WikiLeaks document exposes US complicity in Sri Lankan war crimes

[Joanne98]

One of the diplomatic cables from the US embassy in Colombo released by WikiLeaks this week shows that the Obama administration was well aware of the war crimes committed by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and his regime in the final stages of its war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).


Rajapakse restarted the war against the LTTE in July 2006, which culminated in its defeat in May 2009. During the final months, the Sri Lankan military pounded and strafed the remaining LTTE-held pockets, killing thousands of Tamil civilians. Rajapakse has repeatedly denied that war crimes were committed by the military or his government, and opposed any independent investigation.


The cable published by WikiLeaks was sent by the US Ambassador, Patricia A. Butenis, on January 15 this year, just a week before the presidential election in Sri Lanka. Rajapakse won the election, defeating former Army Commander, General Sarath Fonseka.


After noting that the government’s “lack of attention to accountability is not surprising,” Butenis said the issue had been “complicated by the fact that responsibility for many of the alleged crimes rests with the country’s senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapakse and his brothers and opposition candidate General Fonseka”.


Although it called for investigations into “human rights violations” after the LTTE’s defeat, Washington has never named the Rajapakse brothers or Fonseka as the chief criminals. The cable from Butenis confirms that the US knew all along that the country’s top civilian and military leaders were responsible for war crimes. As army commander, Fonseka, was responsible for planning and carrying out the final offensives. Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the president’s brother, is the defence secretary—the top bureaucrat in charge of the defence ministry.


There is ample evidence that President Rajapakse and General Fonseka presided over war crimes. The UN has estimated that between January and May last year, 7,000 civilians were killed. The International Crisis Group has compiled evidence showing an even higher civilian toll of between 30,000 and 75,000 and of the Sri Lankan military’s deliberate targetting of hospitals and aid centres inside LTTE territory.


In May 2009, the British-based Guardian and the Sunday Times reported that three LTTE leaders—its peace secretariat head S. Puleedevan, political leader B. Nadesan and a military leader Romesh—were killed as they attempted to surrender with white flags. Sunday Times journalist Marie Colvin revealed that the surrender arrangements had involved contact with British, US and UN officials.


The leaked cable highlights the duplicity of the policy pursued by the US and its allies, which backed Rajapakse’s renewed offensive to the hilt. They were silent over the army’s blatant breaches of the 2002 ceasefire, its bombardments of civilian targets and violations of democratic rights, including the operations of pro-government death squads. In the final months, they repeatedly demanded the LTTE’s unconditional surrender as the only way to end the carnage.


It was only during the last stages of the war and subsequently, that the US and other powers cynically played the “human rights” card to pressure the Rajapakse government. Their reservations about “human rights violations” had nothing to do with the plight of Tamil civilians. Rather, their concern was that China had emerged as a close supporter of the Colombo government, providing money to finance the war and weapons to fight it, in return for economic and strategic concessions—in particular, a major new southern port at Hambantota.


Once it became clear that Rajapakse had consolidated his power in the wake of the war, US concerns about “human rights” were soon downplayed. Butenis’s cable was in line with a major report entitled “Sri Lanka: Recharting US Strategy After the War,” issued by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee last December. That report highlighted the danger to US strategic interests of China’s growing influence in Colombo and declared that the US could not afford to “lose Sri Lanka”. While “human rights” remained important, the report stated, “US policy towards Sri Lanka cannot be dominated by a single agenda. It is not effective at delivering real reform, and it shortchanges US geostrategic interests in the region”.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/sril-d04.shtml

[Arctic Dave]

1. Reading these type of articles is one of the main reasons I tell other progressives

to arm themselves as much as they can. As evidence from this cable, don't expect some government to come to your rescue and think that there will be a day in court reckoning. That is a fairy tale leftover from the forties.