Unsubstantiated war crimes allegations reiterated New Delhi confab:

By Shamindra Ferdinando-October 11, 2013, 

Adam Roberts

The South Asia Bureau Chief of The Economist, Adam Roberts, last Tuesday (08) alleged that the Sri Lankan Army had executed LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s youngest son, Balachandran (12), during the final phase of the conflict in early May 2009.

Having accused the SLA of executing Prabhakaran’s son, the New Delhi based Adam claimed that the execution of prisoners of war with hands tied to their backs wouldn’t have come to light if not for the perpetrators, in this case SLA personnel releasing video footage of the executions, at the conclusion of the conflict.

Roberts was addressing a group of journalists from India, Pakistan, Australia, Iran, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Singapore, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal, at the Jamia Millia Islamia University, in New Delhi.

The Economist regional chief also referred to Western troops releasing pictures and videos of atrocities committed by them at Baghdad’s Central Prison, known as Abu Ghraib, as well as other places following US-led military interventions.

Responding to allegations, Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya alleged that since the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009, interested parties had been propagating lies in support of a project to tarnish the country’s image. He pointed out that there was evidence to prove that pictures released by pro-LTTE outfits, of Prabhakaran’s son before and after the alleged killing, were in fact not authentic.

The British journalist stood for Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who was in Jaffna on that day for talks with newly elected Chief Minister of the Northern Provincial Council C. V. Vigneswaran. Khurshid, accompanied by a group of Indian journalists flew into Jaffna after having had talks with President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees.

The two-day conference jointly organised by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), AJK Mass Communication Research Centre and Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution attracted a sizeable group of students.

Commenting on the recently concluded Northern Provincial Council polls, Roberts said that ordinary Tamils living in Jaffna, whom he had the opportunity of talking to during his recent visit to cover the PC polls, lived in fear due to the presence of Sri Lankan intelligence services. Based on his interviews with civilians in northern Sri Lanka, Roberts asserted that the conflict wasn’t over, though the war ended in May 2009.

Referring to the recent massacre of men, women and children by al Shabab in Nairobi, Kenya, Roberts said that the senseless massacre had been carried out only to capture global media attention. He cited the case of a Tibetan monk setting himself ablaze with the intention of manipulating the international media.

The ICRC’s regional head, Mary Werntz said: "Media do not just report news, they also form opinion – and that, in turn, shapes events." "It will be interesting to discuss with top professionals from South Asia how reporting can help address humanitarian consequences of violence and conflict," Werntz said in her brief address during which she referred to thousands of medical evacuations carried out under the auspices of the ICRC mission in Sri Lanka at the height of Eelam war IV.

Addressing the first session of the two-day confab, veteran journalist M. R. Narayan Swamy said that he had never had faith in the LTTE as he had known that Prabhakaran would one day take the Tamil community to its grave. Swamy, who had authored three books on the Sri Lankan conflict, asserted that the situation faced by Sri Lankan Tamils on the Vanni front was worse than the July 1983 riots.

Although Swamy said that due to time constraints he couldn’t relate stories from the past, he agreed to discuss one story following an intervention by Wing Commander Praful Bakshi, who functioned as the Defence Ministry spokesperson during the deployment of the Indian army in Sri Lanka in the late 1980s. Bakshi was speaking in his capacity as a consultant to the ICRC.

India deployed troops on July 29, 1987 in accordance with Indo-Lanka peace accord. Fighting broke out in early Oct 1987 causing thousands of deaths among combatants as well as civilians. India ended its mission in March 1990.

Swamy recollected the Indian army surrounding a hotel in Vavuniya, where he was staying at the onset of Indian operations in northern Sri Lanka. According to him, Indian troops had used a masked informant to identify those with the LTTE, regardless of the collaborator making a mistake. At the behest of the Indian army, those who had been forced out of the hotel, including Narayan, were paraded before the masked man. After the masked man had cleared Swamy, he had introduced himself to the Indian army officer in charge of the counter insurgency operation. A smiling Swamy recollected how the young Indian officer stared at him with an open mouth.

WC Bakshi explained difficulties experienced by the Indian military as well as the media alike due to the External Affairs and Defence ministries pulling in different directions.