Report: 25,000-30,000 Civilians Maimed in Final Days of Sri Lanka War : Handicap International

Reporter Says Slain Rebel Leaders Were Promised Safety Right Before Final Offensive
by Jason Ditz, May 24, 2009

While the Sri Lankan government maintains that no civilian casualties were caused in the final offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Sri Lanka’s branch of the French-based aid organization Handicap International* says that between 25,000 and 30,000 people are believed to have been seriously maimed in the final days of the military offensive against the separatist rebels.

Sri Lanka declared victory in the 26 year long civil war last week, having killed the leader of the LTTE and captured the last tiny swath of the island controlled by the rebels. The final months of the violence took a considerable toll on the Tamil population of the island’s north.

Information about the final clash has been tough to come by, but journalist Marie Colvin gave a compelling report of the final hours today, in which she obtained a guarantee of safety for top rebel chiefs just hours before the final offensive, and was reassured by the government that the army would not harm them. All the chiefs involved in the deal were slain.

See Handicapped International, co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, for more on their work in both Pakistan and Sri Lanka among the civilians caught in the cross-fire, how to support actions against cluster bombs, landmines and their work with civilians here

RELATED: Tamil civilians imprisoned in Sri Lankan Manik Farm camp
here

Also see here From The Times May 25, 2009
===========================
MIGHT THERE HAVE BEEN A BETTER WAY TOWARD LONG-LASTING PEACE? Might there still be a better way for other hot spots to keep from doing the same manner of killings with the false hope that the end will be what they hope to achieve for their peoples? Would working with Marie Colvin and other international "peace brokers" and "media peace warriors" help some of the leaders in Pakistan right now? There are many more bridges in Pakistan among the intelligentia, spiritual and legal leaders, I am sure. US current Pentagon and White House also claim to be different than former administration. Yet we must hold them to their word to be so...

And work internationally for human rights for all so that there are many other options besides bowing to Western powers for military help.

So let's pray and have faith that the same kind of ending will not occur in Pakistan on even a smaller scale than what has just happened and "ended" in Sri Lanka. (and is the suffering anywhere near the end there as good as the headlines claiming victory look to some?)
===========================
Tigers Begged Me to Broker Surrender: Slain Tamil chiefs were promised safety

As the Sri Lankan army closed in, top rebels asked journalist Marie Colvin* to relay their surrender conditions to the UN | May 25, 2009 Article from: The Australian

IT was a desperate last phone call but it did not sound like a man who would be dead within hours. Balasingham Nadesan, political leader of the Tamil Tigers, had nowhere to turn, it seemed.

"We are putting down our arms," he told me late on May 17 by satellite phone from the tiny slip of jungle and beach on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka where the Tigers had been making their last stand.

I could hear machinegun fire in the background as he continued coolly: "We are looking for a guarantee of security from the Obama administration and the British Government. Is there a guarantee of security?"

He was well aware that surrendering to the victorious Sri Lankan army would be the most dangerous moment in the 26-year civil war between the Tigers and Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority.

I had known Nadesan and Seevaratnam Puleedevan, the head of the Tigers' peace secretariat, since being smuggled into rebel territory eight years ago.

The two men were trying to save the lives of the remaining 300 fighters and their families. Tens of thousands of civilians were trapped with them.

For several days I had been the intermediary between the Tiger leadership and the UN.

Nadesan had asked me to relay three points to the UN: they would lay down their arms, they wanted a guarantee of safety from the US or Britain, and they wanted an assurance the Sri Lankan Government would agree to a political process that would guarantee the rights of the Tamil minority.

Through highly placed British and US officials I had established contact with the UN special envoy in Colombo, Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. I had passed on the Tigers' conditions for surrender, which he had said he would relay to the Sri Lankan Government.

The conflict seemed set for a peaceful outcome. Puleedevan, a jolly bespectacled figure, found time to text me a smiling photo of himself in a bunker.

By the night of May 17, however, as the army pressed in, there were no more political demands from the Tigers and no more photos. Nadesan refused to use the word surrender when he called me, but that is what he intended to do. He wanted Nambiar to be present to guarantee the Tigers' safety.

Once more, the UN 24-hour control centre in New York patched me through to Nambiar in Colombo, where it was 5.30am last Monday, May 18. I woke him up.

I told him the Tigers had lain down their arms. He said he had been assured by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse that Nadesan and Puleedevan would be safe in surrendering. All they had to do was "hoist a white flag high".

I asked Nambiar if he should go north to witness the surrender. He said that would be unnecessary, the President's assurances were enough.

It was still late Sunday night in London. I tried to get through to Nadesan's satellite phone but failed, so I called a Tigers contact in South Africa to relay Nambiar's message: wave a white flag high.

I was woken at 5am by a phone call from another Tigers contact in Southeast Asia. He had been unable to get through to Nadesan. "I think it's all over," he said. "I think they're all dead."

That evening, the Sri Lankan army displayed their bodies. What had gone wrong with the surrender? I would soon find out.

I discovered that on the night of May 17 Nadesan had also called Rohan Chandra Nehru, a Tamil MP in the Sri Lankan parliament, who contacted Mr Rajapakse.

The MP recounted the events of the next hours: "The President himself told me he would give full security to Nadesan and his family. Nadesan said he had 300 people with him, some injured.

"I said to the President, 'I will go and take their surrender'. Rajapakse said, 'No, our army is very generous and very disciplined. There is no need for you to go to a war zone. You don't need to put your life at risk'."

Chandra Nehru said Basil, the President's brother, called him. "He said, 'They will be safe. They have to hoist a white flag.' And he gave me the route they should follow."

The MP got through to Nadesan about 6.20am local time last Monday. "We are ready," Nadesan told him. "I'm going to walk out and hoist the white flag."

"I told him: 'Hoist it high, brother, they need to see it. I will see you in the evening'," said Chandra Nehru.

A Tamil who was in a group that escaped the killing zone later told an aid worker that Nadesan and Puleedevan walked towards Sri Lankan army lines with a white flag in a group of about a dozen men and women. He said the army fired machineguns at them.

Nadesan's wife, a Sinhalese, yelled in Sinhala: "He is trying to surrender and you are shooting him." She was also shot down.

The source said all in the group were killed. He is now in hiding. Chandra Nehru has fled the country after being threatened, the MP says, by the President and his brother. Over the past few days, Nambiar's role as UN envoy has come into question. His brother, Satish, has been a paid consultant to the Sri Lankan army since 2002. Satish once wrote that General Sarath Fonseka, commander of the Sri Lankan armed forces, "displayed the qualities of a great military leader".

Nadesan and Puleedevan favoured a political solution to the conflict. They would have been credible political leaders for the Tamil minority.

I am in a difficult position as a journalist reporting this story. I first went to Sri Lanka in 2001 to investigate reports that the Government was blocking food and medical supplies to Tamils. Journalists had been largely banned from the Tamil area for six years.

As I was being smuggled out of the area at night, we were ambushed by the Sri Lankan army. I was unhurt until I shouted, "Journalist, journalist". Then they fired an RPG at me, severely wounding me.

After intermittent contact with the Tamils since then, I had a series of phone calls from the leadership in recent months. In one call, Nadesan said the Tigers would abide by the result of any referendum and begged for a ceasefire. His plea was rejected by Colombo.

The Sunday Times/ The Australian May 24, 2009
here

Read and Add your Comments to this article by Marie Colvin - there are 129 or so there now: here

Read more about/by the author, Marie Colvin, the first foreign journalist to visit Tamil-held Sri Lanka since 1995 - includes reports from Mallawi

here

here

Recent Role: Correspondent on Frontline here (how recent was/is Colvin a part of Frontline? after reading a little about Colvin, I sure hope she's a part of the coming Frontline Program on Pakistan to be broadcast this Tuesday over PBS 9 pm EST.)

Winner of Award: here

More on Colvin's reporting:here

Blog about her recovery from an earlier time in Sri Lanka: A man wrote from Colombo: “I am not a Tamil, but if there were more journalists reporting the truth as you did, this war would be over in 24 hours.” here