Geneva Resolution demanding an international investigation into military operations during last stages of the War
Posted on March 11th, 2013
Sri Lanka Support Group, Canberra
The Western do gooders in Geneva plus India allege Sri Lanka committed war crimes during the last stages of the War. They desperately try to depict Sri Lanka and its people as brutals. Sri Lankan Government has vehemently maintained its stand that its forces did not commit such brutal, horrendous crimes.
Now the enemies of Sri Lanka in Geneva demand an international war crimes investigation into Sri Lanka’s last stages of the war. They make the allegation relying on Mr Gordon Weiss’ assertions and the Channel 4 documentaries. Apart from these two dubious sources, they do not have any credible evidence to demand such an investigation against Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka Support Group, Canberra unequivocally says Mr Weiss is biased against Sri Lanka, his allegations are not credible and that the Channel 4 videos are unauthentic. Both parties have motives to lie. Sri Lanka Support Group has shown 58 situations where the Channel 4 ‘Killing Fields’ video was unauthentic (please see our previous media releases).
(1) Mr Gordon Weiss (and Western Media) assertions
It was Mr Weiss who first stated in 2010 that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians may have died in the last stages of war and alleged that the Sri Lankan military killed them. During this time he was writing his book on the Sri Lankan War which was later published and copies were sold in large numbers. When Mr Weiss was working for the UN, during April/May2009, he himself or his own agency stated that only up to 7,000 people were killed – they did not attribute blame on the Sri Lankan military for the deaths (this was also a high number and the Sri Lankan Government denied this). The Government of Sri Lanka later admitted (in 2011) that about 8,000 people were killed during last stages of war in the North and East. The figure was arrived from works of the Government officials (grama sevakas etc) who have presence in the villages. The 8,000 figure included deaths of Tamil Tigers (most of them were in civil attire that time) and the natural deaths of the Northern province citizens. On what basis did Mr Weiss about 9 after the war increase the number of deaths from 7,000 to 40,000!? He could not answer this at his own book launch in Melbourne in 2011. Mr Weiss states he got his information from reliable sources who had a presence inside the battle zone, not Tamil civilians nor Tamil fighters, but failed articulate what those credible sources were. If Mr Weiss’s source of information was the Tamil doctors who spoke to foreign journalists during the war (Mr Weiss seems to imply this, but there is no evidence that he did speak to them) stating that large number of Tamil civilians were dead, then, they cannot be considered credible witnesses. After the war the doctors came out from the closet and stated that they had to say there were many Tamil civilian deaths (they never stated 40,000 deaths) because they were under pressure from the Tamil Tigers to say so. They admitted that they had fabricated the stories to the world.
Mr Weiss’ figure was accepted as gospel truth by the Western media and politicians (hereinafter ‘the West’). During the same time the British Guardian reported that 40,000 civilians were killed, and implied most of the deaths were committed by the Sri Lankan military. It seems the Guardian picked up the figure after largely speaking to Diaspora Tamils, who as everyone knows are hell bent on attacking Sri Lanka. They want to create a ‘Tamil Elam’ in Sri Lanka by hook or crook, something which the LTTE failed by gun.
We now note that enemies of Sri Lanka have increased the dead number without any credible evidence to a much more comfortable 50,000 – a figure substantial enough to demand an international investigation of war crimes. Some recent Western media have increased the number of deaths to 125,000. A fanciful allegation – it is impossible for anyone to kill and dispose so many dead bodies in the midst of 300,000 people that were in the No Fire Zone (not a single civilians therein had stated that so many people were killed). The West is simply plucking numbers from thin air, with the sole aim of destroying Sri Lanka.
Again, Mr Weiss and the West have intentionally or recklessly misled or lied to the international world about the dead and casualty figures. This is a very serious accusation against a democratically elected Government and a proud Nation. Their duty should be to disclose the truth to the World.
Neither Mr Weiss nor the West have been bold enough to state that of those Tamils who died (7,000 or 40,000, we say the numbers were minute), they were Tamil Tigers, and if Tamil civilians also died, then they may have most probably been killed by the Tamil Tigers themselves, as they were holding heavy armaments inside the No Fire Zone to shoot at the military.
During last stages of the war, the President of Sri Lanka gave an assurance to the international community that the Sri Lankan Army will not fire at the No Fire Zone and Mr Weiss and the West very well know that the Government did stick to its promise. General Fonseka too confirmed that the Army did not fire at the No Fire Zone. Mr Weiss and the West would agree large numbers of Sri Lankan soldiers died as a result of Tamil Tiger gun/artillery fire as they were unable to shoot at the terrorists hiding in the No Fire Zone. Mr Weiss nor the Western media do not want to say all this, then it will not create a bad impression about Sri Lanka in the mind of the ordinary Western citizen.
Channel 4 false accusations
Channel 4 has brought up several videos showing alleged execution of Tamils by the Sri Lankan military and other war crime atrocities against Sri Lanka including the most recent video alleging that the Army killed Prabhakaran’s son, Balachandran.
There is credible evidence that on or about 19 May 2009 Prabhakaran ordered the death of his family members including that of his youngest child, Balachandran. Prabhakaran with his Nazi style thinking did not want the family members to be captured alive by the Sri Lankan forces (Note he gave cyanide capsules to his cadres to wear around the neck). Photos shown by Channel 4 evidence that Balachandran was kept in a LTTE bunker (Note the smiling young Balachandran who was wearing the sarong in typical Tamil style). There were people wearing slippers around him. The Sri Lankan military never wore slippers, but boots. It was the Tamil Tigers who fought the war wearing slippers.
For the West to say the controversial Channel 4 videos are authentic, without regard to the Sri Lankan Government’s viewpoint is totally wrong, when the Sri Lankan Government had vehemently denied that its military killed innocent Tamil civilians and Tamil Tigers in arbitrary fashion. The Sri Lankan Government and other reputed Sri Lankan organisations in the Western World, including Sri Lanka Support Group, Canberra, have provided expert reports stating that the videos were fabrications. It is alleged Channel 4 had close affinity with the Tamil Diaspora, one of its leading staff member involved with production of the videos has a Tamil spouse and he had visited Sri Lanka recently with her.
4. A clear Western Media lie where they were caught (there are many instances like this)
The photo below had lots of prominence during the war where the international media widely published it as a photo depicting the Sri Lankan military shelling the innocent Tamil civilians (women and children). The Sri Lankan Government was blamed for killing innocent civilians. Later it was revealed that the photo was a fake. It had been taken with Tamil actors to deceive the whole world . Some international media accepted it as a fake. The Canberra Times also reported the fake. It is alleged that some of the actors in this fake photo have appeared as actors in the Channel Four video (this is not yet a fully verified fact).
However, what was hidden from the world was that the photo was an LTTE propaganda stunt. The unedited above photo (found by the Army with LTTE documents) shows that the incident was stage managed. Look at the smiling girl in scarf with a professional camera and the men who are not affected by the ’shelling’ in the background. Also note smiling woman in the green dress. This is how the LTTE used women and children to and act to fool the West. Obviously more than one camera had been in operation.
It is expected that in the future more western TV stations, especially Channel 4 will air more fabricated controversial videos on Sri Lanka, especially during the times when Sri Lanka issue is debated in world forums. The enemies of Sri Lanka bring in the videos with intervals, they are doing this to keep the momentum against Sri Lanka going, with the massive financial and other assistance of the Tamil Diaspora.
If Channel 4 and the Australian ABC Four Corners and other western and Indian media agencies, politicians and others continue to denigrate and defame Sri Lanka, then the only alternative available to the Sri Lankan Government is to initiate legal action against them on defamation (Sri Lanka Support Group is also seriously considering this pathway). This will also lead to these unlawful elements paying millions of dollars of compensation to the Sri Lankan People.
Sri Lanka Support Group, Canberra
