Dr. Gamani Corea’s Remains Will Be Cremated Today
November 4, 2013
Dr. Gamani Corea passed away on November 03, 2013 after a brief illness, a day before his 88th birthday. His remains lie at his residence “Horton Lodge”, Horton Place, Colombo 7 for the paying of last respects, where a service will be held in the afternoon. His last mortal remains will be cremated at 4pm today, November 04, 2013 , at the Borella (Kanatha) Cemetery.
Dr. Gamani Corea
Although he was perhaps Sri Lanka’s most distinguished international civil servant and a renowned economist, he remained a gentle and unassuming person with a cutting sense of humour. He used to joke of how he was at the time, the oldest (longest standing) member of the Royal Colombo Golf Club – where he used to play golf with the late Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake, and also had the oldest (longest running) car – an old Honda Civic which he did not feel the need to change, since it ‘worked very well’.
Here is a very telling quote on Dr. Gamani Corea’s stature in the North-South dialogue to secure greater benefits for the developing world from the developed Western countries, click here
His impressive biography published on Wikipedia
WikiLeaks: LTTE Stored Weapons At Hospitals – ICRC To US Mission To UN
November 4, 2013
“On the LTTE, de Maio said that it had tried to keep civilians in the middle of a permanent state of violence. It saw the civilian population as a ‘protective asset’ and kept its fighters embedded amongst them. De Maio said that the LTTE commanders, objective was to keep the distinction between civilian and military assets blurred. They would often respond positively when ICRC complained to the LTTE about stationing weapons at a hospital, for example. The LTTE would move the assets away, but as they were constantly shifting these assets, they might just show up in another unacceptable place shortly thereafter.” the US Mission to UN informed Washington.
Jacque de Maio
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The “Confidential” cable discuses what had happened on the ground during and since the conflict. The cable was written by the US Ambassador to Geneva Clint Williamson on July 15, 2009.
After a meeting with Jacque de Maio, ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia on July 9, 2009, the US ambassador Clint Williamson wrote; “De Maio said it would be hard to state that there was a systematic order to LTTE fighters to stick with civilians in order to draw fire. Civilians were indeed under ‘physical coercion not to go here or there,’ he said. Thus, the dynamics of the conflict were that civilians were present all the time. This makes it very difficult to determine though at what point such a situation becomes a case of ‘human shields.’
