{"id":115394,"date":"2021-06-20T16:33:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T23:33:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=115394"},"modified":"2021-06-20T16:33:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T23:33:57","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-c5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/06\/20\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-c5\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 20 C5"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Several   countries   which are pro-Eelam have   prevented senior military officials of the Sri\nLanka army, from attending prestigious foreign courses and receiving\nscholarships, citing unsubstantiated\nwar crimes accusations.  Maj. Gen Jagath\nDias was not allowed to join an ICRC project in Australia.  US refused to accommodate Maj. Gen. Sudantha\nRanasinghe, on a programme as he commanded the elite 53 Division. The 53\nDivision had killed LTTE leader Prabhakaran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) created\ndossiers of war crimes for the senior officers who led the final assault in\nEelam War IV.  ITJP had dossiers on\nShavendra Silva, Kamal Gunaratne, Jagath Jayasuriya and Jagath Dias. Shavendra Silva\u2019s dossier had information on\nhis four deputies in the 58 division as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three retired\nservice commanders, Air Chief Marshal Roshan Goonetileke, Admiral Tisara\nSamarasinghe and General Daya Ratnayake, called a special media briefing in\nColombo at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute in February 2019, to bring to\npublic attention what they called a relentless campaign directed against some\nindividuals in the army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General\nRatnayake said that they were seriously concerned about the ongoing operation\ntargeting the military.  Since the change\nof government, in January 2015, 67 army officers and 637 other rankers had been\ninvestigated. The number of officers and other ranks (Army and Navy) arrested\nduring this period was placed at 15 and 35, respectively. Seven Army and Navy\npersonnel are currently in custody. One officer and one soldier have been\nsentenced to death. He said it was not the policy of the army to deliberately\ntarget civilians. The war winning military was being [unfairly] penalized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 These retired service commanders expressed\nconcern over the attempt to take wartime Navy Commander Admiral Wasantha\nKarannagoda into custody regarding some wartime disappearances (2007-2008). They\npraised the role played by Admiral Karannagoda during the conflict. Karannagoda\nchanged the naval strategy in place at the time and had also taken action to\ndestroy the floating LTTE arsenals on high seas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director of the State Intelligence Service (SIS) Maj. Gen. Suresh\nSallay has sent a Letter of Demand to Executive Director of the International\nTruth and Justice Project (ITJP) Yasmin Sooka and the ITJP for making malicious\nallegations against him. The letter of demand states that on or about June 01,\n2020, Yasmin Sooka, in her capacity as the Executive Director of the ITJP\nissued a press statement making various defamatory remarks against Major General\nSallay. The press statement was published on the ITJP Sri Lanka\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Letter of Demand says the defamatory implications have\nresulted in parties with vested interests making attempts on the life of Maj.\nGen. Sallay. The Letter mentions the numerous\nawards and achievements of Major General Sallay and the resultant tarnishing of\nthis reputation.  He asks for Rs 1\nmillion as damages. The Letter of Demand has also notified Sooka and the ITJP\nto cease and desist from issuing further defamatory remarks if they continue to\ndo so, Sallay would take legal action, both Civil and or Criminal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawyers\nrepresenting Maj. Gen. Suresh Sallay also handed over a letter to UN office in\nColombo complaining about a propaganda campaign carried out by Yasmin Sooka of\nthe \u2018Truth and Justice\u2019 Project against  Sallay. <\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Major General\nChagi Gallege, then Director General, Infantry  was refused a visa to visit his brother in\nAustralia, due to \u2018war crimes.\u2019 Australia has found fault with Gallage for\nbeing in command of the 59 Division from May 7, 2009 to July 20, 2009   when it was engaged in the Vanni offensive. Australian\nHigh Commission stated that troops under his command certainly committed war\ncrimes and crimes against humanity. There have never been specific allegations\nagainst Maj. Gen. Gallege before. Gallege has now retired from service, but the\nAustralian ban remains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nAustralian Department of Immigration and Border Protection has extensively\ncited Report of the OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) on\nSri Lanka (OISL) to turn down Gallege\u2019s visa..Australia has cited a statement\nattributed to General Officer Commanding (GOC) 58 Division Maj. Gen. Shavendra\nSilva that unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) real time footage had been made\navailable to ground commanders marking targets, to justify its decision. On the\nbasis of Maj. Gen. Silva\u2019s statement, Australia has alleged that Maj. Gen.\nGallege had been aware of artillery strikes on third no fire zone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

.Australia has accused Maj. Gen. Gallege of planning, implementing\nand supporting war crimes and crimes against humanity. Australia also held him\nresponsible as the serving officer for failing to prevent troops under his\ncommand from committing war crimes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources pointed out that the decision to accuse Maj. Gen. Gallege\nof crimes against humanity meant that Australia believed that the Sri Lankan\narmy carried out systematic attacks against Tamil civilians. The High\nCommission ignored the fact that none of the allegations had been proved in a\ncourt of law or at least thoroughly examined, said critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chagi Gallage was in the forefront of the war against the LTTE.  He is\nacknowledged widely as a very good soldier. He\nis considered one of best strategists in the army. He discharged his duties on\nthe battlefield with distinction.  He was\na simple and humble officer, who did not throw his weight about  and  \nwas liked by both officers and the ranks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gallage\u2019s predicament did not receive the media attention it\ndeserved.  Neither Parliament nor nationalist\ngroups took up the matter. An ungrateful Sri Lanka never bothered to make\nrepresentations on behalf of an officer who risked his life for his motherland\non countless occasions as a frontline infantry officer, said analysts. They\nobserved that while a legitimate army was being targeted for defeating the LTTE,\nthe LTTE had been given safe haven in many parts of the world.  (Continued) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Several   countries   which are pro-Eelam have   prevented senior military officials of the Sri Lanka army, from attending prestigious foreign courses and receiving scholarships, citing unsubstantiated war crimes accusations.  Maj. Gen Jagath Dias was not allowed to join an ICRC project in Australia.  US refused to accommodate Maj. Gen. Sudantha Ranasinghe, on a programme […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115394","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=115394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}