Colombo Telegraph
IN JOURNALISM TRUTH IS A PROCESSPOSTED
By Colombo Telegraph -
“The President remarked at lunch before this meeting that India had satellites and was monitoring the ground situation in Sri Lanka. It will now be equally clear to the Sri Lankan government that we are watching, too.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as “CONFIDENTIAL” and recounts details of meetings the US Embassy official Charge d’Affaires James R. Moore has had with Presidend Rajapaksa and his officials. The cable was written on May 5, 2009 by the Charge d’Affaires James R. Moore.
Charge d’Affaires Moore wrote “On May 4, Charge met with Foreign Minister Bogollagama to discuss reports that Government forces were shelling into the Government-designated ‘safe zone’ even after the President’s April 27 declaration of the end of combat operations. Charge presented two declassified satellite images taken on April 26 and 28 of the civilian ‘no-fire zone’ showing probable artillery impact craters. Referring to widely-circulated but unofficial UN estimates of thousands of civilian deaths and injuries since late January (which have elicited strongly-worded refutations by Government officials), Charge noted that the U.S. is not in position independently to verify numbers of civilian casualties, but that it is clear there have been many. Bogollagama replied (implying the LTTE had shelled its own positions) that the satellite images did not provide enough information to indicate the source of fire.”
“On May 5, President Mahinda Rajapaksa held a meeting of Co-Chair Ambassadors. Charge took the opportunity afterwards to pull aside President Rajapaksa and Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona to share privately satellite images released for this purpose by Department. The President noted he had already seen the images Charge provided to the Foreign Minister the previous day. Charge informed the President and Foreign Secretary that he had been instructed to share these satellite images with the Sri Lankan government. These ‘before and after’ satellite images dated April 27 through May 3 document apparent shelling damage in the “safe zone” even after the April 27 declaration by President Rajapaksa, he noted. Charge stated that we were sharing the satellite images in the hope the shelling would stop.” Moore further wrote.
Placing a comment Charge d’Affaires wrote “At the beginning of the preceding meeting with Co-Chair Ambassadors (septel), the President asked Charge for an assessment of the current situation, noting wryly, “you are probably better informed than I am.” Post considers it possible that individual field commanders or the Army command might have resorted to the use of heavy weapons while protecting the Commander-in-Chief from this information. Rajapaksa has been known to call individual battlefield commanders in the past to ask for frank assessments when he feels out of touch with ground realities. While the senior officials we spoke with concerning the satellite images conceded nothing, our effort still could lead to the President conducting his own inquiries and a possible change of the Sri Lankan Army’s conduct of the battle in progress. The President remarked at lunch before this meeting that India had satellites and was monitoring the ground situation in Sri Lanka. It will now be equally clear to the Sri Lankan government that we are watching, too.”
