Henricsson's parting gift
S L Gunasekara and Gomin Dayasri
COLOMBO: Major General (Retd) Ulf Henricsson's parting gift to the
LTTE on the eve of his departure from Sri Lanka is a demonstrably false
report, which he necessarily knew to be false, that the Security Forces
murdered the 17 Aid Workers of the French NGO named Action Against
Hunger (ACF).
The pivotal questions at issue in respect of this matter are : -
a What was the time of death ?
b Who was in control of Muttur Town at the time of death ?
According to the Judicial Medical Officer who performed post-mortem
examinations on the bodies, the probable time of death was between the
night of August 3 and August 4, 2006.
According to Henricsson's report the ACF office at Trincomalee was in
radio contact with the Muttur Office (wherein the 17 deceased were
employed) every 30 minutes from the 1st August, and the last contact was
at 06.10 hrs on the morning of August 4.
Henricsson goes on to say that after 06.10 hrs on the morning of
August 4 all attempts to contact the Muttur Office by radio, mobile
phone and fax were in vain. It would thus follow that the murders took
place at sometime between 06.10 hrs and 06.40 hrs on the morning of
Friday the August 4, 2006.
The overwhelming probabilities would, therefore, be that the
murderers were those who were in control of Muttur Town in the early
hours of Friday the August 4. This would be in accord with both the
opinion of the JMO and the evidence of the ACF Officers.
Henricsson could not have been unaware of these facts. Accordingly it
is evident that Henricsson has sought to make out falsely that the LTTE
had vacated Muttur Town "during the day of Thursday August 3rd bringing
the GOSL troops back into town."
Henricsson has therefore made a strenuous and equally dishonest
effort to contend that the Security Forces were in control of Muttur
Town from during the day of Thursday August 3rd.
Not only is there not an iota of evidence to support this contention,
but both the Security Forces and the LTTE are (for once) unanimous in
their contentions that it was the LTTE and not the Security Forces that
were in control of Muttur Town during the day of 3rd and 4th.
According to the LTTE's propaganda machine, namely, TamilNet, the
LTTE was in control of Muttur Town from around 02:35 GMT (i.e. about
9.00 p.m.) on the 1st August until midnight on Friday the 4th August
(see TamilNet news items of 02:35 GMT on 2.8.06; 19:18 hrs on 2.8.06 and
11:04 GMT on 5.8.06).
Indeed TamilNet (August 5, 2006 11:04 GMT) states "the Military
Spokesman of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Irasaiah
Ilanthiayan, told TamilNet that the LTTE troops by midnight Friday,
returned to their original positions as per February 22, 2002 Ceasefire
Agreement."
The position of the Security Forces is that they succeeded in
regaining control of Muttur Town only in the course of the 5th August
2006. This shows that the LTTE was in control of Muttur Town not only
between 06:10 hrs and 06:40 hrs on the morning of Friday the 4th August
when the murders would most probably have been committed but throughout
at least the entirety of that day.
On what basis then does Henricsson conclude that the Government was
in control of Muttur Town from daytime on the 3rd August? He could only
have founded that conclusion on the dishonest desire of his diseased
mind to insult and defame the Government of Sri Lanka.
Other evidence of the fact that it was the LTTE and no other which
murdered these poor Aid Workers is to be found in no less a source than
the LTTE's own propaganda organ TamilNet. The ancient Sinhala saying "Kata
boru kiwwath diva boru kiyanna naha" (i.e. "even if the mouth lies the
tongue does not") is pertinent in this regard.
TamilNet in its bulletin datelined 14:28 GMT on 5.8.06 states that
the Sri Lanka Army had killed 15 Tamil Aid Workers. Their bulletin
datelined 07:26 GMT of August 8, 2006 however states that the bodies of
these unfortunate people were found by an organisation known as The
Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies on Sunday, namely August 6, 2006.
How could the LTTE have been aware of these murders more than one day
before the discovery of the bodies unless they themselves committed the
murders ?
These matters which point the finger of guilt at the LTTE have
obviously not even been considered at best; or considered and ignored at
worst by Henricsson.
There are only three purported grounds on which Henricsson founds his
findings of guilt against the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka in respect of a
crime of the most abhorrent nature. The first is the patently false
ground that the Security Forces were in control of Muttur Town from
during the day on Thursday the 3rd August.
The second is his contention that the SLMM was denied access to
Muttur by the Armed Forces on both the 5th and 6th August 2006 while
journalists were taken there.
It is a manifest and undeniable fact that journalists reporting armed
conflicts willingly take risks of their own accord as a part of their
professional duties to report such conflicts. The Government however, by
the Ceasefire Agreement, undertook responsibility for the safety and
security of members of the SLMM.
In accordance with that duty the Government could not possibly have
taken members of the SLMM to this scene of fierce fighting on the day
its forces re-entered Muttur or on the following day. Moreover Muttur
was at that time, approachable only by sea. The Navy was then stretched
to the maximum and its vessels sailing to Muttur were always at risk of
being sunk by terrorist fire from Sampur.
How then could any person with a modicum of common sense have
expected the Government to do otherwise than to refuse to take members
of the SLMM to Muttur on those days ? Thus, Henricsson has perversely
distorted the responsible act of the Government in fulfilling its
obligations under the Ceasefire Agreement to guarantee the safety of the
members of the SLMM into a circumstance indicative of guilt in a
horrendous crime.
The third limb on which Henricsson purports to found his finding of
guilt of the Government is some reports which he says he received from
some unnamed and unidentified persons. Clearly no value of whatever
nature could be placed on such material to come to a conclusion of guilt
of any crime ranging from stealing a slice of bread to murder against
any person.
Yet this is the type of rubbish on which a retired Major General of
the Swedish Army heading a Nordic Monitoring Mission founds a finding of
guilt of mass murder against the Armed Forces of a Sovereign State! He
is, indeed, a colossal disgrace to Sweden and to the Swedish Army. |