Witnesses support claim that Sri Lanka army shot prisoners வெள்ளைக்கொடி ஏந்தி வந்தவர்களை இலங்கை ராணுவம் கொன்றதற்கான சாட்சியமும் வெளிவந்தது..

Two eyewitnesses have come forward for the first time to support
allegations that the Sri Lankan army executed two Tamil Tiger rebel
leaders after they surrendered, carrying a white flag, at the close of
the island’s civil war in 2009.



Their accounts cast fresh doubt on the Sri Lankan government’s claim
that the rebels were killed by their own supporters and add to a growing
body of evidence of war crimes allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan
military during the conflict.
Last week, The Independent published
photographs of the 12-year-old son of the Tamil Tiger chief eating a
snack after being captured by the Sri Lankan army. Shortly afterwards,
he was shot five times in the chest, probably at very close range
according to a forensics expert.
The two new witnesses in what has
become known as “the white flag incident” can testify they
independently saw from different vantage points the Tamil Tiger leaders
accepted into the custody of the Sri Lankan military and escorted from
the front line, alive.
One witness, who did not want to give his
name fearing retribution against his family in Sri Lanka, worked as a
bodyguard to the Tiger political leaders. Badly injured in the last
month of the war, he surrendered to save his life and says he
reluctantly became an informer for the Sri Lankan army.
Now in
London, he says he was taken to the front by members of the Sri Lankan
military on the morning of 18 May 2009, and positioned behind an earth
embankment. His job was to confirm the identity of the Tamil political
leaders as they walked towards the army carrying white flags. He says it
looked like a well-organised surrender with hundreds of soldiers,
including senior officers with bodyguards, present.
The second
witness, a government teacher, also now in London, says he was
press-ganged into service for the rebels in the last months of the war.
Hours before the incident, he says he also surrendered, knowing that the
war was over and it was his only chance of survival. After being
searched, he says he was held with others in a derelict building close
to the front line. From this position he watched several groups of Tamil
Tiger leaders and their relatives walk out of the war zone towards the
Sri Lankan army, carrying white flags.
He admits he was surprised
to see the leader of the Tiger political wing, Nadesan, his Sinhalese
wife and the head of the Tiger Peace Secretariat, Pulidevan, in the
first group. Officially the Tigers did not hold with surrender, issuing
all recruits with cyanide capsules to wear around their necks to use in
case of capture.
Both witnesses say Sri Lankan soldiers went out
to greet several groups of surrendering rebels and escorted them over a
bridge across a lagoon to waiting vehicles on the other side.
The
former bodyguard waited for more than an hour until the military put him
in the back of a pick-up truck and drove him away. Along the road he
spotted soldiers taking photos on their mobile phones of corpses lying
on the ground. As they went past, he recognised Pulidevan and Nadesan’s
bodies. Photographs have since appeared on websites abroad showing the
two Tiger leaders’ half-naked corpses, with bullet wounds and burn marks
on their chests.
The “white flag” incident also involved
approximately 40 other rebels believed to have negotiated a surrender
with the Sri Lankan government. None of them have been seen since.
Tamil
Tiger rebels conducted a vicious campaign of terror for a separate
homeland for decades, using suicide bombers to kill civilians and scores
of politicians, including a President and an Indian Prime Minister.
Pulidevan
and Nadesan were two of the most senior rebels to surrender. In the
hours beforehand, they used satellite phones to send messages to
diplomats, journalists and peace mediators to ensure top Sri Lankan
officials, including the country’s President, knew of their intention to
lay down their arms. They had been assured that their surrender would
be accepted if they raised a white flag.
However, the Sri Lankan
defence ministry’s website lists Pulidevan and Nadesan as killed by
troops of the 58th Division on 18 May 2009.
Sri Lanka’s government
holds that the Tiger leaders were shot in the back by their own people,
and say the army never executed any individuals.
Allegations the
Sri Lankan army and rebels committed war crimes at the end of a brutal
war are widespread. According to United Nations investigators, the last
months saw repeated and deliberate government shelling of hospitals,
food queues and safe zones for civilians.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/witnesses-support-claim-that-sri-lanka-army-shot-prisoners-8508617.html