Pulidevan
------------------LS-------------------------..........................................Nadesan
..........................................................
Two New Witnesses Claim They Independently Saw “The White Flag Incident”
By Frances
Harrison -February 24, 2013
Frances Harrison
Two eyewitnesses have come
forward for the first time to support allegations that the Sri
Lankan army executed two Tamil Tiger rebel leaders after they
surrendered, carrying a white flag, at the close of the island’s civil war in
2009.
Their
accounts cast fresh doubt on the Sri Lankan government’s claim that the rebels
were killed by their own supporters and add to a growing body of evidence of war
crimes allegedly committed by the Sri Lankan military during the conflict.
Last
week, The Independent published photographs of the 12-year-old
son of the Tamil Tiger chief eating a snack after being captured by
the Sri Lankan army. Shortly afterwards, he was shot five times in the chest,
probably at very close range according to a forensics expert.
The
two new witnesses in what has become known as “the
white flag incident” can testify they independently saw from
different vantage points the Tamil Tiger leaders accepted into the custody of
the Sri Lankan military and escorted from the front line, alive.
One
witness, who did not want to give his name fearing retribution against his
family in Sri Lanka, worked as a bodyguard to the Tiger political leaders. Badly
injured in the last month of the war, he surrendered to save his life and says
he reluctantly became an informer for the Sri Lankan army.
Now
in London, he says he was taken to the front by members of the Sri Lankan
military on the morning of 18 May 2009, and positioned behind an earth
embankment. His job was to confirm the identity of the Tamil political leaders
as they walked towards the army carrying white flags. He says it looked like a
well-organised surrender with hundreds of soldiers, including senior officers
with bodyguards, present.
The
second witness, a government teacher, also now in London, says he was
press-ganged into service for the rebels in the last months of the war. Hours
before the incident, he says he also surrendered, knowing that the war was over
and it was his only chance of survival. After being searched, he says he was
held with others in a derelict building close to the front line. From this
position he watched several groups of Tamil Tiger leaders and their relatives
walk out of the war zone towards the Sri Lankan army, carrying white
flags.
He
admits he was surprised to see the leader of the Tiger political wing, Nadesan,
his Sinhalese wife and the head of the Tiger Peace Secretariat, Pulidevan, in
the first group. Officially the Tigers did not hold with surrender, issuing all
recruits with cyanide capsules to wear around their necks to use in case of
capture.
Both
witnesses say Sri Lankan soldiers went out to greet several groups of
surrendering rebels and escorted them over a bridge across a lagoon to waiting
vehicles on the other side.
The
former bodyguard waited for more than an hour until the military put him in the
back of a pick-up truck and drove him away. Along the road he spotted soldiers
taking photos on their mobile phones of corpses lying on the ground. As they
went past, he recognised Pulidevan
and Nadesan’s bodies. Photographs have since appeared on websites
abroad showing the two Tiger leaders’ half-naked corpses, with bullet wounds and
burn marks on their chests.
The
“white flag” incident also involved approximately 40 other rebels believed to
have negotiated a surrender with the Sri Lankan government. None of them have
been seen since.
Tamil
Tiger rebels conducted a vicious campaign of terror for a separate homeland for
decades, using suicide bombers to kill civilians and scores of politicians,
including a President and an Indian Prime Minister.
Pulidevan
and Nadesan were two of the most senior rebels to surrender. In the hours
beforehand, they used satellite phones to send messages to diplomats,
journalists and peace mediators to ensure top Sri Lankan officials, including
the country’s President, knew of their intention to lay down their arms. They
had been assured that their surrender would be accepted if they raised a white
flag.
However,
the Sri Lankan defence ministry’s website lists Pulidevan and Nadesan as killed
by troops of the 58th Division on 18 May 2009.
Sri
Lanka’s government holds that the Tiger leaders were shot in the back by their
own people, and say the army never executed any individuals.
Allegations
the Sri Lankan army and rebels committed war crimes at the end of a brutal war
are widespread. According to United Nations investigators, the last months saw
repeated and deliberate government shelling of hospitals, food queues and safe
zones for civilians.
*This
article appeared on February 24th in the Independent under the title
“Witnesses support claim that Sri Lanka army shot prisoners”
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