Bruce Haigh's mischief making

Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, MP

Admiral Thisara Samarsinghe was recently approved by the Australian government to become the next Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Canberra. He joined the navy in 1974 and retired in January 2011.

Admiral Samarsinghe was chief of staff of the Sri Lankan Navy at a time when the navy shelled Tamil soldiers and civilians trapped in what had been declared a safe zone at the end of the civil war.

The navy then blocked attempts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate the injured, women and children from the safe zone. Haigh advances no evidence at all for this bald statement. He completely ignores the evidence of the ICRC, which sent the letter below to the previous Commander of the Navy on February 14, 2009, following assistance provided by the navy to the ICRC.

Sadly, in recent discussions of what took place, the support provided by the navy to the ICRC with regard to provision of food and evacuation of the wounded (under 5,000, with about 2,000 more sick and 7,000 bystanders sent out, indicating that the number of war wounded was limited), the role of the navy is ignored. I need only refer you to the language used by the Head of the ICRC, and his references to discipline and kindness and respect for you to realize that Haigh possesses none of these qualities and should not be let loose on an unsuspecting public.

ICRC
Colombo,
February 14, 2009
COL 09/485/PCA

Dar Sir,

Following the successful medical evacuations by sea that took place on February 10 and 12, on behalf of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) I wish to express my sincere thanks to you and to the Navy for your valuable and effective collaboration, which helped to save many people's lives.

I know that it was a complex operation, which proved to be extremely demanding for all. Your men, either at sea or on land, succeeded in an exemplary manner to carry out their essential task to protect the State and its citizens and simultaneously to care for the sick and wounded.

They displayed a strict discipline and respect of rules of engagement and at the same time a very respectful and kind attitude to help those in need.

In that regard in addition to all others who contributed to this medical evacuation, we wish to express our special thanks to the Director General for Operations, at the Navy HQ, the Officiating Commander Eastern Naval Command, in Trincomalee and to the Deputy Area Commander North, in Jaffna.

They spent many sleepless hours coordinating the operation and played a crucial role to make it a success. These days demonstrated that soldiering is a noble profession.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Castella
Head of Delegation
Adm. Wasantha Karannagoda
Navy Commander
Sri Lanka Navy Headquarters
Colombo 03
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

From 1983 the Sri Lankan navy detained and shot Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu who ventured into Sri Lankan waters on the basis that they were likely to be helping Tamil separatists. Until 2009, 400 were shot and killed, with several thousand more wounded.

I cannot, since I am now in Australia, challenge these statistics, but I do not recall Haigh being quite so dogmatic about these when his friend, former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, was in office.

According to the recently-released UN Report into war crimes committed at the end of the civil war, both sides were guilty of breaches under the Geneva Conventions, however the Sri Lankan government has refused the UN Panel which prepared the report further access to Sri Lanka and has condemned the report as biased.

Government forces

There was no UN Report into war crimes. A panel was appointed to advise the UN Secretary General with regard to accountability issues, and the Secretary General's office accepted that access to Sri Lanka was not essential for this purpose. However it seems that some members of the Panel, who directly contradicted the Secretary General's office on this, saw themselves not as advisers but as judges.

They did not see themselves as investigators, since there is no suggestion that they actually examined allegations they received, but have simply acted as a postbox in repeating these, with addition of the word 'credible', without any argument that establishes credibility.

The report estimates 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed towards the end of the war, some, as already noted, by the navy. In addition, 4,000 Tamil soldiers (LTTE) are being held incommunicado by the victorious government forces. UN officials

The estimate reported by the Panel, with references to the UN, have been repudiated as reliable figures by senior UN officials. The former LTTE cadres, nearly 11,000 in number initially, have now been reduced to something like the figure Haigh cites, but they are certainly not incommunicado, and are visited by friends and relations.

The last time I was in one of the Centres, to check on an entrepreneurship development programme I had funded through my decentralized budget as a Member of Parliament, I was introduced to the wife of one of the boys helping with the programme. She was a student at the University of Jaffna, but came down regularly to visit him.

The 500-page UN Report notes that, "The fact that interrogations and investigations as well as 'rehabilitation' activities have been ongoing, without any external scrutiny for almost two years, rendered alleged LTTE cadre highly vulnerable to violations such as rape, torture or disappearance, which could be committed with impunity."

To be continued