What happened to those 6000 persons out of 18,657 who had surrendered?
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by L.Annadoure
( November 1, 2014, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) In or about June 2014 the Sri Lankan Army has announced that all those who have been either captured by the Army or surrendered before it at the brink of the war would be released 100% from its custody. The Sri Lankan Government initially has in its official report said that the Army had captured 18,657 people as prisoners of war and the said figure has been later reduced to 12,000 persons only for some reasons known to it and therefore the parents of the prisoners of war who have entrusted their sons and daughters on the assurance of their earlier safe return, have been taken aback and they have come to realize that the Government has failed to keep its promise and as a result the parents of the prisoners of war are in utter despair and consternation and await in the fond hope that their sons and daughters would return home safely and we also come across the aggrieved families having laid complaint before the Presidential Commission To Investigate Into Complaint Regarding Missing Persons to find out and secure their sons and daughters. The Natham.com Tamil web site has published a picture on 6.6.2014 which is inserted below and the said picture has purportedly been captured in a mobile phone. We find the 6 persons and a minor boy who are the ones among 22 persons found in the other pictures.
This picture shows 6 captives along with a minor boy and the aforesaid minor boy would not be more than 12 years old and the innocent looking boy would not have thought then that he would be killed.
The LTTE Combatants who had been assured of their safety and release on condition of surrender and the non Combatant youths both male and female who on suspicion of LTTE connection were segregated from among the civilians who had fled in fear and for safety of their persons from the onslaught of heavy artilleries and bombardments came into the hands of the Sri Lankan Army and it is being said that the parents themselves had entrusted their children for safe custody to the Army on the 17th morning of May 2009 and these captives who under the status of prisoners of the war had been boarded in buses and they were taken to military camps. The Athirvu. com Tamil Web site has posted a news item on 13th March 2012 with the following pictures which show the corpses of
prisoners of war were being carted away in tractor- trailer and in all probability to be incinerated or to be buried en masse and such mass graves have begun to surface one after another recently and the leader of Nava Samaj political party Mr.Vikrama Bagu has accused the Sri Lankan Government in the first week of January 2014 that skeletal remains found in the mass grave Katheeswaram , Mannar were ones of the persons who were handed over to the Army and that an International investigation is required. In fact 83 skeletons have been unearthed as of March 2014 from Mannar Mass Grave and the exhumation work has come to stand still because of some oblique motives on the part of the Government. Some marks of torture were found on the skeletal remains and the victims had faced an horrendous death.
The aforesaid minor boy seem to have been injured earlier just above the elbow joint in his left upper arm and the wound was found to have been bound with a blue cloth which remained an identification mark all along. The fugitive soldiers from the Armed forces seemed to have revealed the secret that the bodies of the prisoners of war who were extra judiciously shot dead were burnt ultimately. Another set of pictures which are given below are links to the video pertaining the popular actress and propagandist which came to be published and the said video ends with the scene of Isai Priya was being taken away by a group of soldiers led by a nude man probably to a military bunker and the nude pictures of Isai Priya which have been available on some web sites give rise to an opinion that she was stripped naked, raped and ravished even after being shot dead .
Here are yet three more pictures which are said to have been captured in mobile phone which are available in the public domain.
There are about 22 prisoners of war whose hands were tied behind their back and all of them then bound together and most of them remained stripped off their dress and one of them being a girl who might have been the age of Isai priya and all these people were shot dead subsequently.
The wounded minor boy whom we have seen in the first picture is found sitting beside the girl who was being lifted by a soldier and she could be seen sitting beside Isai priya in the military bunker which fortifies the claim of the people that Isai priya was extra judicially killed by the Army men who would rebut such a claim without compunction and state that Isaipriya was killed in the cross fire.
The girl found in the pictures and who later was seen sitting beside Isai priya in the military bunker was identified as one Ushalini and Army Intelligence wing later seemed to have interrogated her parents. The aforesaid Ushalini was hailing from the village Yogapuram, Mallavi, Mullaidive District and her parents were one Gunalingam and Selva Rani who had stated that their daughter was pursuing her school education when she went missing in the beginning of 2009 and that they have had last seen their daughter in the custody of the Army when they themselves were present in the Army controlled area and later they had given representation to Presidential Commission To Investigate Into Complaint Regarding Missing Persons to find and get their daughter for them.
The Parents of Ushalini who themselves happened to be in Manick Form concentration camp, Chettikulam have been told of the news item which appeared on the web site showing her daughter sitting beside Isai Priya and therefore they thought that their daughter was still alive but their hopeful expectation would be broken asunder if they happened to see the following picture , for the said picture would a shocking revelation of the death of their daughter whose body lay beside the wounded minor boy who was also shot dead. The other picture shows that Isai Priya and bodies of 22 persons lay strewn about the place.
The Army spokesperson has objected stating that the Army does not know anything about the pictures of Isaipriya and Ushalini and the claim propounded by the Army is incorrect because the Army has already confirmed the identity of the girl Ushalini who is seen sitting beside Isaipriya. Eye witness accounts reveal that Army had taken more than 1000 women as war captives who were suspected of some connection with LTTE and a substantial number of the female captives are said to be in the custody of the Army and the female captives are being used in appeasing the carnal instinct of the soldiers and some of them are now with children born to them.
The photos inserted below have appeared on the Nerudal.com web site which show that the prisoners of war were found to have been hand cuffed and fastened to the hand rail of the bus seat and later the 1st of the persons found in the photo had been found tethered to a coconut tree and he was being tortured to death little and by little and the Army personnel did not spare him even after his death and in fact his head was being held upright so as to enable it to pose for the mobile phone in order to show as a war trophy and brag about having killed an Eelam Tamil.
The United Nations Human Rights Council has mandated by its resolution the conduct of comprehensive investigation on all aspects of violations and abuses of human rights and war crimes committed by the parties to the war and parties to the war must include the countries which have openly or surreptiously abetted Sri Lanka in the commission of war crimes and as well the countries which had actively assisted in the war in having supplied weapons and military personnel and since all these countries had knowingly allowed Sri Lanka to conduct a war without witnesses they are directly or vicariously accountable for the genocide committed on the Eelam Tamils and commission of war crimes and human rights violations. The dearth of authentic and valid material evidence which are coming forth from time to time in the public domain are being denied by the Sri Lankan Government and Army and they would claim that such materials are fake, doctored and manipulated and we leave the question of authenticity and validity of the photos, videos and other documents to the wise decision and judgment of the people who are watching the unfolding of the secrets of the war which was conducted without eye witness and the experts appointed will certainly analyse the genuineness or spuriousness of the material evidence which have come into their hands.
When once the aggrieved parties submit materials incriminating the Army and the Government which deny the authenticity of the materials and hold that the materials are fake then the proper course would be appointment of an independent International body with a direction to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the materials and justifiably the United Nations Human Rights Council has constituted OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka to investigate the veracity of the allegations on the part of either party despite stiff resistance posed by Sri Lanka and its allies supporting it and now the Sri Lankan Government is defying the mandate of United Nations Human Rights Council out right and it has passed a resolution in the parliament to the effect that it would not allow the committee to enter Sri Lanka and whatever be the merits of its claim, Sri Lanka is precluded from acting in open defiance of the mandate of United Nations Human Rights Council and since the stance on the part of Sri Lanka being so, then UNO should not give any audience or show any liberality or indulgence whatsoever to Sri Lanka in any of its forums until the Government complies with and cooperates with the expert committee in the investigation and if so necessitated the UNO may also suspend the Sri Lanka’s from membership.
The countries which had assisted the Sri Lankan armed forces should have seen to the safe custody of the captives and taken care of by a neutral country as per international law or at least any one among them ought to have taken custody of the prisoners of war because more than 20 countries openly assisted Sri Lanka to annihilate Eelam Tamils at any cost and as the prisoners of war were allowed to be humiliated and killed extra judiciously by the Sri Lankan forces then all of them are accountable for the murder of the captives and as we all know that killing members of the group which fought for their legitimate right is genocide then the Eelam Tamils and the Tamils all over world are hopeful and they are very certain that the International Body will prosecute the persons who had committed genocide. The soldiers and some of their officers who killed the 22 persons including the minor boy are easily identifiable in the pictures and therefore the Sri Lankan Government must take steps to prosecute them for murder. The Sri Lankan Government and the Armed forces are duty bound to entrust the care of children to a neutral county and to have killed them by way of reprisal should shock the conscience of right thinking people and the countries which still support Sri Lanka which is still acting against and indulging in open defiance of the directives of United Nation Human Rights Council should have facilitated the reception of the captives including the minors. The captives both male and female should have been humanely treated and protected from violence but on the contrary the captives were denuded, humiliated and finally shot dead and female captives stripped of their dress, raped and were shot dead. Some times it so happened that the captives were made to dress and appear in the Sri Lankan Military uniform as was evident in the case of Colonel Ramesh so as to humiliate, subjugate his self respect and violate human dignity.
The Sri Lankan Government will have to stop reiteration of denial of perpetration of genocide on Eelam Tamils, commission of war crimes and etc., and strive to account for the fate of 6000 men and women out of 18,657 who were taken captives at the final days of the war and it is very much certain that no use would ensue or serve any purpose if the Sri Lankan Government continues to pose antagonistic attitude towards or against the countries which have been instrumental in bringing about the justifiable resolution and it may do well by restraining itself from doing any act of defiance and participate in the investigation.
But on the other hand the Sri Lankan Government has stepped up measures of repression and oppression against media persons at present, curtails freedom of press, arrests persons who are about to submit complaints and materials to OISL, prevents circulation of news papers, prevents free entry into North and East of Sri Lanka, watches over Internet centers to prevent the sending of submissions and sends out threats and intimidation and in all the Sri Lankan Government indulges in many unlawful activities with the help of thugs, police and military and in view such an exigency of situation an extension of time to submit materials is sought for from some quarters and therefore it shall be expedient in the interest of aggrieved parties to extend time so as to enable them to submit their representation and materials to OISL.
Grateful acknowledgements to Athirvu.com, Nerudal.Com, Natham.com.
