Tomorrow Sri Lanka Will Repeat All The Lies & Damn Lies To The 47 Member Countries!

By Veluppillai Thangavelu –FEBRUARY 22, 2021

Veluppillai Thangavelu

“Lies, damned lies, and statistics” is a phrase describing the persuasive power of numbers, particularly the use of statistics to bolster weak arguments. It is also sometimes colloquially used to doubt statistics used to prove an opponent’s point.

It was popularized in the United States by Mark Twain and others.

There are also three other kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and politics. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is telling lies but vehemently denies. However, the former US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes and Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp recalled during a webinar held on February 12, 2021, that then-defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had admitted to killing LTTE leaders after they surrendered to the military in May 2009 instead of putting them on trial.

The webinar on Sri Lanka: Quest for Justice, Rule of Law & Democratic Rights was Co-hosted by The Global Tamil Forum, Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice – New York University, Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice.  and The Canadian Tamil Congress.

Participating in the discussion Stephen Rapp recalled that then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had admitted to killing LTTE leaders who surrendered to the military in 2009 instead of putting them on trial.

Rapp said he remembered a conversation with the former Defence Secretary and now President Gotabaya Rajapaksa regarding LTTE leaders who surrendered to the army.

“I remember the defence secretary saying, “Oh, trials, trials, you know they go on so long and people get off”. And then he said, “I killed them, I killed them, I killed them,” Rapp recalled.

As expected, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s Office on 15 February, 2021 strongly denied the claim by the former US Ambassador for War Crimes and Global Criminal Justice Stephen Rapp (2009-2015) that wartime Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa had admitted to killing LTTE leaders following their surrender to the Army in May 2009. Rapp claimed Rajapaksa had told him so when he met the latter in Colombo.

There was absolutely no basis for Rapp’s claim, the President’s Office said when The Island sought President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s response to the former Ambassador’s accusation. The President’s Office questioned the former US official’s motive to make such a statement seven years after leaving office.

At a press conference during the presidential election campaign, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was asked as to what happened to the LTTE cadres who surrendered to the army on May 18, 2009, including those who surrendered carrying white flags.

Gotabaya answered saying that he is not the commander on the field, but anyway, those who surrendered were handed over to the Ministry of Rehabilitation. He then wanted the time, date, venue and names of those who are missing after the surrender.

Despite the continued denial by Gotabaya Rajapaksa, there is solid evidence that hundreds of LTTE cadres who surrendered to the army at Vadduvakal on 18 May, 2009 between 5.00 pm and 6.00 pm disappeared after they were taken away for a ‘short inquiry’.

The BBC London on 24 September 2010 quoted Ananthi’s evidence she gave before the LLRC. She said “My husband (Ezhilan) surrendered to the Sri Lankan army in front of my eyes on 18 May 2009 after the end of the war. I have not heard anything about him after that. Please help me find him.”

Ananthi Sasitharan told the commission that she witnessed her husband and hundreds of other cadres surrendering to the Sri Lankan army. She said that the rebels vacated the war zone with the civilian population and joined numerous top Tamil Tiger leaders who all ceased hostilities and gave themselves up at the same time.

BBC journalists were not allowed to attend the hearings but the BBC’s Tamil service spoke to Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan afterwards by telephone.

“An army official identified my husband. He was taken away and I was sent to the Vavuniya camp along with others. I have not heard anything about him since,” Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan said.

“They all surrendered under the leadership of one Father Francis Joseph [Roman Catholic] an English teacher. Nothing is known of his whereabouts either.”

Ananthi is not the only witness who saw her husband taken away. Mrs. R. Mironio, the wife of LTTE former Mannar commander Antony Rayappu said she has not heard from her husband or not told of the whereabouts of him after he surrendered in front of her in SLA controlled territory on 18 May 2009. The surrender was facilitated by Catholic Priest Rev. Fr. Francis Joseph, she said. The priest was also taken with her husband, but none have heard about them, she said.

On September 18 (Saturday) Mrs Ananthi Sasitharan was interviewed by BBC (Tamil Oosai) following her testimony before the LLRC. She told BBC (Tamil Oosai) that she and her three daughters witnessed her husband and hundreds of other LTTE members surrendering to the Sri Lanka Army (SLA) soldiers on 18th May 2009, after the war has come to an end. “I have been trying to trace my husband and have not been successful to locate his whereabouts. I have no doubt that Sri Lanka’s president knows where my husband and others who surrendered are being held,” she told the BBC.

“If my husband has disappeared during the war, then there will be a reason to think that he may have been killed during the heat of the battle, but having seen him surrender after the fighting has stopped, there is absolutely no reason for me to believe that he is dead,” Ananthi told the BBC. 

Ananthi told Human Rights Watch that she has had no news about her husband since.

I have searched in all the camps. I went to the Defence Ministry. I filed a complaint with the police in January 2010. But I have received no information about my husband. The police only told me that it would be difficult for them to find him since the area where he went missing is under military control. I want the government to tell me what happened to him. Whether he is dead or alive, I want an answer.

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