SLA ex-officer testifies on orders to plant bomb at TNA MP's house in 2008
[TamilNet, Sunday, 13 January 2013, 20:27 GMT]
A former commissioned officer of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), testifying to the Canadian Immigration officials after fleeing to Toronto from Sri Lanka, said that a Colonel of the SLA had ordered him to plant bomb materials in the home of Mr M K Sivajilingam, a Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian in 2008, reports a Canadian newspaper, the National Post, on Sunday. The revelation gains significance in the context of alleged ‘recovery’ of explosives at the office of a current TNA parliamentarian Mr S Sritharan last week.
The former commissioned officer of the SLA, 38-year-old Captain Ravindra Priyashantha Watudura Bandanage, coming from Galle in the southern province of Sri Lanka, also testified that he was aware of torture and other crimes carried out by SL government forces against Tamils, and that he knew that the SLA was torturing, beating and raping civilians, the Candian media further reported.
Bandanage recounted how, in 2008, a colonel had told him, “[...] there is an order in regards to this MP, there’s an order from the Defence Ministry”.
“[…] I was asked to go to this MP’s residence and place some explosive material and detonator, and maybe they had planned to blame him for something and make him leave that area and to do something in that area that way or maybe they wanted to get rid of him,” the National Post said quoting Bandanage.
The Sri Lankan forces routinely framed government opponents during the war to discredit them and justify their arrests, said Gary Anandasangaree, a Toronto lawyer who has been making presentations about human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. But he said it was “rare” to hear such an account from a former soldier, the National Post cited.
On January 12th this year the Sri Lankan “Terrorist” Investigation Department (TID) personnel, who receive instructions from SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa “recovered” C4 explosives from the office of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sritharan in a move to trap the Tamil parliamentarian, sources close to the TNA MP told TamilNet.
The ex-SLA officer, who had spent 16 years in the SL Army was seeking asylum in Canada fearing for his life as he had complained to SL police about a prominent politician and his connection to drugs and prostitution.
The case of the ex-SLA officer was dismissed by the Federal Court of Canada last week on grounds of his ‘ineligibility’ for refugee protection as he was complicit in crimes against humanity.
While citing human rights and media sources that gave importance to the testimony of the ex-SLA officer, the National Post was saying that there has been mounting evidence for the atrocities committed by both sides in the Sri Lankan conflict.
“We remain tremendously concerned about the lack of accountability for the actions taken by both parties at the end of the war,” the National Post cited Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird telling on Friday.
A senior politician of a national political party in India commented some times back that comparing the ‘atrocities’ committed by ‘both sides’ is like comparing an earthen pot with an elephant.
The establishments and the media in the West do not actually need to depend on petty evidences as such that had come from the ex-SLA officer. They have all the sources for knowing how the war against all norms of humanity had been conducted at the globally topmost level. But, insignificant trumps are exposed, exploited and punished to suite orchestrated agendas while the fat ones are shielded and white-washed and while the core issue is never recognised, was the comment of a Tamil political observer in Jaffna.
Chronology:
A former commissioned officer of the Sri Lanka Army (SLA), testifying to the Canadian Immigration officials after fleeing to Toronto from Sri Lanka, said that a Colonel of the SLA had ordered him to plant bomb materials in the home of Mr M K Sivajilingam, a Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian in 2008, reports a Canadian newspaper, the National Post, on Sunday. The revelation gains significance in the context of alleged ‘recovery’ of explosives at the office of a current TNA parliamentarian Mr S Sritharan last week.
The former commissioned officer of the SLA, 38-year-old Captain Ravindra Priyashantha Watudura Bandanage, coming from Galle in the southern province of Sri Lanka, also testified that he was aware of torture and other crimes carried out by SL government forces against Tamils, and that he knew that the SLA was torturing, beating and raping civilians, the Candian media further reported.
Bandanage recounted how, in 2008, a colonel had told him, “[...] there is an order in regards to this MP, there’s an order from the Defence Ministry”.
“[…] I was asked to go to this MP’s residence and place some explosive material and detonator, and maybe they had planned to blame him for something and make him leave that area and to do something in that area that way or maybe they wanted to get rid of him,” the National Post said quoting Bandanage.
The Sri Lankan forces routinely framed government opponents during the war to discredit them and justify their arrests, said Gary Anandasangaree, a Toronto lawyer who has been making presentations about human rights violations in Sri Lanka to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. But he said it was “rare” to hear such an account from a former soldier, the National Post cited.
On January 12th this year the Sri Lankan “Terrorist” Investigation Department (TID) personnel, who receive instructions from SL Defence Secretary and presidential sibling Gotabhaya Rajapaksa “recovered” C4 explosives from the office of the Tamil National Alliance parliamentarian Sritharan in a move to trap the Tamil parliamentarian, sources close to the TNA MP told TamilNet.
The ex-SLA officer, who had spent 16 years in the SL Army was seeking asylum in Canada fearing for his life as he had complained to SL police about a prominent politician and his connection to drugs and prostitution.
The case of the ex-SLA officer was dismissed by the Federal Court of Canada last week on grounds of his ‘ineligibility’ for refugee protection as he was complicit in crimes against humanity.
While citing human rights and media sources that gave importance to the testimony of the ex-SLA officer, the National Post was saying that there has been mounting evidence for the atrocities committed by both sides in the Sri Lankan conflict.
“We remain tremendously concerned about the lack of accountability for the actions taken by both parties at the end of the war,” the National Post cited Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird telling on Friday.
A senior politician of a national political party in India commented some times back that comparing the ‘atrocities’ committed by ‘both sides’ is like comparing an earthen pot with an elephant.
The establishments and the media in the West do not actually need to depend on petty evidences as such that had come from the ex-SLA officer. They have all the sources for knowing how the war against all norms of humanity had been conducted at the globally topmost level. But, insignificant trumps are exposed, exploited and punished to suite orchestrated agendas while the fat ones are shielded and white-washed and while the core issue is never recognised, was the comment of a Tamil political observer in Jaffna.
Chronology:
External Links:
| NP: | Sri Lankan Army deserter gives ‘rare’ insider account of government forces torturing civilians |
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