{"id":52184,"date":"2016-02-19T22:57:19","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T04:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=52184"},"modified":"2016-02-19T15:35:17","modified_gmt":"2016-02-19T22:35:17","slug":"more-than-30-years-we-the-victims-of-ltte-war-crimes-are-still-awaiting-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/02\/19\/more-than-30-years-we-the-victims-of-ltte-war-crimes-are-still-awaiting-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 30 years: We, the victims of LTTE war crimes are STILL awaiting justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge<\/span><\/b><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

LTTE\u2019s terror was first unleashed on innocent border villages and since over 30 years, every month, every year the LTTE has been attacking innocent people. <\/span>Where was the UN\/INGOs\/NGOs and the world before 2009?<\/span><\/b> If true accountability is to prevail the UN is duty-bound to ensure that we are provided answers. We demand to know how the LTTE started, who armed, trained, financed and provided material support to the LTTE and the crimes that were perpetrated over this period until their defeat in May 2009. Therefore, any committee that the UN & GOSL has created cannot omit tabulating the following crimes and obtaining witness accounts from survivors & their families. We are surprised why the so-called human rights champions and justice-seeking NGOs making representations over 7 years to Geneva have not presented a list of these LTTE crimes against humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The key failure of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia, another hybrid court was that it totally ignored 90% of the victims who were in rural Cambodia. <\/span><\/p>\n

How many in the villages that LTTE attacked even know who Ban Ki Moon is or have even heard of the UNHRC to make submissions? Isn\u2019t it always the same sets of people that foreign representatives end up meeting? <\/span><\/p>\n

UN has nicely covered up itself through the Petrie Report but UN has failed to answer what it was doing from 1980s to May 2009 when the LTTE was unleashing terror on civilians? UN comes out with the red card only after LTTE was militarily defeated and produces all the violations that the Sri Lankan military has committed and passes minor reference to LTTE just to show LTTE has been covered.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, none of the UNHRC\u2019s reports, UNHRC investigations or the NGOs that work closely with them have presented any of LTTE\u2019s violations and the whole emphasis is always on the Sri Lankan military. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the case of Cambodia, Congo, Sierra Leone, etc the hybrid court tribunals were all going against rebels. In the case of Sri Lanka, the rebels are not investigated but an unusual effort is being taken to somehow find evidence against the Sri Lankan military. <\/span><\/p>\n

While people can name those that the LTTE killed, and 5000 soldier wives and parents can name their missing husbands\/sons it has taken 7 years and 3 resolutions, 1 UNHRC investigation and we are still to be given the names of the supposed 40,000 to 100,000 that the army has killed. However, the entire mainstream media enjoys claiming that the tribunal is against war crimes committed by the Sri Lanka army with no mention about the LTTE. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is getting beyond a joke now and officials will in years to come enter history books for the crass hypocrisy and injustice being meted out if true accountability is the aim. <\/span><\/p>\n

The list of crimes of LTTE<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Pre-meditated murder<\/li>\n
  2. Ethnic cleansing of Sinhalese & Muslims from the North in 1980s<\/li>\n
  3. Theft of lands and property from Sinhalese & Muslims<\/li>\n
  4. Emotional and Mental agony suffered by those chased out of their homes\/lands\/property<\/li>\n
  5. Storming villages, cutting people & children to pieces (Committee must go to each village LTTE attacked since 1980s)<\/li>\n
  6. Destroying cultivation and denying means of livelihood to villages<\/li>\n
  7. Targeting civilian installations (Committee must forward a list of all public places LTTE attacked since 1980s)<\/li>\n
  8. Violation of Additional Protocols of the Geneva Convention that prohibit acts aimed at spreading terror among civilian populations<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. Instilling fear among the Sri Lankan civil polity who were too scared to even leave their homes<\/li>\n
  10. Loss of revenue for the country as a result of LTTE\u2019s terror reign affecting investments \/ development \/ tourism \/ productivity of people etc<\/li>\n
  11. Violating Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights \u2013 denying people right to life, liberty and security<\/li>\n
  12. Violating Article 4 & 5 of UN Declaration of Human Rights \u2013 LTTE held Tamil low castes as slaves\/in servitude and were severely punished<\/li>\n
  13. Violation of Article 26 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights – LTTE\u2019s denial of fundamental right to the Tamil children it abducted and turned into child soldiers<\/li>\n
  14. Violating Freedom of Movement (a violation of international and Constitution of Sri Lanka) \u2013 Tamils given passes by LTTE\u2019s Transport Monitoring Division while no Sinhalese \/ Muslims were allowed into LTTE controlled areas.<\/li>\n
  15. Violating freedom of thought & expression and democratic rights \u2013 anyone opposing LTTE was killed or severely injured<\/li>\n
  16. Forcing Tamil low caste families to \u2018donate\u2019 a child to the LTTE cause<\/li>\n
  17. Forcible abduction & recruitment of low caste Tamil adults as \u2018volunteers\u2019 and children as child soldiers. Even pregnant women abducted were given medicines to abort their unborn foetus.<\/li>\n
  18. Psychologically terrorizing people including Tamils who were physically attacked abroad if they did not contribute to the LTTE kitty<\/li>\n
  19. Forced starvation \u2013 LTTE denied Tamils the essential goods sent by the GOSL<\/li>\n
  20. Confiscating essential commodities (food, medicines, fuel) sent by GOSL and distributing them only among LTTE families.<\/li>\n
  21. LTTE taxation \u2013 every business operator forced to pay tax to LTTE monthly<\/li>\n
  22. Public execution for any Tamil providing information to the Sri Lanka Military\/Police<\/li>\n
  23. Crime against humanity \u2013 ordering Tamil cadres to commit suicide.<\/li>\n
  24. Crime of suicide terrorism which has no legitimacy under international\/local laws. Suicide attacks fall into category of murder with mens rea \u2013 willingness to kill and willingness to die.<\/li>\n
  25. Assassinations \u2013 no entity has the right to deny the life of another.<\/li>\n
  26. Illicit trade international network that continues still (narcotics, human smuggling, credit card, boat smuggling, money laundering)<\/li>\n
  27. Violation of 3 & 4 Geneva Convention & Additional Protocol 1 – Using civilians as Human Shields. ICC declares that \u2018utilizing the presence of a civilian or other protected person to render points, areas or military forces immune from military operations\u2019 is a war crime<\/li>\n
  28. Shooting fleeing civilians during end of conflict despite calls made by UN and foreign envoys to release them http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/sites\/default\/files\/reports\/ltte1208webwcover_1.pdf \/<\/span><\/span><\/a> http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9C3uYsnHIkw<\/span><\/a> Anna Niesat of Human Rights Watch <\/span><\/li>\n
  29. Sending children and untrained men and women to battle compromising their lives.<\/li>\n
  30. Giving children, men and women who have never held a gun and ordering them to shoot turning them into armed combatants and thereby losing their status as civilians.<\/li>\n
  31. Violating Article 5 of IHL <\/span><\/b>Civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules, which are additional to other applicable rules of international law, shall be observed in all circumstances\u201d (Protection of civilian population). <\/span><\/li>\n
  32. Violating Article 23 of <\/span>(Third Geneva Convention) <\/span><\/b>specifically states that a prisoner of war is not to be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operation\u201d. (Geneva Convention III). <\/span><\/li>\n
  33. Violating Article 28 declaring illegal the practice of employing human shields under IHL Fourth Geneva Convention the presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operation\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n
  34. Violating Additional Protocol 1 to the Geneva Convention Article 51 (7) says the presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operation, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations\u201d. (LTTE used passive and active human shields \u2013 voluntary human shields or involuntary it is a violation) <\/span><\/li>\n
  35. Violation of no fire zone\/civilian safety zone \u2013 LTTE used area designated only for civilians and fired from inside. GOSL declared zones on 21 January 2009 and 12 February 2009. Loudspeakers\/leaflets were dropped to direct Tamils. LTTE took its heavy machinery into these demarcated areas and shot at the SL Military from inside<\/span><\/li>\n
  36. LTTE did not fight in uniform blurring distinction for soldiers to identify combatant from non-combatant. <\/span><\/li>\n
  37. Using civilians to bargain and buy time.<\/span><\/li>\n
  38. Violating Geneva Convention by hiding amongst civilians, keeping weapons amongst civilians and firing from amongst civilians. <\/span><\/li>\n
  39. Killing LTTE\u2019s own injured cadres \u2013 putting injured cadres into buses and blowing them up.
    \n<\/span><\/p>\n

    Material support to LTTE<\/span><\/b>
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \n
    • We want to know why LTTE and LTTE fronts declared under UNSC Resolution 1373 naming 16 organizations (operating from overseas) as LTTE fronts and 494 individuals in April 2014 were not designated and why some of these entities have suddenly ben deproscribed.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • We would like to have the accountability include the lists of Tamil civilians living overseas who are coerced into contributing to the LTTE kitty and forced to take part in demonstrations carrying eelam flags.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Investigations into foreign kovils that had been collecting for the LTTE as well as links to Church-LTTE.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Investigate LTTE links to politicians \/ INGOs\/NGOs \/ foreign envoys \/ UN officials \/ foreign parliamentarians \/ foreign governments etc<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Investigation on LTTE\u2019s violations of IHL (LTTE as a terrorist organization may not be granted prisoner of war status but LTTE had to abide by the laws of IHL and keep to rules of the Geneva Convention)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      We await to see how far the Pakiasothy consultation committee tabulates the war crimes & crimes against humanity committed by the LTTE if as they say they are neutral players in a quest for justice. So far we have had no evidence of such but we shall give the benefit of the doubt to see whether the above will enter their reports. If not, we can all assume that like all other tribunals of the UN\/UNHRC it has been a waste of time, money and made a handful of people richer by creating opportunities for them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

      On both visits of the UNHRC head to Sri Lanka none of the LTTE victims were even met and UN local office \/ local NGO representatives or even foreign envoys did not even bother to arrange meetings with victims of LTTE terror and the attention was only on Tamils totally ignoring the Sinhalese & Muslim victims of LTTE terror through 3 decades. How fair is this?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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

      Shenali D Waduge LTTE\u2019s terror was first unleashed on innocent border villages and since over 30 years, every month, every year the LTTE has been attacking innocent people. Where was the UN\/INGOs\/NGOs and the world before 2009? If true accountability is to prevail the UN is duty-bound to ensure that we are provided answers. We […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52184","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\/52184","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=52184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52184\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}