PTGTE calls on the International Criminal Court to open an investigation


Sri Lanka War Crimes and the sense of betrayal felt among Tamils worldwide

(PTGTE, December 18, 2009) - Given the recent statements by former chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces General Sarath Fonseka regarding the killing of unarmed peace envoys Mr. Nadesan, Head of LTTE Political Division and Mr. Pulithevan, Head of the LTTE Peace Secretariat, the Formation Committee for the Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam calls on;

1. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, to open an investigation not only into the specific incident of the murder of LTTE leaders, but also into the conduct of the Sri Lankan armed forces during their final offensive from January 2009 through May 2009;

2. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary General, to bring these incidents of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity before the UN Security Council;

3. Countries that are a party to the Statute of the International Court of Justice to refer this matter to the International Court of Justice. In a recent interview appearing in the Sri Lankan newspaper The Sunday Leader on December

13, 2009 retired General Sarath Fonseka stated that the Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had ordered the killing of Tamil Tiger rebel leaders after they had laid down their arms and as they were trying to enter Government-controlled territory to arrange a cessation of hostilities last May. He said he learned from government media reporters that the Defense Secretary, who is also the President’s brother, had directly ordered army commanders to shoot two Tamil Tiger leaders, having earlier told them to walk towards the army carrying white flags.

Despite Sarath Fonseka’s subsequent retraction of his statements, The Sunday Leader interview, reports by human rights organizations, and the U.S. Department of State report compel a launch of an investigation by the appropriate international institutions.

Given the Sri Lankan Government’s track record in domestic Human Rights investigations (1977 and 1983 pogroms, the 1981 burning of Jaffna Library, the 1996 Chemmani mass graves, Krishanthi’s murder in 1996, the 2006 killing of French aid workers) coupled with the US State Department’s repeated and consistent observations in its annual Human Rights reports that impunity remains a problem, a domestic investigation will be a farce. It is an established legal principle that exhaustion of domestic legal remedies is not a prerequisite for an international investigation when such an investigation would be a futile exercise.

Failure by the international community to act on this matter will only deepen the sense of betrayal felt among Tamils worldwide. Furthermore, inaction on the part of the international community will also undermine the very integrity of these international institutions, erode faith in the rule of law, and encourage rogue States and totalitarian regimes to take all humanitarian laws into their hands.

Visuvanathan Rudrakumaran
Coordinator

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 and is filed under Diaspora, lead1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
« Tamil Diaspora to EU: Sri Lankan Violations are the Symptom, not the Disease
On Sri Lankan Killings, As Alston Asks Rajapaksas, Why Not UN’s Nambiar? »

Leave a Comment