Boyle: US should publicly accuse Colombo of committing war crimes

[TamilNet, Monday, 30 January 2012, 00:40 GMT]
Pointing to the recent investigative reports in media outlets noting US may possess crucial supporting material to incriminating evidence from senior military commanders of Colombo committing war-crimes, to exposures on Wikileaks of Colombo-based US Ambassadors’ reported knowledge of high level Sri Lanka officials’ complicity to war crimes, and to incriminating reports from the UN and NGOs on alleged war-crimes, Professor Boyle of University of Illinois, College of Law, said, in similar circumstances Secretary of State Eagleburger accused Radovan Karadzic of committing war-crimes during the Bosnian genocide, and the Obama administration can, and should, do the same thing to political and military leaders in Colombo. 

Acting U.S. Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger publicly condemns Karadzic

In a note sent to TamilNet, Professor Boyle said, “Under similar circumstances during the Bosnian genocide, U.S. Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger under President Bush Sr. publicly accused Bosnian Serb President Radovan Karadzic of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, on the basis of evidence compiled by the US Government, though he did not go so far as to accuse Karadzic of genocide because of the political implications.

“But it seems to me that Secretary of State Clinton or at least Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights Mike Posner can and should do the same here. If the Bush Sr. administration did the right thing for the Bosnians, then certainly and a fortiori the Obama administration can and should do the right thing for the Tamils.”

In addition to the evidence that has been emerging recently, Prof. Boyle said earlier, “United States Defense Department will have all the evidence necessary to indict Sri Lanka officials who were responsible for the 2009 May massacre. Expatriate Tamils have to keep working until they find a way to have this information accessible to UN prosecutors.”