was targeted as a \u2018war criminal\u2019 by the International Truth and\nJustice Project, Sri Lanka (ITJP) administered by the Foundation for Human Rights<\/a>, South Africa,\nunder the direction of Yasmin Sooka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017, Yasmin Sooka in her capacity as the Executive Director, ITJP\nwrote to Coca Cola Company critiquing it for sponsoring Gajaba Supercross 2017\nheld at Saliyapura, Anuradhapura in August that year. The Gajaba Regiment was\nresponsible for war crimes and human rights violations over the past several\ndecades and Shavendra Silva was its Commander.\nSooka wanted to know why Coca Cola financed an event organized by this\nnotorious war criminal.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019, ITJP\nreleased a defamatory 137-page dossier on Shavendra Silva, (Shavendra Silva\nchief of army staff, Sri Lanka .Dossier29 January 2019) containing data cobbled\ntogether from media reports. It is not a document that will be taken seriously\nin a court of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ITJP\nhowever is very proud of the document. This Dossier presents the most detailed\nbody of evidence against any Sri Lankan military figure to date, said ITJP. It amalgamates photographs, contemporaneous\nSMS and witness testimony, including from insiders, with linkage evidence in\nthe annexures, such as official Army releases which were deleted offline after\nthe War to hide the truth, as well as relying on the findings of past UN\ninvestigative reports. It also presents\na legal analysis of the evidence gathered, knowing that a more detailed\nexamination would be needed to frame criminal charges. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

             There is a tremendous amount of\nevidence in this dossier, meticulously collected by my team over many years,\nsaid Sooka. This dossier is just a fraction of the information we hold. Many\nsuccessful cases at international tribunals and the International Criminal\nCourt had less to work with. There is now no excuse for this man to remain as\nnumber two in the Sri Lanka Army: he must be suspended immediately and a criminal\ninvestigation instituted, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ITJP said Shavendra\nSilva was arguably the most important frontline ground Commander in the 2008-9\nWar in Sri Lanka, in which war crimes were committed. There are reasonable\ngrounds to believe that Major General Shavendra Silva committed war crimes\neither directly by ordering them or by failing to prevent his troops from\ncommitting them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the evidence set out in this\nreport and the findings by the OISL, Major General Shavendra Silva can and\nshould face charges of war crimes of rape, torture and outrages upon personal\ndignity, as well as torture as a separate crime, committed by troops under his\neffective command and control. There are reasonable grounds to believe that he\nknew or had reasons to know about these crimes and even then failed to prevent\nthe crimes from occurring and punish those responsible, said ITJP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Silva commanded a large number of\ntroops throughout the offensive in the north of the island he was instrumental\nin the attacks on all the strategic towns and villages in 2009. He was also\npersonally present at the white flag surrender at the end of the War, when hundreds\nof Tamils disappeared in Army custody and others, including women and children,\nwere subjected to summary execution, continued ITJP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shavendra\nSilva\u2019s troops fought in almost every major battle during this phase \u2013 in\nMannar, Pooneryn, Kilinochchi, Paranthan39, Tharmapuram, Vishwamadu,\nThevipuram, Puthukkudiyiruppu (PTK), Iranapalai, Ananthapuram, Pokkanai,\nPutumattalan, Valayanmadam and finally Mullivaikkal. The UN report from 2015\nalso confirms the 58 Division\u2019s presence in these locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shavendra\nSilva\u2019s troops were instrumental in the attacks on all the strategic towns and\nvillages in 2009. He was also personally present at the surrenders at the end\nof the War, at which point hundreds of Tamils disappeared in Army custody and\nothers, including women and children, were subjected to summary execution.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ITJP\nreport also said the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n