Reports by War Without Witness - War Without Witness in Sri Lanka

Journalist name command officers involved in killing surrendering combatants in Sri Lanka

A Journalist has named the brigade and command officers involved in the execution of surrendering LTTE combatants in Sri Lanka, in the early hours of May 18th 2009. Names of those Command Officers involved in alleaged War Crimes are,Photo: Special Forces Brigade Commander Colonel Athula Kodippili

– Special Forces Regiment were deployed alongside the 59 division : Commanded then by Col. Athula Kodipilli. Special Force battalions 1-SF led by Maj. Mahinda Ranasinghe and 2-SF led by Maj. Vipulathilake Ihalage. Golf squad under Capt. Chaminda Gunasekera , Romeo squad under Capt.Kavinda Abeywardene, Echo squad led by Maj. Kosala Wijekone and Delta squad led by Capt. Lasantha Ratnasekera.The Golf and Romeo squads were from 1SF while theEcho and Delta squads were from 2SF.

– 59 division led by Prasanna Silva
– 58 div led by Shavendra Silva
– 53 div led by Kamal Gunaratne
– Task Force 8 led by Col Ravipriya

Sri Lankan Military Intelligence Operatives planning a secret operation to execute Tamil Prisoners of War – HR Activist

A Human Rights activist from Sri Lankan capital Colombo, on conditions of anonymity told WarWithoutWitness that, Sri Lankan Military Intelligence Operatives are planning a secret undercover operation to execute most of the 10,000 odd Tamil Prisoners of War (PoW) before the forthcoming Presidential election to be held on Jan. 26, 2010. WarWithoutWitness couldn’t independently verify the authenticity or credibility of this alert. Given the track record of human rights violations by Sri Lankan defense forces & the number of peoples life at risk, extracts of the alert is reproduced below ‘AS IS’.

Alert from a Human Rights Activist in Colombo, Sri Lanka;

“..one of my friend connected to sri Lankan military, who is concerned about human beings life told that a group of military intelligence personal with the orders from top boss are planning to stage play a secret attack on one of the major camp where LTTE Prisoners are detained without ICRC, UN or outside access. They are planning to use some of the LTTE leaders currently in detention to launch an attack on the prison itself (like a rescue mission from remaining LTTE) and execute LTTE prisoners during the counter attack by military personnel providing security to the prison. It is going to happen before presidential election. If this is done this will be a big killing ..”

Photographs of Tamils with ‘dog-tag’ imprisoned at undisclosed torture camps in Sri Lanka

Philip Alston seek clarification from Sri Lankan Government on Possible War Crimes by Gotapaya Rajapaksa

Full text of the letter sent by UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary execution to Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations office at Geneva
18 December 2009
Excellency,
I have the honour to address you in my capacity as Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial summary or arbitrary executions pursuant to General Assembly resolution 60/251 and to Human Rights Council resolution 8.3.

A Sample Catalogue of Rape used as a tactic of war in Sri Lanka – 1996 to 2001

“..Now, reading the headlines, one might think that the use of rape as a tactic of war only happens occasionally, or in a few places, like the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Sudan. That would be bad enough, but the reality is much worse. We’ve seen rape used as a tactic of war before in Bosnia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere. In too many countries and in too many cases, the perpetrators of this violence are not punished, and so this impunity encourages further attacks..”
– Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State in UN

A Sample Catalogue of Rape used as a tactic of war in Sri Lanka – 1996 to 2001

1996

11.05.96 Displaced unknown Woman at Kodikamam was raped and killed by unknown soldiers

19.05.96 Sri Ranjani (18), Puvaneswari (36) and Rajeswari (38) Sarasaalai by unknown soldiers. Rajeswari was Sri Ranjani’s mother and Puvaneswaris sister.

Tamil Engineer working for a US Charity extrajudicially executed near Colombo

A Tamil Computer Engineer Mr Kathirvel Thayapararaja who was working for a US registered Charity (ITTPO – A US federal tax exempt (501 (c) (3)) organization in the USA and an approved NGO in Sri Lanka ) has been extrajudicially executed by Sri Lankan CID Officers in Avisawala , a town 55 km from Capital Colombo on 15th Sept 2009. Mr Kathirvel Thayapararaja, born on 02nd of January 1981 is resident from Varivalavu, Karainagar, Jaffna. He is a Computer Engineer graduated from University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka.

Photographs of Tamils with ‘dog-tag’ imprisoned at undisclosed torture camps in Sri Lanka

Media has much reported on the fate of more than 300,000 tamil IDPs currently held in internment camps funded by UN and International agencies and their lack of freedom of movement. These rare images emerging from Sri Lanka shows the forgotten storey of Tamils who are “dog-tag”ed and arrested by Sri Lankan Military Officers for interrogations as possible suspects of Tamil Tigers. Sri Lankan government has claimed that they have arrested more than 10,000 suspects but ICRC has only access 2,000 of them. None of this suspects were produced in courts and don’t have access to any legal support & effectively in illegal imprisonment.

Top UN official expelled from Sri Lanka

The Government of Sri Lanka has ordered a senior United Nation’s official to leave Sri Lanka within two weeks. James Elder, a senior official with the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), held a visa until July next year to serve in Sri Lanka. He is the first UN official carrying a UN passport with diplomatic status to be asked to leave Sri Lanka. Two week’s time has been given after he appealed from an order to leave immediately.