Intelligence agencies on man-hunt for genocide witnesses

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 21 December 2011, 06:39 GMT]

Through fraud, finance and force, the intelligence agencies of Sri Lanka in collusion with their counterparts in ‘friendly’ countries are pursuing and silencing certain crucial witnesses to the genocide that happened in the stages of war leading to Mu’l’livaaykkaal. An upcoming documentary by a British channel is being used as a ruse to draw out such witnesses and target them. To such ends, a selected group of Tamils are operated by such agencies through threats or bribes to act as decoys to win the trust of witnesses and to trap them, reliable sources from India told TamilNet. A number of witnesses, who gave eyewitness accounts have already been arrested and handed over to Colombo through formal deportation from India.

Rights activists have informed the concerned human rights quarters and media, including the British channel, on the latest move by the SL military intelligence and its overseas abetters.

In a well crafted out scheme to prevent any further damage to SL government’s reputation, SL intelligence operatives are targeting genocide witnesses in Tamil Nadu who possess vital first-person accounts of atrocities committed in 2009.

It is also alleged that sections of Indian intelligence have a heavy hand in this.

Well trained operatives, posing as diaspora groups filming the next segment of the Channel 4 documentary, are deployed to approach these witnesses. Once the concerned witnesses have been convinced, their evidences are recorded and video-taped and handed over to the intelligence.

The witnesses then are arrested, and after interrogation, they are either deported to Colombo or detained and forced to identify other witnesses in the country.