No One, in the US or Sri Lanka, Should Be Above the Law
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Photo by Sudath Silva
In a report released last month Human Rights Watch called on the US government to launch criminal investigations into allegations of detainee abuse authorized by senior Bush administration officials. The 107-page report, “Getting Away with Torture: The Bush Administration and Mistreatment of Detainees,” presents substantial information warranting criminal investigations of former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and CIA Director George Tenet, for ordering practices such as “waterboarding,” the use of secret CIA prisons, and the transfer of detainees to countries where they were tortured. Such acts violated the Convention against Torture, the Geneva Conventions, and other international treaties binding on the United States.
President Barack Obama took a number of important steps to promote human rights when he took office, including banning the use of torture. But while the Obama administration has disavowed the Bush administration for the use of torture, it has not taken the necessary next step: investigating and prosecuting those responsible for planning and authorizing it.
The Obama administration’s only attempt to date to look at past abuses was a wholly insufficient inquiry led by US Attorney John Durham. It looked only at abuses by CIA interrogators that went beyond what government lawyers authorized. It did not investigate interrogation methods that Bush administration lawyers deemed lawful in the now notorious “torture memos,” even though the methods plainly amounted to torture and other illegal acts. Instead, it looked only into cases in which CIA interrogators went beyond what government lawyers authorized, and then only decided to pursue 2 of about 100 cases it reviewed. In an attempt to avoid the political fallout from a serious accountability process, the Obama administration hopes that the Durham inquiry will close the book on this sordid chapter of American history.
Human Rights Watch issued its report because it does not accept impunity for serious human rights violations, in the US or anywhere else. Victims, including the many who we now know committed no crimes but were nevertheless arbitrarily detained and mistreated by the Bush administration, deserve justice. And the American people deserve to see that the law is upheld regardless of the perpetrator. The US government cannot ignore these offenses, which are grave crimes in violation of international law, for political or other reasons. For these reasons we continue to call on the US government to conduct criminal investigations, while asking other governments to do so if the US government does not.
We have long made the same points regarding Sri Lanka. In both countries senior government officials have been implicated in wrongdoing. Both have used the threat of terrorism to explain or try to justify the abuses. The Sri Lankan government has failed to open criminal investigations into a plethora of credible allegations of serious abuses during the final months of the war with the Tamil Tigers. The inadequate Durham inquiry is mirrored by the inadequate Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which does not have the mandate, resources, or, apparently, the will to investigate war-time abuses by government forces.
But there are some differences as well. While the US government has not fulfilled its obligations under international law to investigate torture allegations, it has admitted that some violations took place, at least by rank-and-file soldiers. It does not claim that photos of torture and ill-treatment by US soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were fake or doctored. Those who call for investigations have not been labelled as traitors and subjected to threats, intimidation, or worse.
The Sri Lankan government maintains its shrill and increasingly unbelievable arguments about how it conducted the final months of the war with the Tamil Tigers. After the publication of the UN Panel of Experts report, the government’s insistence that its forces committed no war crimes and maintained a policy of zero civilian casualties is farcical.. There is ample evidence that the Sri Lankan military repeatedly shelled its self-created “no-fire zone,” killing thousands of civilians, and repeatedly struck clearly marked hospitals. And there is video and other evidence of government soldiers summarily executing people in their custody, including members of the Tamil Tiger leadership and their family members. Of the many unanswered questions are who gave the orders for such abuses and how far up the chain of command.
When the Rajapakse administration is confronted with photographic and video evidence of atrocities, its reflexive response has been to denounce the messenger. It attacked the UN special rapporteur, Philip Alston, when he validated a gruesome video of killings. It responded with even more venom to the execution video shown on Britain’s Channel 4, calling it fake despite expert conclusions to the contrary. Its recent report on the conduct of the war continues its policy of denial of abuses by government forces.
Many officials have claimed that governments and organizations are engaged in a huge conspiracy against the government. Figures such as the UN secretary-general, ambassadors, foreign politicians, human rights workers, journalists and Sri Lankan activists are supposed to have gotten together as either Tamil Tiger agents or dupes to besmirch the reputation of the Sri Lankan government. Human Rights Watch has been accused of such bias, ignoring our years of reporting on Tamil Tiger abuses, including numerous killings, extortion of the diaspora, the use of child soldiers, and treating civilians as human shields during the war’s final months. They are all on our website. The idea that such a diverse group of people, institutions and governments would be able or willing to engage in a massive conspiracy is beyond ridiculous.
Whether committed by the US or Sri Lanka, by government officials or separatist groups, serious human rights abuses should be investigated and perpetrators held to account. Until the US and the Sri Lankan governments do so, they will be violating the trust that their people have put in them. And, as we showed in our report about rights violations under the Bush administration, demands for accountability will not go away. Indeed, they will only get stronger.
Brad Adams is Asia director at Human Rights Watch
“No One in Sri Lanka Should Be Above the Law” said Brad Adams who is the Asia director at Human Rights Watch
Thanks, Brad Adams for telling the truth about Sri Lanka War Crimes
The island nation Sri Lanka, under the rule of President Mahinda Rajapakse, has painfully gone astray from the established norms of national and international laws that guarantee the security of human rights and decent living of citizens of Sri Lanka.
A power cartel called Sri Lankan government comprising hardcore criminals in power today, the country Sri Lanka has topped the list of unlawful, undemocratic and anarchic countries in the world.
Pro-Rajapaksa gangs, issuance of threat orders to politicians and journalists for their voice over independent views, suppression and gradual elimination of time-honoured ethnic Tamil culture and language, forceful eviction of Tamil property owners and the ensuing encroachment of their lands by Sinhalese in previously Tamil occupied properties and wanton vandalism of Tamil cultural monuments in Tamil provinces.
In the absence of the law in the national politics to protect the citizens, Sri Lanka witnesses today cruel mass murder of the Tamil civilians !!!
What is evident so far if one steps back and analyse all evidence presented by protagonists in this debate between the likes of HRW, Ch-4 and Gordon Weiss on one hand and GoSL and its backers on the other are the following:
1) Brad Adams is quite correct in the critique he makes of GoSL response in comparison to the US response. Anyone trained to think critically would see this immediately. A man on the street in a western city can see this. The best intellectual talent that English speaking Colombo can offer appear unable to grasp this simple fact that their village idiot administration has failed miserably in this. Every time a GoSL representative presents sound arguments against the claims of Ch-4 s/he falters by trying to hide what is patently obviously. The worst crime committed was to place an English speaking female to compere the Government video in which she (absurdly) defends the stripping of Issapriya (video recorded) by claiming that she was a LTTE member. The fact that other completely naked female bodies were treated in a far from respectful manner by male soldiers appear to escape the attention of the compere. Sri Lankans just don’t seem to get it.
2) People like Weiss and Ch-4 are equally culpable in telling barefaced lies (at worst) or being completely naive at best. Examples are given below:
To expect anyone of Sri Lankan origin to believe the guy “Fernando” speaking of children and women being hacked to death just because Shavendra Silva gave an order to do what is necessary is ludicrous. We are all too familiar with Sri Lankan proclivity for hyperbole or outright lies if some money changes hands or purely out of vengeance. The reason it is unbelievable is also because something of that nature would have been news in the Sri Lankan grapevine immediately and could not be so starkly absent on websites for 2 years. Only the LTTE rump has repeated claims of Genocide, and if GoSL did anything right it was to demonstrate the statistics of population estimates to refute this claim. Furthermore, we can be pretty certain that satellite technology was used to observe the conclusion of the war especially on the beech front which could not be hidden. Gordon Weiss makes an equally ridiculous comment, that General Fonseka was responsible for 87-89 atrocities in the Gampaha region. This is a claim which could be easily refuted and places the author in an invidious position. In each case a lie has been used to bolster a position (that Genocide occurred and was policy with command responsibility, that Fonseka had a history of responsibility for crimes against humanity). JVP members have indicated that Fonseka has expressed regret for responsibility for deaths of youth in 87-89 but they firmly support him only because he was not a perpetrator of crimes against humanity.
3) The claims of illegal shelling at least up to May 2009 appear to have no substance, even though graphically described by both Ch-4 and Weiss. GoSL or its agents (e.g. David Blacker) have successfully refuted these claims. In this context it is ironic that GoSL has gone to significant effort at defending the responsible officer who was in charge of the War until he left for China in early May 2009. All evidence point to General Sarath Fonseka having prosecuted a war which was by the book and that the soldiers under his command obeyed his standing orders not to contravene laws of War. Creating NFZ’s may be considered morally questionable but it was certainly defendable as a strategy and LTTE can be clearly held culpable in a court of Law. In fact this is a fact that LTTE rump should bear in mind as they are all that remains of LTTE operations, they can be held secondarily responsible for the crimes committed by LTTE (more of this later). Added to this is Fonseka’s firm statements that he takes responsibility and left no room for crimes and that if crimes were committed, it is a duty of a patriot to report it also confirms the evidence which GoSL has already mounted in various fora. Ironically then, the greatest enemy of the Rajapakses has been exonerated by the efforts of the Rajapakse’s themselves. The foolishness of the Tamil diaspora and individuals like Gordon Weiss then become more apparent because they have cut off their nose despite their faces in demonising the only innocent player in this whole saga. This is so because their efforts have been to discredit him altogether and to label him a criminal. He happens to be the only one with the power to prove their most relevant claim true.
4) The most credible and relevant claim made by the protagonists against GoSL is that their was a command given by Defence Secretary Rajapakse to Brigadier Shavendra Silva, not to take prisoners (presumably of the LTTE leadership) at the end of the War and that Silva passed on this command to his officers. This is credible for numerous reasons. It was reported within a week of the end of the War. It has been repeatedly confirmed by Sri Lankans at various websites, some of whom claim that they have seen the video of Silva taking orders. Palitha Kohona has confirmed Marie Colvin’s claim that there was mediation by the UN for LTTE leaders to surrender. Fonseka himself has admitted that he had been informed of this by a journalist. Fonseka also claimed that no such orders were obeyed but other evidence point to illegal orders being taken by Silva who then ordered his men to break International Conventions. Starkly, some who claim to have access to this video claim that they have not released it as General Fonseka has not approved it! Soon after the Presidential elections Gota (Gotabhaya Rajapakse) gave an interview in which he denied any intention of arresting Fonseka. Shortly afterwards, Fonseka had said that he is willing to testify in front of an International Tribunal. He was arrested soon afterwards. The next interview Gota gave to Hard Talk was when he went nuts and started talking about “treason”. The “white flag” case in this context has become a great millstone around the Rajapakse necks. Then there is the report in Indian Newspapers soon after the war that Mahinda had given the order to shell the NFZ (in the absence of Fonseka). This has also been confirmed independently to me by a third party who had heard it from a minister of his cabinet. But wait there is more! On the 20 May 2009, M. Bhradrakumar an Indian career diplomat wrote on Asia Times Online, “As for the blood on our hands, true, it is a blessed nuisance. But this is not the first time in our history that we’re having blood on our hands” in an article about the demise of the LTTE and death of Prabhakaran in particular. Even more interesting is that after the Ch-4 screening of the video accusing Silva came out, Nerupama Rao (soon to be Indian Ambassador to the US) said that “We should handle these matters within the region!” Reassuring words for the Rajapakse brothers!
One could wonder how it is that a War (of attrition) which the prosecuting General had expected (he did not expect the war to end till late 2009) ended so suddenly and spectacularly. How is it that it happened immediately after the Indian Elections? Why was the Army Commander sent to China on an Arms Procurement mission if the end of the war was close? Which nation was most humiliated by the LTTE in past 20 years? Who would have found it a nuisance to have a whole heap of LTTE leaders (perhaps numbering over 300) who would have been more dangerous alive than dead whilst facing court cases both in Sri Lanka and India? I and many others would find the strategic sense of eliminating the to 300 or so hard-core LTTE leaders. When I see the US secretary of State unable to hide her shock and hiding her mouth with her hand when watching the operation against Osama Bin Laden, importance of such strategy becomes even more evident. Looks like the Rajapakse brothers have nothing to fear outside the country. Ones own people; well that’s another matter.
So here is my take on the future:
Ch-4, Gordon Weiss, HRW, AI have been fed enough rope by LTTE and maybe even by GoSL agents that they will become irrelevant because of massive lack of credibility. GoSL will never be taken before any international tribunals because the Rajapakse brothers will do a deal and be good boys under US hegemony. India and China will not stand in the way of US reestablishing itself stronger than ever in Sri Lanka as it is of strategic importance to the US (for the moment). Tamil elite who created the disaster for the poor Tamils in the first place (the caste politics of Jaffna is well documented elsewhere by sources such as Bryan Pfafenbeger) will reestablish themselves in Sri Lanka and continue the project that they should have pursued fifty years ago. That of economic hegemony over Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans.
The Sinhala identity will submerge and disappear in two generations (this is Kamma for helping Pandyas destroy the Chola empire and identity 800 years ago) under the “We’re Sri Lankan” ideology. The language will gradually be called Sri Lankan as “Sinhala” acquires many more words in common with Tamil and Hindi cementing the “Sinhala” identity. The “Tamil” identity will remain as its is indentity with a Worldwide presence. Ironically, the name the “Tamils” give themselves would be derived from a derisive name the Mahavamsa had given them 1500 years ago. That is Kamma for collectively being duplicitous.
Rajapakse’s and their hangers-on (who are mostly part of the Sri Lankan criminal class) will all face a spectacular catastrophe within a decade. This is largely because of the “Kamma” acquired collectively for persecuting an innocent man who could have made a difference. (Well, actually, it will probably delivered by those loyal to SF. I wonder if the devil we did not know would have been much better than the one we knew already for decades). The said catastrophe will be delivered by Sri Lankans. If I was a Rajapkase, I would hope that such catastrophe would be delivered to me personally, for I would not want to die safely, knowing what would otherwise be faced by my children or their children.
For those interested, the Bhadrakumar article can be found at :
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KE20Df03.html
His predictions back in 2009 are chilling!
GV, I would like to make an addendum to my previous post in which I had said that more about accountability of LTTE remnant would be covered. Accountability action against such actors can only be taken once Sri Lanka has put its own house in order. This will never be done by the current regime. It may be possible under a regime which frees General Fonseka.
If the above goal is achieved and those who have committed crimes against humanity or War crimes in Sri Lanka are brought to justice, then Sri Lanka would be well placed to take vigorous action against LTTE remnant overseas especially if individuals can be traced who have responsibility for various crimes of terror committed in Sri Lanka. At the head of that list will be Adele Balasingham:
Ravana,
I would agree with you on many point you raised in your comment.
However, I do not agree with what you said about Sarath Fonseka. While I am against the way Rajapakshas are running the country the only positive thing they did, according to my opinion, is getting rid of Sarath Fonseka and his followers from the commanding positions of the Army. (However, I do not agree with the way they treat him now by putting him to jail etc.)The megalomanic as he is, there would have been a danger of Sinhalese Buddhist Army Dictatorship in the country, which would have been much worse than the Rajapaksha oligarchy.
I am sorry to say that all your seemingly borad-minded outlook is faded away by the way you adulate Sarath Fonseka, who is nothing but a ruthless, efficient, army soldier.
I do not adulate Fonseka but I do respect the professionalism he has displayed. Further, the point I make is that Sarath Fonseka is almost certainly innocent of any War Crimes and certainly innocent of trumped up charges levelled against him so far.
From a moral perspective I reserve my judgement even though you make a valid point. We may never know if your point is correct or not. I completely agree that the military cannot in any way be permitted to have a say in the politics of the country.
We have to keep in mind that SF was a civilian and is certainly one now. In terms of him spending Gaol time, it is probably something he welcomes. I would welcome it in his shoes for one reason. As a military man I would be responsible for much misery even if that misery was actioned legally. So, in order to balance things I would accept suffering personally on my part. Even, having my rank and awards rescinded would be welcome. I would attempt to avoid greatness at the expense of others. All this has to be balanced against doing what is right and what is my duty.
If I do the above, then I can rest easy that the most precious things in my life, my children would be free of my Kamma. I would certainly no bring them in to politics.
Reading between the lines of what has happened in the past two years, I don’t believe we have seen Fonseka’s final play yet. This is not because of adulation but because I think he has an innate intelligence far above that of his adversaries.
One caveat. I think he made a mistake in talking about Sri Lanka historically belonging to singhalese. He clarified this comment later and attempted to retract the meaning it appeared to convey. Unfortunately for him, the label of racist was already on him. I don’t believe that he is a racist any more than MR is. He is certainly not in the ilk of JHU. I think the Tamil Diaspora need to make peace with him in order to achieve a higher goal. I think they are capable of it.
Pitastharaputhraya,
Wow! adulation of Fonseka. My rating of Fonseka has been above 0 for most part in the past two years but has fluctuated, going to negative momentarily after the first Ch-4 video. I am surprised that you see adulation at Fonseka being called General (a deliberate defiance of the Rajapakses) and “innocent” (based on current evidence).
If you want examples of adulation of General Fonseka here are some comments from LEN:
“Api paramparaawenma SLFP awun.Ath General nisa jeewithaye kisidaaka chandaya nodunna UNP yata chandaya dunna.”
” rata LTTE mineemaruwangen beraa gattha,Awanka, Jathihithaishi wirodhaara athi garu Sarath Fonseka mathi thumaa witharai ratata ithaamath awashya,mema wadagath deya karanna puluwan naayaka kenekuta inne”
“SF kiyanakota munge kakul patalenawa, Diva patalenawa kotinma kiyanawanam bola dekath patalewenawa”
“SF kiyanne jaathika weerayek.Awrudu 30 ka saapayen rata nidahas kara gaththu Sinha Puthrayek.Wupadinna enna daruwange Devi kenek.Awani sreestha Naayakayekuta kala sakkili wada walata mun denna athuluwa Mahinda+Gotata daduwam labenaamai”
When one compares SF to MR I have to say that current evidence point to SF being the better of the two. If on the other hand Lakshman Kadirgamar was alive there would be no contest as to who the preferred leader would be. I doubt that SF would even consider putting his hat into the ring if Kadirigamar was alive.
You believe that I admire SF (to an extent that is true) and presumably that makes it difficult for me to be broad-minded. I believe that you also have a surprising venom towards SF notwithstanding your correct analysis of military dictatorship being undesirable.
I would suggest that we debate the pros and cons of the thesis that “the megalomanic as he is, there would have been a danger of Sinhalese Buddhist Army Dictatorship in the country, which would have been much worse than the Rajapaksha oligarchy”.
I would be arguing for the negative in regard to the above assertion but would be very interested in the evidence you can bring to bear on the matter. I have studied both SF and MR as carefully as I can in the past 2-3 years and would welcome an interaction with you (GV permitting).
The “Law” is something constructed by the propertied class to justify holding to their properties. Thus if a landless family were to squat on the edge of a 1000 acre land belonging to a rich aristocrat whose ancestors had acquired the land by plunder, the landless family is evicted by LAW, since the rich man holds “deeds” to the land. The land in the North and East of Sri Lanka are owned by an upper class which constitute less than a mere 15% of the Tamil people. These landed aristocrats (“upper castes”) have lived in Colombo, India, UK, USA, Malaya etc., while the poorer people have lived and worked on the land virtually as slaves for those people. This highly discriminatory but traditionally accepted system has been described recently by a number of notable Tamil writers like Rasalingam, Hoole, Paramasivam and others (see http://www.srilankaguardian.org/search/label/Caste ). The land-owning upper classes wanted to fend off the democratic reforms (universal franchise, education, women’s rights, land reform etc; see British historian Jane Russell’s book – Communal Politics in the Donoughmore era) and launched a separatist war to keep power in their hands – this was the proposed Eelam that they funded from abroad, and manipulated the lower classes as cannon fodder, via their agent, Prabhakaran. The foolish bid to fight a 75% majority with a Tamil-population base of less than 7% in the north (the rest being in the South and the Hills) was doomed to failure, in spite of the millions of dollars, lost lives as well as clandestine western support. So, whose rights were violated? The rights of the depressed classes who never had any, and they were used as the cat’s paw of the Diaspora. With the demise of the LTTE, that cat is dead. Now Brad Adams and other individuals have become the new cat’s paw of this western-domiciled Disapora which is not contributing to the rehabilitation of those very depressed castes that they exploited from time immemorial. Instead, they are leading boycott campaigns and “bring-the criminals to court” campaigns. The true criminals are those who funded a murderous and short-sighted war.
The tragedy in all this is that the left-thinking intellectuals of the country, being members of the land-owning Colombo click, have simply aligned with the Tamil leaders of the Diaspora as they probably went to the same schools and belong to the same social clubs. They could not see the horrendous discrimination INSIDE Tamil society, but were impressed by the more spectacular inter-ethnic battle. Until we have socialist leaders coming from the grass-root Tamils, and until we have LAND REFORM, there will be NO JUSTICE in the North. I thank Rasalingam for emphasizing the issue of LAND REFORM – i.e., re-distribution of land to give rights and dignity to each individual. People like Brad Adams are NOT fighting that battle, but they fight the little skirmishes put to them by the Tamil Diaspora leaders, because NGOs fight the battles for which there is financing from advocacy groups.
Brad’s efforts to show that HRW is unbiased and goes after East and West equally is undermined by his colleague Anna Neistat’s earlier writings:
http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/10/27/legacy-abuse-sri-lanka
“has Sri Lanka discovered the magic formula for brazenly ignoring meddlesome Western countries and getting away with it?
“But now the government seems to have discovered that ignoring the strongly held opinions of powerful Western partners has consequences that might not be in the long-term interest of the country or its ruling elite after all.
“The Sri Lankan government, however, gambled on the idea that no matter how upset the West may be, nobody would judge the “winners.” It dismissed all criticism out of hand. It attacked Western governments for their own human rights practices, calling the pleas for civilian protection “hypocrisy and sanctimony.”
“Sri Lanka’s hardnosed response to its Western critics may have worked in the short term but it may not be, after all, sustainable.”
Is it the official position of HRW that Western governments are the sole arbiter of what is acceptable and what isn’t, and that non-Western governments are obliged to do what the Westerners tell them? Was there anything in Dr. Neistat’s article urging Sri Lanka to uphold human rights for the sake of human rights, rather than for the sake of diplomatic relations with the West?
There’s a few issues that come to mind here:
1 – Why has it taken Human Rights watch 8 years to formulate allegations of war crimes against members of the former George W Bush administration?
2 – Is it not because huge numbers of people world-wide have pointed out the hypocrisy of HRW and similar organisations in concentrating their efforts on allegations against relatively poor & weak countries such as Sri Lanka, while making only vague gestures regarding allegations against rich & powerful western countries such as the USA & UK?
3 – Why has the HRW not taken up the overall issue of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, led by the US & the UK governments, being an illegal act of war in itself, and why have they not demanded an international independent investigation into the many credible allegations into the roles of George W Bush (then US president)and Tony Blair (then UK prime minister)and other instigators of that invasion? That war ended 6 years ago (according to Mr Bush) while the war against the Tamil Tigers ended barely 2 years ago.
4 – How does Brad Adams (the American director of the Asian section of HRW) explain these matters?
HRW.. what a joke.. Now the Arab style protests have spread to the UK.. People rioting in frustration over inequality and neglect. How ironic!
Still these [Edited out] from UK wants to preach to us… I’ve just started ignoring them. They have no influence any more in asia. Economies in the crap basket, they have enough problems on their own now.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/london-riots-bbc-interview_n_922857.html
Let’s see Channel 4 or BBC for that matter doing a hard hitting interview on police brutality in their own backyard! Not talk down the people!
Let’s see how HRW address UK riots… hypocrites!
“There is ample evidence that the Sri Lankan military repeatedly shelled its self-created “no-fire zone,” killing thousands of civilians, and repeatedly struck clearly marked hospitals.”
Sudath, can you please show this evidence (verified) other than quoted anonymous sources?
Observer,
You may have made a slight and understandable mistake. Sudath Silva is a photographer completely unrelated to the author, Brad Adams of HRW. I don’t believe that Brad has ample evidence given the refutations provided by sources such as David Blacker. At least not until May 2009. No one has irrefutably provided evidence for shelling after May but there have been claims that the President himself gave such an order whilst General Fonseka was in China. Again evidence need to be provided to support this claim. Given the nature of the 2nd NFZ, I except satellite based evidence should be available, if such an event actually occurred.
It’s a pity that people like Brad Adams make claims without good evidence (even if it is circumstantial good evidence would be acceptable). It is important that good organisations like HRW and AI do not reduce their credibility by buying into propaganda from sources with vested interests. The World needs to be able to rely on what they say. On this context it would have been better to stick with the white flag claim alone if other claims could not be substantiated. GoSL has always had a very good legal team and it appears that HRW and AI have fallen into the trap of their own prejudices (e.g. thinking that Colombo would be equivalent to Port Moresby- actually, from a distance it could be considered similar to Kandy!). Wijayapala has quite aptly illustrated the sort prejudice I speak of.
Having said all this Sri Lankans should denounce any crimes no matter who has committed them. Not because HRW says so. But it is the correct and dignified thing to do. Sri Lankans also owe it to the million or so Tamil and Sinhala people (mostly poor) who have suffered under the various conflicts the Sri Lankan state has had with its own citizens.
Yeah my apologies. Meant to say Brad. The point remains that, digital evidence that Mr Adams harps on about come nowhere near Abhu Graib photos. In fact meta data of the videos and photos were proven to have dates well after end of hostilities. Not only that unlike in Abhu Graib photos, no one in these videos can be identified. Hence the GOSL possibly cannot indict any rank & file officers. We’re not even sure if they’re SLA. All signs point to them being LTTE produced.
What HRW is engaged is despicable propaganda campaign that goes on to only antagonist even people who sit on the fence. I guess in hindsight these decisions taken will reflect upon the current directorship of HRW later on. That’s a matter for history to decide.
btw, Mr Obama is no better to GW Bush when it comes to gross human rights violations. Drone attacks have actually increased under his watch which are notorious for collateral damage. I don’t see the same tenacity prosecuting Mr Obama by HRW! The point remains violent conflict is a fact of life. And it is never fair for those on the receiving end. America & NATO is the biggest example of this. Long as HRW underhandedly shield them, they have no credibility in the civilised society! Shame on you Mr Adams for your whitewashing deceit. For trying to destroy developing countries with lies and unfair bullying.
If a person or group of people make serious allegations against a Govt, without substantiating it with witnesses or place names and dates, then should a Govt waste its resources investigating into such allegations as wanted by HRW?
Actually, Raja, the more the tactics of HRW, AI & ICG are examined, the closer they resemble political blackmail & extortion: “do what WE say you should do, or we’ll keep making these allegations suppported by anonymous victims, back-of-an-envelope estimates & cleverly crafted shock-horror videos.” The telling point was when they were given the opportunity to present their allegations & evidence to Sri Lankan’s LLRC panel but refused to do so. At that point they really gave their game away because the truth was that they had nothing to say that would stand up to serious scrutiny.