Sri Lanka needs to examine the Indian intervention here in the early 80s. The origins of terrorism here cannot be studied or properly presented unless a no holds barred inquiry is conducted into the Indian military misadventure here that cost it nearly 1,500 officers and men and double that number wounded between July 1987 and March 1990. The assassination of one-time Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1991, just over a year after the Indian pullout from Sri Lanka, is a grim reminder of the New Delhi’s overreach gone very wrong, with terrible consequences. Those demanding accountability on Sri Lanka’s part in its war against the LTTE never asked for India’s culpability in launching a terrorist war here with a view to creating an environment for its direct intervention. That is the ugly truth. Or was it a case of the same West drawing India into a quagmire here by making her believe that if she does not look after Tamil interests here there could be growing repercussions in Tamil Nadu as the Western media continued to stir the pot with exaggerated accounts against Sri Lanka.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was among the guests, at the Nelum Pokuna theatre, recently. at the launch of Defence Secretary Maj. Gen. (retd.) Kamal Gunaratne’s ‘Rajali Sandeshaya,’ a poetic reflection of experiences from the times of Sinhala kings to the eradication of terrorism in May 2009, The author of the widely read ‘Ranamaga Osse Nanthikadal’ and Gajaba Regiment veteran also dealt with his battlefield experiences through his latest literary work declared as the longest kavya sandeshaya, written entirely in Sinhala verse (2579 poems).

During the fourth phase of the Eelam War IV (Aug 2006-May 2009), Maj. Gen. Gunaratne served as the General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the 53 Division that was stationed in the Jaffna peninsula at the time of the outbreak of the final phase of the war in 2006. Present Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Shavendra Silva, who was then the GoC of the celebrated Task Force 1/58 Division and later GoC of 57 Division that was tasked to regain Kilinochchi, were among the invitees.

Among the notable absentees were war-winning Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, Marshal of the Air Force Roshan Goonatilleke and wartime Defence Secretary and former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, another pioneer combat veteran of the battle proven Gajaba Regiment, who has literally accused the military top brass of failing in their duty as Aragalaya mobs chased him and his government out of power with plenty of covert and overt foreign inputs in the form of funding, intelligence, outright diplomatic interference, etc.

Ven. Induragare Dhammarathana and Prof. Praneeth Abeysundara briefly discussed the importance of ‘Rajali Sandeshaya’ authored by Maj. Gen. Gunaratne who serves as the Secretary, Ministry of Defence since Nov 2019.

The event held on Sept. 06 coincided with the author’s 63rd birthday and was meant to be a glowing tribute to the sacrifices made during the conflict. During his brief remarks at the event, the author dealt with the final phase of the war. Without hesitation, the author contradicted the primary accusation directed at the then Lt. Gen. Fonseka’s Army that 40,000 Tamil civilians perished, while pointing out the successful reintegration of thousands of LTTE combatants, who surrendered, back into the society.

Against the backdrop of the Defence Secretary’s latest public denial, let us examine the status of the controversial UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 co-sponsored by the then Yahapalana government wanting to please the West and settle scores with the war-winning Rajapaksa administration, which achieved a dream victory against “the most ruthless terrorist force on earth”, on Oct 01, 2015. Without doubt some of the leaders, who led the Yahapalana lot, were the types who could not even say boo to Tigers. In terms of 30/1, Sri Lanka was humiliated as it was made to pledge before the entire world to undertake promotion of reconciliation, accountability and human rights as if we were under an Idi Amin when the war victory was achieved. Sri Lanka repeated these commitments in the 2017 and 2019 Resolutions.

Now that the Defence Secretary referred to a high profile claim of 40,000 civilian deaths, in a matter of weeks, in 2009, it would be pertinent to reproduce the relevant paragraph from the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts (PoE)…was more like a kangaroo court all out to fix the war-winning Army and the country…on Accountability in Sri Lanka, released on March 31, 2011.

The following is the relevant paragraph bearing number 137: “In the limited surveys that have been carried out in the aftermath of the conflict, the percentage of people reporting dead relatives is high. A number of credible sources have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths. Two years after the end of the war, there is no reliable figure for civilian deaths, but multiple sources of information indicate that a range of up to 40,000 civilian deaths cannot be ruled out at this stage. Only a proper investigation can lead to the identification of all of the victims and to the formulation of an accurate figure for the total number of civilian deaths.”

The UN had no qualms in making this uncorroborated declaration that 40,000 civilians perished in just a matter of weeks on the Vanni east, while acknowledging that a proper survey conducted by UN Colombo, that dealt with the period from August 2008 to May 13, 2009, placed the number of dead at 7,721 and the wounded at 18,479. The PoE, in paragraphs 134 and 135, discussed how meticulously the UN-led project involved the ICRC and, what it called, ‘networks of observers operational in LTTE- controlled areas’, to gather information. The PoE report could have easily been the basis of Sri Lanka’s defence. Unfortunately, Sri Lanka leadership lacked post-war foresight to cleverly use the UN report to counter their obvious anti-Sri Lanka project. It begs us to think whether we have capable diplomats or diplo-muts to speak on our behalf. In other words, the UN contradicted its own report but President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government simply squandered an opportunity to expose the much propagated lie of 40,000 civilian deaths, despite ironically having an illustrious law professor serving as his Foreign Minister.

Fatal omission

Less than three months after the release of the PoE report, the US, unintentionally, contradicted the UN report, thereby presenting Sri Lanka with further opportunity to build its defence on the basis of the UN report and the US declaration that countered the very basis of the primary accusation.

The first sign that uncorroborated war crimes accusations can be successfully countered was seen at the first ever Colombo Defence Seminar, conducted in late May-June 2011 during Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya’s tenure as the Commander of the Army (July 2009-July 2013).

On the first day of the seminar, the then US Defence Advisor in Colombo, Lt. Col. Lawrence Smith, questioned the very basis of war crimes allegations, including the execution of surrendered terrorists directed at the then Maj. Gen. Shavendra Silva’s Division.

The US official was responding to a query posed by retired Major General Ashok K. Mehta, formerly of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) deployed here (July 1987 to March 1990), to Major General Shavendra Silva. Silva was there in his capacity as Sri Lanka’s then No 02 at the UN. Smith’s voluntary and spontaneous revelation, made just weeks after the PoE, aka the Darusman report, embarrassed the US (Sri Lanka Defence Symposium: Now, US suspects credibility of LTTE surrender offer with strap line…dismisses K.P. Nadesan as ‘mouthpieces’ with no real authority – The Island, June 3, 2011)

The US State Department had no option but to declare in a face saving exercise that Smith hadn’t represented the US at the seminar. The political leadership and Army Headquarters never exploited the US official’s forthright statement.

In fact, Smith’s statement made six years before Lord Naseby’s disclosure, based on the then British Defence Advisor Lt. Col. Anthony Gash’s similar wartime dispatches, should have been the foundation of Sri Lanka’s defence.

It would be pertinent to examine why the first Rajapaksa administration never bothered to examine the US official’s statement. In fact, the Army never really pursued the matter during the tenure of Army Commanders – Daya Ratnayaka (Aug 2013-Feb 2015), Chrishantha de Silva (Feb-2015-June 2017) and Mahesh Senanayake (June 2017-August 2019).

The politically motivated US decision to slap a travel ban on the then Army Commander Lt. General Shavendra Silva in Feb 2020 should be examined against the backdrop of the criminal negligence on Sri Lanka’s part to counter lies propagated in spite of having powerful ammunition. The US ban on Gen. Silva and members of his family remain in force while shameless UNHRC, at the behest of the West, contemplates further action against us, even in foreign jurisdictions, while it literally turns a blind eye to continuing outright genocides elsewhere.

Actually a Special Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) is necessary to ascertain the shocking lapses on the part of successive political and military leaderships that led to ‘Accountability Resolution 30/1’ in 2015 and the expansion of relentless and continuing Western campaign.

Lord Naseby made his disclosure during Mahesh Senanayake’s tenure as the Army Commander. But, the Army never examined/exploited Lt. Col. Smith’s statement and that of Lord Naseby as part of Sri Lanka’s overall defence in Geneva.

Impotent Sri Lanka political leadership conveniently failed to set the record straight at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council. Sri Lanka never bothered to officially mention in Geneva that the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), that recognized the LTTE as the sole representative of the Tamil-speaking people, backed Fonseka at the 2010 presidential election. The TNA delivered all predominantly Tamil speaking electoral districts, including Vanni, comprising Mannar, Mullaithivu and Vavuniya, to Fonseka, though he lost the contest by 1.8 mn votes as he was rejected by an overwhelming majority in the rest of the country.

Sri Lanka discards Naseby’s disclosure

Treacherous politicians, some sections of the media, and the diplomatic community, and the civil society, worked overtime to suppress Lord Naseby’s disclosure that threatened to undermine the devious Geneva project. The Geneva operation was meant to introduce a new Constitution that did away with Sri Lanka’s unitary status in the guise of addressing accountability issues.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe administration spearheaded the despicable project. The then Joint Opposition co-operated in that endeavour by being part of a parliamentary process to draft a new Constitution, spearheaded by the then Premier Wickremesinghe. President Sirisena remained an onlooker whereas his parliamentary group participated in the process. Wimal Weerawansa’s National Freedom Front (NFF) subsequently quit the process though his efforts to convince the Joint Opposition to do so failed.

Lord Naseby’s disclosure threatened to weaken the Yahapalana project. The Foreign Ministry, under Ravi Karunanayake (RK received the appointment in the wake of Samaraweera’s removal as FM in May 2017), ridiculed Lord Naseby’s statement.

Did the Sri Lanka High Commission in London bring Lord Naseby’s statement to the Foreign Ministry’s attention? For want of a Foreign Ministry response to Lord Naseby’s very important statement, even a week after it was made, the writer, on Oct 20, 2017, sought an explanation from the Foreign Ministry. The Foreign Ministry response really disappointed a vast majority of people, who expected the government to use the House of Lords disclosure to counter lies that had been propagated by various interested parties.

Instead of taking advantage of Lord Naseby’s statement, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mahishini Colonne declared: “The Government of Sri Lanka remains committed to the national processes, aimed at realizing the vision of a reconciled, stable, peaceful and prosperous nation. Engaging in arguments and debates in the international domain over the number of civilians who may have died at a particular time in the country will not help resolve any issues, in a meaningful manner, locally, except a feel good factor for a few individuals who may think that they have won a debate or scored points over someone or the other.”

The writer also raised Lord Naseby’s disclosure with the then four-party TNA, one-time mouthpiece of the LTTE, and the main Opposition in Parliament. The TNA refrained from responding to The Island queries submitted to then TNA leader R. Sampanthan.

In spite of over a dozen calls/SMS to Raghu Balachandran of Sampanthan’s Office, The Island never received the TNA’s response. You may want to know when the set of questions regarding TNA’s response to Lord Naseby’s disclosure was submitted to that party. The Island submitted the following questions to TNA and Opposition Leader R. Sampanthan on Nov. 27, 2017 and repeatedly reminded the Opposition Leader’s Office of the delay on its part to respond: Have you (TNA) studied Lord Naseby’s statement made in the House of Lords on Oct. 12, 2017? What is TNA’s position on Naseby’s claims? Did TNA leaders discuss Naseby’s claim among themselves? Did TNA respond to MP Dinesh Gunawardena’s statements in Parliament on Naseby’s disclosure? And did TNA take up this issue with the UK High Commissioner James Dauris?

False declaration

In late Feb 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government perpetrated a major propaganda exercise to deceive the public. On behalf the government, the then Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena declared at Geneva session that Sri Lanka withdrew from co-sponsorship of the UN Human Rights Council resolutions ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka.’

This was nothing but a meaningless declaration meant to hoodwink the public. In spite of that declaration, Sri Lanka fully cooperated with the Geneva process but what is really baffling is why the government continues to hesitate to set the record straight.

Over 15 years after the successful conclusion of the war, Sri Lanka is yet to build a solid defence on the basis of official information available in the public domain.

Gajaba Regiment veteran Chagie Gallage, who retired in the rank of Maj. Gen. in late August 2018, in his farewell address delivered at the Saliyapura Regimental Centre, explained the pathetic failure on the part of utterly irresponsible and useless political leadership to defend the armed forces.

“Gajaba was engraved in golden letters in the annals of the history of the Sri Lanka Army, if not in the history of Sri Lanka … and I’m certain it will never be reversed by any. So, I’m happy to be retired being a tiny particle of that proud chapter of history, though designated as a ‘War Criminal.”

The writer revealed Gallage’s predicament on March 23, 2017 edition of The Island in a front-page lead story, headlined ‘Chagie denied Australian visa over ‘war crimes’ allegations’ with strapline ‘Unsubstantiated UN claim cited as reason’

War time Special Forces Commander Major General Nirmal Dharmaratne in a superb piece on Gallage, published in The Island, called the brother officer a ‘meticulous man’. For Australia, Gallage was nothing but a potential controversial visitor. The Foreign Ministry turned a blind eye to Gallage’s plight. The Gallage issue was largely ignored by the media. Australian insult never received the coverage it deserved.

Our parliamentarians were too busy to take up the issue. Parliament shirked its responsibility. The failure on the part of Parliament to address accountability issues finally led to the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government co-sponsoring the damning Geneva Resolution in Oct 2015 directed at the previous political leadership and the military.

President Maithripala Sirisena, in spite of a plethora of promises, did nothing to address the issue. The author of ‘Rajali Sandeshaya’ Gen. Gunaratne, Gen. Jagath Dias and Field Marshal Fonseka are those targeted by the Western agenda.

For some strange reason, all political parties represented in Parliament appeared to have succumbed to Western pressure to accept war crimes accusations by conveniently ignoring the issue. The issue hadn’t been seriously addressed by the four major presidential contestants – namely independent candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe, SJB leader Sajith Premadasa, JJB leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and SLPPer Namal Rajapaksa.

Their election manifestos, too, hadn’t dealt with this issue though usual phrases relating to post-war developments were used.

Presidential candidate Dilith Jayaweera of Sarvajana Balaya is solidly behind our war heroes, while assuring equality to all.

With Geneva declaring that whoever won the next presidential and parliamentary election should abide by the process now taking place, all major political parties should take a common stand on accountability issue.