Sri Lanka: Journalist Isaipriya killed in execution-style murder by 53rd Division troops

Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka
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The female Tamil journalist, Isaipriya alias Shoba (27), was killed during the final stages of the war by the troops belonging to 53rd Division of the Sri Lankan Army, in an execution-style murder at an unknown location in the island’s northern battle-zone. The mutilated naked body of the rebel media specialist was showed in a shocking video footage aired by British TV, Channel 4 recently.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Defence releasing a long list of names of LTTE leaders killed on May 18, 2009 - the final day of the war - said on June 21, 2009 that “Lieutenant Colonel” Isaipriya was among the top rebel leaders killed by the troops of the 53rd Division and claimed that she was attached to the Communications and Publicity Wing of the rebels. However, the Channel-4 video footage has now clearly established the fact that she was killed in an execution-style murder with hands tied behind and not in 'fierce clashes.'

The gruesome video footage aired on November 30, 2010 by the British TV channel, showed the elongated version of how Sri Lankan soldiers in military fatigue, freely carrying out execution-style murders on a dozen of naked and blind-folded men and women with their hands tied behind. The soldiers speaking in native Sinhala language could be heard making sexual remarks on the naked dead bodies of women. A close look at the video and the conversation of the soldiers in the background clearly show that the women have been raped before being shot down close range.


Meanwhile, the Tamilnet website reported that its Wanni Correspondent, who has now reached a safe country in the West, has identified that “one of the women victims, stripped naked, hands tied behind back, and shot dead, as seen in the video footage that has recently reached Channel-4” as 27-year-old Shoba, alias Isaipriya.

Isaipriya has worked as a media specialist with the LTTE and was producing a periodical video magazine Oliveechchu.

“I am able to learn through those who have been at Mullivaaykkaal in the final days of war, that Shoba remained unarmed and did not take part in combat,” the Tamilnet has quoted its Wanni correspondent as saying.

According to him, Shoba has also lost her 6-month-old baby girl, named Akal, in the last stage of the war in Sri Lanka's indiscriminate bombardment on civilians.

Siblings of Isaipriya living outside Sri Lanka have also confirmed her identity.

© JDS

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TV anchor among naked men, women ‘killed’ by Sri Lanka soldiers on video

By Gopu Mohan | Indian Express
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As Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa toured the UK, Britain’s Channel 4 aired stomach-churning footage of men in uniform alleged to be his soldiers executing naked, unarmed, tied-up and blindfolded men and women said to be members or sympathisers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The pro-LTTE Tamilnet website identified one of the women as Shoba alias Isaippiriya, a journalist.

Channel 4 said the video was shot shortly before the final triumph of the Sri Lankan army over the Tigers in May 2009, and is an extended version of another video it aired last year.

The video, apparently shot with a cellphone camera — one of the frames has a soldier holding up a cellphone — shows naked prisoners with their hands tied behind their backs being shot from behind by soldiers with assault rifles. The killings take place in a field littered with naked, bloody corpses, some with their heads blown off.

The soldiers are heard talking among themselves, and Channel 4 said the “lewd and callous comments seem strongly to suggest that sexual assaults took place before their deaths”.

“...We have received hundreds of photographs and many more shocking videos depicting summary executions and rape,” Channel 4 News Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller said. “We’ve now sent this five-minute 30-second video to the UN panel convened to determine whether or not there should be an independent international war crimes inquiry.”

Channel 4 said it could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

The Sri Lankan High Commission in London issued a statement saying it “categorically denies that the Channel 4 News TV video is authentic”. Agency reports quoted President Rajapaksa telling the British media, “I deny this whole thing. Most of the civilians were killed by the LTTE. Sri Lanka never killed any civilians as such. Our instructions were, ‘You must not touch any civilians. This is a humanitarian operation’.”

The airing of the footage Wednesday coincided with the release by WikiLeaks of a secret cable written by the US Ambassador to Colombo, Patricia A Butenis, on January 15, 2010, in which she said that “responsibility for many of the alleged (war) crimes rests with... President Rajapaksa and his brothers and opposition candidate (former army chief) General (Sarath) Fonseka”.

A large group of Sri Lankan Tamils had protested with LTTE flags as Rajapaksa landed in London on Tuesday. On Thursday, as the outrage spread, the celebrated Oxford Union cancelled a scheduled talk by Rajapaksa — the high point of the president’s visit — because the “sheer scale of the expected protests” made it doubtful that “the talk can reasonably and safely go ahead”.

Tamilnet said its correspondent in Wanni had identified one woman figuring prominently in the video as Shoba alias Isaippiriya, a 27-year-old LTTE “media specialist” who reported for the Tigers’ Oliveechchu magazine. Tamilnet quoted its correspondent as saying Shoba was a non-combatant who carried no arms, and who had lost her six-month-old baby girl Akal in the final phase of the war.

In the video, the camera lingers on the female bodies lying in the field, including on the one identified as that of Shoba. It pauses for lengths of time over certain body parts, and at one point, a soldier removes a last bit of cloth covering a woman’s chest as the recording continues.

“Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, his brothers, and all others connected to the war are guilty of war crimes, evidence for which was collected from those who managed to came out of Lanka, and presented to the People’s Permanent Tribunal that met in Dublin early this year,” said P Nedumaran, leader of the Tamil Desiya Iyakkam and a longtime supporter of Eelam and LTTE.

The Dublin Tribunal — of which former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar was a member — found the Lankan government guilty of war crimes. But Sri Lanka rejected the verdict and condemned the “unaccountable organisation” for “irresponsibly distorting events and seeking to selectively pass judgment from afar”.

© Indian Express

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UN seeks probe into Sri Lankan troops' war crime video

Indo Asian News Service | Deccan Herald
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The UN has sought a fresh probe into alleged war crimes against Sri Lankan troops, expressing shock over a new video released by Britain's Channel 4 News, which featured the army men executing naked men and women.

The video, which was telecast Tuesday, shows government troops executing civilians in the last few weeks of the 26-year Sri Lanka war, which ended last year when the island government declared victory over the Tamil rebel group LTTE - the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

"It is shocking indeed, and clearly deserves more investigation," Christof Heyns, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, was quoted as saying by Channel 4 News.

In the video, a Sri Lankan soldier is seen shooting one of the blindfolded prisoners in the leg as he lies amongst the bodies of other Tamil prisoners on the ground. The soldier is then seen walking away and turning directly to the camera.

His image is briefly out of camera shot behind another soldier before he appears again close to camera - his face and moustache clearly visible.

The video then shows what appears to be a Sri Lankan soldier dressed in camouflage shooting another prisoner directly in the head. This would appear to be an execution.
The video is a longer version of one which already sparked a UN investigation 16 months ago when it first came to light. Channel 4 News has sent the new video to the UN panel investigating allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

The Sri Lanka high commission in Britain had denied that the videos broadcast by Channel 4 News were authentic.In a statement, it told Channel 4 News: "The high commission of Sri Lanka categorically denies that the Channel 4 News TV video is authentic."

"Last year when Channel 4 News telecast a similar video, the government of Sri Lanka clearly established, by reference to technical considerations, that it was not genuine but fake. The present video is nothing more than an elongated version of the same video."
The statement said: "It is observed that there is a common pattern in these sinister moves. Some sections were replete with photographs of alleged war crimes when Sri Lanka's application for the extension of GSP+ facility was being considered by the European Commission."

© Deccan Herald

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Tamil activists apply for arrest warrant for Sri Lankan general

By Owen Bowcott | The Guardian
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Lawyers acting for Tamil activists are in court this morning applying for a war crimes arrest warrant against a Sri Lankan general visiting Britain.

Campaigners hope to persuade magistrates at Horseferry Road court in central London that the officer in charge of security for the aborted tour by President Mahinda Rajapaksa should be detained.

The president had been due to speak at the Oxford Union debating society last night but the address was cancelled at short notice after the threat of mass protests by Tamils in the city.

In the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, demonstrators led by the country's housing minister reportedly besieged the British embassy in protest at the cancellation of president Rajapaksa's speech.

Demonstrators carried placards declaring Tiger Puppets Go Home, Is British Law a Tiger Law and Go to Hell, according to the BBC.

Rajapaksa's government defeated the separatist Tamil Tigers last year amid international humanitarian demonstrations about the treatment of civilians trapped in the war zone.

The Sri Lankan government has since refused to allow any independent investigation of claims that up to 40,000 people were massacred at the end of the conflict.

Tamil campaigners believe Rajapaksa has been assured he will have immunity from any war crimes warrant obtained against him because he is a serving head of state. The activists have, therefore, targeted Major General Chagi Gallage, the head of presidential security during the visit to London. He was a commander of Sri Lankan frontline forces during the final military offensive against the Tamil Tigers.

Last night thousands of Tamil supporters gathered in Park Lane, central London, outside the Dorchester hotel, where Rajapaksa had been staying. Lines of police held them back amid heavy snow.

At a press conference earlier, in the Sri Lankan embassy, also in central London, the country's external affairs minister, Professor GL Peiris, had condemned the Oxford Union decision as a sign of Britain's moral weakness.

He said: "His excellency the president has been prevented from expressing his point of view ... and that is totally incompatible with the core values of the British political system. The decision was made by brute force. In a democracy you should not cave in to pressure of this kind. The sole reason for cancelling was sufficient pressure. I would submit that there's growing repercussions for the fabric of society.

"If [President Rajapaksa] had been able to deliver his speech to the Oxford Union it would have been a message of reconciliation," he declared. "We want to reach out to all Sri Lankans, irrespective of what language they speak and what their religion might be."

Peiris added: "Only 10,000 [people] remain to be resettled [after the civil war] ... An economic renaissance is taking place. We need an effective mechanism to encourage people to put behind them a conflict that endured for 25 years."

The press conference was co-ordinated by the public relations firm Bell Pottinger, which has been retained for the president's visit.

The only UK government minister Rajapaksa met was the defence secretary, Liam Fox. The minister has in the past declared on the register of MPs' interests trips to Sri Lanka paid for by the country's government.

A spokesman at the MoD said: "Dr Fox [has met] President Rajapaksa in a private capacity. This reflects Dr Fox's longstanding interest in Sri Lanka and his interest in, and commitment to, peace and reconciliation there."

The UK accepts universal jurisdiction for war crimes offences, meaning those accused of atrocities can be arrested in Britain wherever the offence was allegedly committed.

Private actions leading to the issuing of war crimes have deterred visits by Israeli officials. An arrest warrant was issued through the UK courts for the Israeli former foreign minister Tzipi Livni in December last year. It was later revoked.

As a result of these actions against visiting Israeli officials, the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, announced in the summer the legislation would be amended so that any prosecutions would require the assent of the director of public prosecutions.

Amnesty International this week condemned that decision. Its UK director, Kate Allen, said: "This sends exactly the wrong signal. It shows that the UK is soft on crime if those crimes are war crimes and torture. It risks introducing dangerous delays that could mean people suspected of the worst imaginable crimes are able to flee from justice."

© The Guardian

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Sri Lankan protesters try to storm UK high commission

BBC News
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Demonstrators have tried to storm the British high commission in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo over Tamil protests during President Rajapaksa's UK visit.

A Sri Lankan government minister led the rally outside the building, accusing Britain of supporting Tamil Tiger separatists.

Mahinda Rajapaksa's speech to the Oxford Union was cancelled this week because of Tamil protests.

Sri Lanka denies war crimes during its defeat of the Tamil Tigers last year.

Both sides have been accused by human rights groups of crimes against humanity during the final phase of the 26-year insurgency, which ended in May last year.
'British Naked With Tigers'

Hundreds of flag-waving protesters tried to push down police barricades outside the British high commission on Friday and advance on the building, but they were held back by police.

They carried placards reading "Is British Law a Tiger Law", "British Naked With Tigers", "British Shame On You" and "Tiger Puppets Go Home".

They were led by Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa, who accused the UK government of silently supporting sympathisers of the Tamil Tigers by allowing protests in London against President Rajapaksa's visit this week.

He said the "British white colonial government" was accusing Sri Lanka of war crimes in an effort to tarnish the country's image.

"By allowing and supporting pro-LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] protests, the British government not only threatened Sri Lanka's president, they also got the revenge for [us] ending the war and bringing peace to this country, which they never wanted to happen," Mr Weerawansa added.
Welcomed back

Meanwhile, President Rajapaksa was cheered by large crowds of supporters as he returned from the UK, touching down at the international airport in Katunayake on the west coast.

He had been due on Thursday to address the prestigious Oxford Union debating society, which has hosted speakers such as Michael Jackson and the Dalai Lama, but the event was cancelled because of security concerns.

The union said in a statement that "due to the sheer scale of the expected protests, we do not feel that the talk can reasonably and safely go ahead as planned".

© BBC News

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Sri Lanka: 128 University students suspended

Sri Lanka Mirror
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Forty-four students, including 12 monks, have been suspended by the Sri Jayewardenepura University for taking part in a demonstration a week ago, said its Students Union.

Ven. Kamburupitiye Gnanissara Thera of the Union told the media today (Dec. 03) that as many as 128 students of the university have been suspended so far.

Students have lost their right to free expression and to right to assemble, he said.

The prelate urged all parties concerned to join in the struggle against this denial of students’ right over political reasons.

© Sri Lanka Mirror

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Sri Lankan president stung by British protests, WikiLeaks cables

By Simon Montlake | The Christian Science Monitor
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Hailed as a war hero at home, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa received a hostile reception this week in Britain from Tamil protesters incensed by alleged war crimes during last year’s defeat of the Tamil Tigers.

The protests prompted Oxford University’s union to cancel a speech by Mr. Rajapaksa on Thursday, citing security concerns, to the anger of nationalist politicians in Sri Lanka.

The uproar in Britain comes amid the release of secret US State Department cables from its embassy in Colombo, as part of the recent WikiLeaks document dump, that reveal deep US skepticism over Sri Lanka’s pledge to hold its own forces accountable for any battlefield abuses.

Fending off calls for an international tribunal, Rajapaksa has appointed a “truth commission” that many critics say is hamstrung by a weak mandate.

In the January cable, Patricia Butenis, the US ambassador to Sri Lanka, described the war crimes allegations as “the most difficult issue on our bilateral agenda” and complicated by the fact that responsibility “rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and … General Fonseka.”

Sri Lanka's ruling elite is largely inured to outside pressure and will push back against all claims of war crimes, says Lal Wickrematunge, chairman of Leader Publications, whose newspaper, the Sunday Leader, is fiercely critical of the Rajapaksas. Last year, unknown gunmen shot dead the paper’s editor, Mr. Wickrematunge’s brother Lasantha, during his morning commute, sowing fear among local journalists.

“The government is strong within the country. They will market this [cable] in a manner that the US is interfering in internal affairs,” he says.

Adding to Rajapaksa’s discomfort, Britain’s Channel 4 aired footage during his private visit of alleged abuses by troops during the war. The government has described this and other gruesome videos provided to foreign broadcasters as propaganda of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as the Tigers are known.

Wimal Weerawansa, an outspoken nationalist minister, said Thursday that Britain was a “failed state” that couldn’t safeguard a visiting foreign dignitary. He held a small protest Friday outside Britain’s mission in Colombo. “We condemn anti Sri Lankan act of British,” read a large banner.

A civil society activist, who requested anonymity, said the backlash could increase and warned that the opposition and nongovernmental groups might become targets. Opposition lawmakers have been accused of treason for raising sensitive issues on overseas trips. “The government is getting very nervous. They’re trying to figure out whom they can blame for this,” he says.

Sri Lankan push back

Sri Lankan officials have accused Oxford Union, which had invited Rajapaksa to speak, of bowing to pressure from LTTE activists in Britain and failing to respect free speech. In a statement, Rajapaksa said he regretted the cancellation. “I will continue to seek venues in the UK and elsewhere where I can talk about my future vision for Sri Lanka,” he said.

Sri Lanka’s 23-year civil war ended in May 2009. Several thousand Tamil civilians died in the final months of the conflict, according to an internal United Nations assessment. Other estimates of the death toll run much higher. The government has denied targeting civilians in the war zone and accused Western governments of ignoring widespread LTTE atrocities. The UN has appointed a panel of experts to report to the secretary-general but there has been no push for a full investigation into the claims.

WikiLeaks revelations

In a separate leaked 2009 cable, the US embassy in London cited a British diplomat’s assessment that then-Foreign Minister David Milliband was pushing for a cease-fire in Sri Lanka, in part to shore up Tamil votes at home ahead of a general election. Sri Lankans voiced similar complaints at the time during a visit by Mr. Milliband, who was reelected in May as a lawmaker, though the ruling Labour Party was defeated.

The Jan. 15 cable from Colombo is titled "Sri Lanka War-Crimes Accountability: The Tamil Perspective." It points out that the LTTE’s leadership was wiped out in the war and can’t be put on trial for their actions. It also notes that Tamils in Sri Lanka, in contrast to overseas activists, believed that pushing too hard for accountability would make them “vulnerable” and were more concerned about immediate economic and social hardships.

“Accountability is clearly an issue of importance for the ultimate political and moral health of Sri Lankan society. There is an obvious split, however, between the Tamil diaspora and Tamils in Sri Lanka on how and when to address this issue,” Ms. Butenis wrote.

The cable was sent 11 days before Rajapaksa defeated his opponent, former Army chief Sarath Fonseka in a presidential election. Mr. Fonseka was subsequently arrested and tried by a military court for corruption. His arrest came after he threatened to cooperate with any war crimes tribunal on Sri Lanka, potentially ensnaring the president and his brother, the defense minister. Fonseka led the Army during the final phase of the war.

© The Christian Science Monitor

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