WikiLealks: Major General Chandrasiri Confided MOD instruction to US

Colombo TelegraphFEBRUARY 16, 2012

IN JOURNALISM TRUTH IS A PROCESS

By Colombo Telegraph -

A leaked “secret “ US diplomatic cable, dated May 18, 2007, updated the Secretary of State on Sri Lanka’s issue of paramilitary operations shows then military commander in Jaffna and present Governor ,Northern Province Major General  G.A. Chandrasiri, confided Ministry of Defence instruction to US Ambassador Robert O. Blake.

Jaffna Security Forces Commander Major General G.A Chandrasiri escorts US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher and Ambassador Robert O Blake

“In the meantime, these paramilitary groups give the GSL a measure of deniability. Jaffna Government Agent K. Ganesh told us that some military commanders in Jaffna, including Major General Chandrasiri, want to clamp down on paramilitaries but have orders from Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa to not interfere with the paramilitaries on the grounds that they are doing ‘work’ that the military cannot do because of international scrutiny. On December 7, 2006, Chandrasiri confided to Ambassador Blake in Jaffna that the Defense Ministry had instructed him not to interfere with ‘military intelligence’ operations (ref E).” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as “SECRET” and discuses Sri Lanka’s paramilitary operations and written by the Ambassador Robert O. Blake.

Under the subheading “GSL Finds Paramilitaries Useful” the Ambassador wrote “The GSL sees several advantages in allowing paramilitary groups to operate in the country. Paramilitary groups in the North and East help the GSL fight the LTTE and compete with the LTTE for public support and new recruits. These groups also enhance security in Colombo by kidnapping and sometimes killing those suspected of working with the LTTE. Frequent abductions by paramilitaries keep critics of the GSL fearful and quiet. Ultimately, the GSL’s objective is to turn Karuna and EPDP leader Douglas Devananda into pro-GSL political leaders in the East and North, respectively. The government hopes this will ensure long term control over these areas even if some form of devolution is instituted.”

“The GSL has a history of funding paramilitary groups. Popular Tamil TV talk show host Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam (strictly protect), who has close personal ties to the Rajapaksa family, pointed out that under former President Kumaratunga, the GSL had begun the practice of paying paramilitaries to refrain from engaging in criminal pursuits. Several Embassy interlocutors have independently confirmed this. However, Ranga said that the current government, cash-strapped, has ended this arrangement. Instead, he alleged, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa has authorized EPDP and Karuna to collect the money from Tamil businessmen. This may account for the sharp rise in lawlessness, especially extortion and kidnapping, that many have documented in Vavuniya and Colombo. Even though EPDP and Karuna are each comprised nearly exclusively of ethnic Tamils, the crimes that they commit are almost always against other Tamils. Karuna Group Becomes Pre-eminent Paramilitary” Blake further wrote.

WkiLeaks: Gota Authorized Paramilitary Operations – Sri Ranga

Colombo Telegraph

IN JOURNALISM TRUTH IS A PROCESS
Namal, Devananda, Basil and Sri Ranga

FEBRUARY 15, 2012  

“However, Ranga said that the current government, cash-strapped, has ended this arrangement. Instead, he alleged, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa has authorized EPDP and Karuna to collect the money from Tamil businessmen. This may account for the sharp rise in lawlessness, especially extortion and kidnapping, that many have documented in Vavuniya and Colombo.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.

The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as “SECRET” and discuses Sri Lanka’s paramilitary operations. The cable was written by the Ambassador Robert O. Blake.

The cable, dated May 18, 2007, updated the Secretary of State on Sri Lanka’s issue of paramilitary operations and asked strictly protect Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam as their source. Sri Ranga is described as a person who has close personal ties to the Rajapaksa family.

Sri Ranga was elected to represent opposition United National Party in 2010 general elections and later crossover to ruling party. Prior to becoming a member of Sri Lankan Parliament, Sri Ranga served in numerous positions at the Shakthi TV (MTV) station. In 2008, the East-West Center invited Sri Ranga to participate in “The New Generation Seminar” (NGS) along with other young leaders from the United States and Asia Pacific. The program is developed around a thematic focus and provides participants with an opportunity to strengthen their understanding of Asia Pacific-U.S. developments and challenges, build a regional network and to become leaders with a more international perspective. He participated in the 18th New Generation Seminar held in Honolulu, Youngstown and Washington D.C. during September and October of 2008

Ambassador Blake wrote “The GSL has a history of funding paramilitary groups. Popular Tamil TV talk show host Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam (strictly protect), who has close personal ties to the Rajapaksa family, pointed out that under former President Kumaratunga, the GSL had begun the practice of paying paramilitaries to refrain from engaging in criminal pursuits. Several Embassy interlocutors have independently confirmed this. However, Ranga said that the current government, cash-strapped, has ended this arrangement.”

“ Instead, he alleged, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa has authorized EPDP and Karuna to collect the money from Tamil businessmen. This may account for the sharp rise in lawlessness, especially extortion and kidnapping, that many have documented in Vavuniya and Colombo. Even though EPDP and Karuna are each comprised nearly exclusively of ethnic Tamils, the crimes that they commit are almost always against other Tamils.” Blake further wrote.

Below we give the relevant part of the cable;

VZCZCXRO9322 OO RUEHBI RUEHLMC DE RUEHLM #0728/01 1380922 ZNY SSSSS ZZH O 180922Z MAY 07 FM AMEMBASSY COLOMBO TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6072 INFO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 0407 RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 0115 RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 7096 RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 5189 RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 3756 RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 0973 RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO PRIORITY 3828 RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 1087 RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 2907 RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI PRIORITY 7682 RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI PRIORITY 5363 RUEHON/AMCONSUL TORONTO PRIORITY 0209 RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC PRIORITY RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION PRIORITY RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 2046 RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITY RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY

Friday, 18 May 2007, 09:22 S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 06 COLOMBO 000728 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS MCC FOR S GROFF, D TETER, D NASSIRY AND E BURKE EO 12958 DECL: 05/18/2017 TAGS PGOV, PREL, PTER, PHUM, MOPS, CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: GSL COMPLICITY IN PARAMILITARY FACTIONS’ HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES REF: A. COLOMBO 591 B. COLOMBO 561 C. COLOMBO 463 D. COLOMBO 460 E. 2006 COLOMBO 2056 F. 2006 COLOMBO 1896 G. 2005 COLOMBO 2157 H. 2004 COLOMBO 1219

Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., for reasons 1.4(b, d)

¶1. (S) SUMMARY: Allegations of government complicity in crimes committed by organized paramilitary groups have mounted in the last year. Paramilitaries such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)-breakaway Karuna group and Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP) have helped the Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) to fight the LTTE, to kidnap suspected LTTE collaborators, and to give the GSL a measure of deniability. The GSL, which denies any links to paramilitary groups, has recently touted its efforts to improve its human rights record, such as the re-publication of procedures on arrests and detentions and the appointment of a “One-Man Commission” to investigate reported disappearances (ref C). However, these efforts so far appear aimed more at improving Sri Lanka’s image abroad and have yet to produce concrete improvements in the human rights situation. Outside the capital, the incidence of human rights abuses has continued, including extrajudicial killings, abductions, child trafficking, extortion, and prostitution. President Rajapaksa’s government, strapped for cash, has cut direct payments to paramilitaries initiated by former President Kumaratunga and instead turns a blind eye to extortion and kidnapping for ransom by EPDP and Karuna. While many of the charges against the government have been made in public fora, a growing number of trusted Embassy contacts, often at personal risk, have described in detail the extent of the GSL’s involvement with paramilitary groups. END SUMMARY.

¶4. (S) The GSL has a history of funding paramilitary groups. Popular Tamil TV talk show host Sri Ranga Jeyaratnam (strictly protect), who has close personal ties to the Rajapaksa family, pointed out that under former President Kumaratunga, the GSL had begun the practice of paying paramilitaries to refrain from engaging in criminal pursuits. Several Embassy interlocutors have independently confirmed this. However, Ranga said that the current government, cash-strapped, has ended this arrangement. Instead, he alleged, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa has authorized EPDP and Karuna to collect the money from Tamil businessmen. This may account for the sharp rise in lawlessness, especially extortion and kidnapping, that many have documented in Vavuniya and Colombo. Even though EPDP and Karuna are each comprised nearly exclusively of ethnic Tamils, the crimes that they commit are almost always against other Tamils.

Political abductions, Abductions-For-Ransom And A Top Informer

Colombo TelegraphFEBRUARY 13, 2012

IN JOURNALISM TRUTH IS A PROCESS

By Frederica Jansz 

Why Samarasinghe chose to back his bosses and pass information to the Americans is what needs clarification.

Frederica Jansz

Colombo Telegraph last week unearthed another WikiLeaks cable. According to the cable Major General Prasad Samarasinghe the former Military Spokesman and Director, Directorate of Media in the Army, has been passing highly sensitive information to the US Embassy in Colombo on a burning issue – Abductions.
Many of those abducted were believed to have been individuals who had fallen foul of the Rajapaksa trio. Mahinda, Basil and Gotabhaya. The President’s other brother Chamal seemingly does not figure. Not in this triumvirate. The cable dated July 6, 2007 and written by then Charge d’Affaires James R. Moore to the US Embassy is classified as “SECRET” and discusses Sri Lanka’s problem of political abductions and abductions-for-ransom.

The cable very specifically mentions that Major General Prasad Samarasinghe must be protected describing him as “a political insider” within the Rajapaksa administration.  Why Samarasinghe chose to back his bosses and pass information to the Americans is what needs clarification.

Sources speaking on conditions of anonymity to The Sunday Leader but loyal to Prasad Samarasinghe told us the Major General has insisted to confidantes that he never once met James R. Moore. Nor, did he meet Robert R. Blake Jnr.  who was at the time Ambassador.  He has further flatly denied having supplied any information to the Americans. But the matter most certainly does not rest there. After all, James R. Moore could not have penned a cable and used the name of a top army officer merely to lend authenticity to what he was writing to his bosses in Washington D.C. Are we to believe that Robert R. Blake would fabricate or implicate the name of a top army officer in allowing him to be named as a source of “classified, secret” information?

The question then is this.  Did the US Embassy in Colombo hoping to use him as an informer, bribe Major General Prasad Samarasinghe with an offer of citizenship in America for him and his family?
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa was recently quoted in a weekly English newspaper saying just that. He charged that the Americans made an abortive attempt to bribe Major General Prasad Samarasinghe to make allegations against Sri Lanka.  Accusing the US Embassy in Colombo of being involved in a sordid operation, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa  charged the diplomat, who had made the move after the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009 offered to accommodate Maj. Gen. Samarasinghe and his family in the US.
Interestingly, Rajapaksa made these allegations before the WikiLeaks cable was unearthed.
The newspaper report quoted the Defence Secretary as saying the ongoing efforts to bring to the fore a so-called affidavit should be examined in the context of an attempt to employ a serving officer against Sri Lanka. He was clearly responding to the fact that the Americans had placed on record that Samarasinghe as a serving army officer has provided valuable information to the US and contradicted the government’s official versions, on an issue that to date continues to haunt the credibility of the Rajapaksa regime.
The issue is this. On June 22, 2007 America’s then Ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert O. Blake, sent a cable to his political masters in the US.  The cable was classified as “confidential” and carried the reference number: 07COLOMBO899.
In this, Blake wrote a summary of events which had taken place in Sri Lanka the previous day. He wrote that on June 21, a special unit of the Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Unit (CID) arrested former Air Force Squadron Leader Nishantha Gajanayake in connection with an ongoing probe into abductions, extortion and extra-judicial killings.  Among other crimes, Gajanayake is alleged to have arranged the abduction and killing of two Tamil Red Cross employees on June 1, 2007.
But here comes the coup de grâce.  Gajanayake’s arrest was mired in political controversy.  On June 18, 2007, the United National Party (UNP) filed a no-confidence motion with the Speaker of Parliament alleging that Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella deliberately misled Parliament when he said that Tamils evicted from Colombo had left voluntarily.  The truth was that the government in June that year evicted from lodges and hotels 376 ‘jobless’ Tamils from the north and the east on grounds of ‘national security’ and packed them in eight buses headed for the Vavuniya district in the north and Batticaloa district in the east. The move was condemned by the Opposition and civil society groups insisting it would lead to further polarisation between the different ethnic communities and heighten the sense of marginalisation and alienation of Tamil people of this country. This was later halted after a three Judge Bench of the Supreme Court revoked the order following a petition filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives which argued the move was a violation of basic human rights.
The government counter-attacked by filing its own no-confidence motion with the Speaker on June 20 against UNP parliamentarian Lakshman Seneviratne, in part for his explosive allegations.
On June 6 that year, during an emergency session of Parliament to discuss the Government’s forced transport of hundreds of Tamils from Colombo, Lakshman Seneviratne accused Nishantha Gajanayake of working on behalf of Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and in concert with Deputy-Inspector General of Police Colombo, Rohan Abeywardene to orchestrate abductions.  Seneviratne stated that Gajanayake arranged abductions and extra-judicial killings using Karuna’s cadres on orders from Gotabhaya and with the assistance of police officers acting under Abeywardene’s instructions.  Although Seneviratne alleged he had evidence to verify his accusations, the link between Gotabhaya, Abeywardene and Gajanayake was never proved nor verified. The UNP which threatened to release information, it maintained it had gathered, that connected Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to Gajanayake has not been released to date – nor made public.  Another red herring of the United National Party.
The upshot was this. The Americans in Colombo sent an explosive cable to the US government naming their source as Major General Prasad Samarasinghe in which cable James Moore opined that, “Despite the GSL’s efforts to tout arrests of alleged abductors, critics and some government insiders claim that there is little genuine connection between the abductions and those that the Government has arrested. Military Spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe (strictly protect), a political insider within the Rajapaksa administration, told us that the arrest on June 26 of the five alleged abductors working with Gajanayake was political retribution against those thought to be disloyal to the Rajapaksa administration. Samarasinghe further alleged the GSL felt compelled to demonstrate concrete examples of progress on abductions to appease the international community.”
Major General Prasad Samarasinghe is currently the Chief Signal Officer (CSO) of the Army and Chief Controller, Centre for Research and Development at the Ministry of Defence. He has also been the Commander for three separate Brigades in Jaffna, Wanni and Trincomalee, Colonel General Staff, 22 Division Headquarters, Trincomalee, Colonel General Staff, Directorate of Operations, Army Headquarters, Assistant Military Secretary, Army Headquarters and the Centre Commandant, Sri Lanka Signal Corps. He previously served as the military spokesman to the Sri Lanka High Commission in London on a diplomatic posting. Read the cable here.

Courtesy Sunday Leader

Sri Lanka: Army Inquiry a Delaying Tactic

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
FEBRUARY 15, 2012
Proposal Seems Intended to Ward Off International Pressure

The Sri Lankan army’s announced inquiry appears to be a transparent ploy to deflect a global push for a genuine international investigation, not a sudden inspiration nearly three years after the war. This inquiry, coming on the eve of a possible Sri Lanka resolution at the Human Rights Council, looks like yet another cynical and meaningless move.

Brad Adams, Asia director

(New York)  – The Sri Lankan army’s announcement that it had appointed a five-member court of inquiry to investigate allegations that its forces committed serious violations of the laws of war appears to be another government delaying tactic in the face of mounting international pressure, Human Rights Watch said today.

The United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva is expected to discuss at its next session a resolution on the lack of accountability for violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by government forces and the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam during the final months of their armed conflict, which ended in May 2009. The session begins February 27, 2012.

“The Sri Lankan army’s announced inquiry appears to be a transparent ploy to deflect a global push for a genuine international investigation, not a sudden inspiration nearly three years after the war,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “This inquiry, coming on the eve of a possible Sri Lanka resolution at the Human Rights Council, looks like yet another cynical and meaningless move.”

Previously the Sri Lankan army had maintained that it bore no responsibility for any civilian deaths in the final months of the fighting. However, reports by a UN Panel of Experts, the US State Department, and human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch have provided detailed accounts of indiscriminate shelling of civilians and extrajudicial killings by the Sri Lankan armed forces. The Sri Lankan government has repeatedly denounced these efforts, as well as the possible resolution at the Human Rights Council.

The members of the army court of inquiry were appointed by Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, who was commander of the security forces in the Vanni, the main battle zone of the conflict, during the last few years of the war. Jayasuriya was “actively engaged in the overall military planning and operations in the Vanni,” according to the army’s official website. An inquiry appointed by the commander who oversaw and was a colleague of senior officers who might themselves have been implicated in serious abuses cannot possibly be expected to be an independent and impartial finder of facts, Human Rights Watch said.

Sri Lanka has a long history of establishing commissions of inquiry in the face of public pressure, appointing commission members friendly to the government, and either obstructing or ignoring the findings, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch has long supported a recommendation by the UN Panel of Experts to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish an independent international mechanism to investigate violations of international law during the Sri Lankan conflict. A report by the governmental Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) published in December 2011 made strong recommendations on human rights concerns, but almost completely ignored the matter of accountability for government abuses, Human Rights Watch said.

“For the sake of the victims and their families, this court of inquiry needs to be more than just a stunt to prevent a Sri Lanka resolution at the Human Rights Council,” Adams said. “We’ll believe they are serious about accountability when people are charged and tried for serious abuses regardless of rank. Otherwise this body simply fits into a piece with all the other broken promises on accountability that the Sri Lankan government has made in recent years.”

Build capacity when regime tries to take away all capacity: Prof Gene Sharp

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 February 2012, 17:26 GMT]
In an exclusive interview to TamilNet on Friday in Oslo, Dr. Gene Sharp, Emeritus Professor of Political Science of the University of Massachusetts, provided some insights on non-violent strategies to be pursued by nations against states and powers that deny them their legitimate rights. “They have to build up some capacity for strength when the regime is trying to take away all capacity for strength from the oppressed people,” he said, adding, “We need to have a wise strategy – not something where you express anger but which achieves smaller victories and finally a big victory.” However, the leading theoretician of non-violent struggle who was not specifically addressing on any of the current struggles, conceded that “The situations are very different for different people of different countries.” 

“To plan a strategy, people used to come to us and say, tell us what to do. We don’t do that. We tell them no. Because we don’t know your situation,” Sharp said.

84-year old, Prof Gene Sharp, was in Oslo as a participant in the Human Rights Human Wrongs documentary film festival. An author of over ten influential books, his From Dictatorship to Democracy, published in 1993, is considered as a guidebook for non-violent struggles in many parts of the world, especially in the Balkans and the Middle East. 



Sharp is intellectually influenced by the Indian activist M.K. Gandhi and the American thinker Henry David Thoreau. He has been termed a ‘non-violent Clausewitz’ by the mainstream media. 

However, Professor Sharp has not escaped criticism. French intellectual, journalist and political activist Thierry Meyssan in 2005 alleged that Sharp and his organisation Albert Einstein Institution had been helping NATO and the CIA to train the leaders of the soft coups. Crediting Sharp with unifying the Tibetan opposition under Dalai Lama, Meyssan alleged that Sharp tried to form a “dissident group within PLO” so that Palestinian nationalists would stop “terrorism”. Professor Sharp responded in an open letter to Thierry Meyssan categorically denying the allegations in 2007.

While some of the world powers that architected the genocidal war against Eezham Tamils are now engaged in pre-emption instead of justice, and hence are anxious whether their hoodwink would lead to another armed struggle, Prof Sharp’s thoughts on non-violent struggle and step by step achievement may find criticism as ways of imperialism’s ‘counterinsurgency’ and are ineffectice against planned structural genocide in the island.

But Sharp’s interview raises some serious issues for Eezham Tamils to ask themselves, whether they have tried their full capacity in the island, in Tamil Nadu and in the diaspora for a non-violent struggle in the given context.

If people are not able to plan a non-violent strategy then they are not able to plan a violent struggle either, Sharp said in the interview.

 Full story >>* * *

Premature to talk about an exemption for Sri Lanka to buy oil from Iran – USA

Feb 14th, 2012 

SL's sole refinery in Sapugaskanda

United States says it is premature to talk about providing any kind of exemption to Sri Lanka to buy oil from Iran, despite the US sanctions on Iranian oil imports.

US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert O Blake made this point when he addressed the media in Colombo yesterday.

During the media briefing, a journalist asked if the Sri Lankan government request for an exemption from the sanctions, whether the United States will consider it.

In response, Blake also said the US is encouraging its friends around the world to do everything they can to wind down all transactions with the Central Bank of Iran as quickly as possible.

“And then to significantly reduce their imports of oil from Iran”, he further added.

Blake’s comments come as Sri Lanka is still trying to find alternatives to replace Iran which supplies crude oil to the country.

Crude oil supplies to Sri Lanka’s one and only refinery in Sapugaskanda which refines nearly 50,000 barrels per day mainly comes from Iran.

Making matters worse the country’s sole refinery is only able to refine Iranian crude oil and the Saudi Arabian light.

However as of now, Sri Lanka only imports a single consignment from Saudi Arabia per year amounting to 135,000 metric tons of crude, an insignificant quantity compared with the total crude oil amount the country refines every year.

United States embargo on Iranian oil imports is aimed at putting pressure on Teheran to be transparent with its ongoing nuclear program.

Sri Lanka agrees to probe war crimes ahead of UN meet

15 February 2012  BBC News, Colombo

By Charlie Haviland

The army insists that its move is not in response to international pressure

Continue reading the main story

Sri Lanka After War

• UN panel report: Main allegations
• War in pictures
• Q&A: Post-war Sri Lanka
• Profile: Mahinda Rajapaksa

The Sri Lankan army says it is investigating allegations that troops may have caused civilian casualties as the civil war drew to a close in 2009.

It says that some civilians may have been shot as they were captured or as they surrendered.

It is a significant new development as the government earlier said its forces did not kill a single Tamil civilian while crushing Tamil Tiger militants.

The army says the inquiries may lead to some courts martial.

They could potentially impose any sentence, including the death penalty.

In its statement, the army said its commander, Lt-Gen Jagath Jayasuriya, had appointed a five-member court of inquiry to examine two separate reports - that of a presidentially-appointed war panel, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), and a documentary by the British commercial TV station, Channel 4.

Exonerated

Up until now the government has described video footage used by Channel 4 as fake but the army said it would be probed "irrespective of its authenticity or otherwise".

The abuses are alleged to have taken place at the end of the war in 2009

The documentary, broadcast in June, alleged that the government side was especially to blame for mass civilian deaths through bombardment and that soldiers executed Tamil Tiger suspects who had been taken prisoner.

The LLRC report - published in December - said that the security forces might be implicated in specific instances of civilian deaths and that these should be investigated.

It quoted witnesses who alleged that the security forces shelled civilians as they queued for milk powder in the besieged Tiger-held zone or tried to escape by boat across a lagoon.

The LLRC exonerated the armed forces from any deliberate targeting of civilians, in contrast to some international human rights groups which say the rules of war were broken and tens of thousands of civilians died.

Quoting the army chief, the statement said the Court of Inquiry was a fact-finding body. If it found evidence of a prima facie case "against any person", the alleged offenders would be tried in a court martial.

The army spokesman told BBC Sinhala that the process began late last month and was not a response to international pressure on Colombo.

On Monday the US Assistant Secretary of State, Robert Blake, on a visit to Colombo, said Washington believed "there should be an investigation into war crimes", particularly into the events of the war's endgame.