Warning Disturbing Images: Original Photographs Of Prisoners Of War In Sri Lanka

By Colombo Telegraph -February 23, 2013

“No War Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka,” the culmination of three years of research by Channel 4, which will be shown for the first time next month in Geneva, to coincide with the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting. We publish below the original photographs of LTTEs Col. Ramesh killing.

T. Thurairajasingham, whose call sign was Romeo Sierra, and nom de guerre was Colonel Ramesh.

“This single murder, insignificant of itself, suggest the systematic, large-scale killing of prisoners – civilians and fighters – by the Sri Lankan authorities. These are the murders that the government has long denied, and which, when asked, they say didn’t happen, or if they did were committed by the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) themselves. When pressed, they ask for the evidence, assert that the recorded images are fakes, or request the names of witnesses, such as several Sinhalese troops who already have come forward to provide secret testimony of war crimes. ” – Gordon Weiss

“The Col. Ramesh footage melts any heart to see a hardened Tiger cowing down before semi-educated soldiers and addressing them as ‘Sir’ as they ask him for his ‘live place.’ The evidently visible fear and anxiety on his face measure the terror of the army that would have been felt by less hardened Tamils in Mullivaikal and throughout refugees camps in May 2009. The interrogators’ faces are recognizably visible. Within the army, they would be quickly identified, making it awkward for the government. Trophy photos being taken – the undoing of the murderers – is also seen. For Col. Ramesh’s family the images of their father/husband reduced to what we see would only deepen their grief.” – Prof S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole

Click here for in-depth analysis by Gordon Weiss.

The Tamil widow of T. Thurairajasingham (Colonel Ramesh) brought an action against Mahinda Rajapaksa, the sitting President of Sri Lanka and the agents under his control. She is asking for compensatory and punitive damages for torture, inhumane treatment and war crimes inflicted by the defendant in violation of the laws of the United States and International Law.

Colonel Ramesh, being interrogated, and his old and new wounds being examined, on 22 May 2009 by Sri Lankan army personnel in the back of an APC (possibly an armoured Humvee), an image that forms part of the chain of custody. Supplied photo.

Colonel Ramesh, changing into Sri Lankan army fatigues on 22 May 2009, watched by Sri Lankan army personnel in the back of an APC (possibly an armoured Humvee), an image that forms part of the chain of custody. Supplied photo.

Colonel Ramesh, moments after being shot with a high calibre weapon on 22 May 2009 lies on the floor of a mud wall house, an image that forms part of the chain of custody. Supplied photo.

Colonel Ramesh, after being shot with a high calibre weapon on 22 May 2009 lies outside a mud wall house, viewed by a Sri Lankan army soldier, an image that forms part of the chain of custody. Supplied photo.

Colonel Ramesh, after being shot with a high calibre weapon on 22 May 2009, now placed on a stack of wood for burning, an image that forms part of the chain of custody. Supplied photo.

Colonel Ramesh, after being shot with a high calibre weapon on 22 May 2009, is burned on a pyre. A Sri Lankan army soldier poses for a ‘trophy’ photo, an image that forms part of the chain of custody. Supplied photo

Gota rubbishes Channel 4 photos

FRIDAY, 22 FEBRUARY 2013

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday rejecting the photographs displayed by Channel 4 television station of UK which is alleged to be of Prabhakaran’s youngest son Balachandran, questioned as to how Channel 4 could say that he is in a bunker with the military by only looking at the pictures which do not indicate anything related to the military.

“They always cut and put these pictures which they have being doing for quite sometime. Who took these pictures? They never talk about the children killed by the LTTE and also about child soldiers who were trained to go on suicide missions as well as to munch a cyanide capsule,” he charged.

When questioned whether the Military had any information about the deaths of Prabhakaran’s family, he said that himself, the President and Sarath Fonseka were informed of such, only when those who were in the field had found their bodies.

“It was a battle field not Manhattan Street. So we did not go the next day soon after defeating the LTTE, searching for bodies. We went to some areas after a few days, a week later and to some areas even after a month,” he said.

“Most of the bodies found around the Nandikadal Lagoon were highly decomposed and badly wounded. Therefore it was difficult to establish the identity of each and every individual. You know that we could not even find the body of the most wanted LTTE Intelligence Chief Pottu Amman, who we know died during the battle,” he noted.

Finally when questioned as to how the government will respond to such allegations which continues to surface from time to time, he said that the Defence Ministry conducted a number of analysis along with census, which provided correct and accurate information.

“These people come with the same allegation in a different manner. The LTTE network cannot collect money now so they do these kinds of things. Who is behind such things, people like Fr. Emmanuelle who has even posed for pictures with Prabhakaran and they still want to divide the country,” he noted.
He said that people know what the government has done before 2009 and after 2009. We lost 6000 soldiers and officers between 2005-2009 and after all people in North and East knows what they can enjoy now.

“Anyone can walk freely in those areas even the President can, he went on the road when he recently visited North. You know that we can do ten surgeries at once at the Jaffna Teaching Hospital, these are the facts that people who accuse us needs to know,” he added.

“Not even the TNA could go to those areas. Now anyone can go. Those who are accusing us should also know that we did not punish any LTTE cadre who surrendered to us. We are educating Soosai’s children and they are being looked after by the Navy- which was always targeted by Soosai as he was leader of the LTTE Sea Tiger wing,” he noted.

“I have told the US Ambassador about what we have done and achieved throughout the last couple of years by emphasizing the fact that we need to look into the future,” Defence Secretary Rajapaksa said. (Supun Dias)

The Noose Tightens: India To Vote Yes In Geneva, Channel 4 Documentary Screened In New Delhi

By S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole -February 23, 2013

News reports datelined 22nd Feb. 2013 announced that according to Sudarshan Nachiappan who led a band of Tamil Nadu Congress MPs in meeting Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, was firm and definite at their meeting that he would vote for the US resolution, and emphasize the rights of Tamils, the returning home of Tamils displaced abroad and the restoration of confiscated Tamil properties.

This is a subtle change from the Prime Minister’s previous stance announced in Parliament that India islikely to vote for the US resolution.

In an independent development, a 20-minute extract of the third documentary titled No Fire Zone by Britain’s Channel 4 was screened in New Delhi on Friday at 4:30 in the afternoon for Indian Parliamentarians by Amnesty International at the Constitution Club. A 12-minute segment has been released onwww.puthiyathalaimurai.tv

The extensive footage of the documentary cannot be easily dismissed by the Sri Lankan government as concoctions. Heartrending are images of a hospital floor strewn with corpses, a young girl child worried about her missing parents, and young 12-year old Balachandran Prabhakaran while he was alive in the custody of the army and then dead with other bodies (presumably of his bodyguards). The evidence in the videos correlates with the experiences and testimonies of Vanni Tamils. The new footage will surely make the international community want to do something.

An example of how this war ensnares even good people is Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India, whose Tamil friends swear he is a decent man. He had to lie on TV when he asked rhetorically, why Sri Lankan troops would want to kill civilians. Being from Galle he must be aware of the many Sinhalese civilians killed by the army there in 1989-90. Surely he understands even more easily why the army would ‘want’ to kill Tamils. In India Today’s Headlines Today TV program, he even slipped up, calling the new evidence more substantiated and named Mullivaikal events as in the Easter Province. Given the job he holds, his only choices are to resign or lie for the President. He let himself down by calling the film morphed whereas morphing provides a smooth transition from one image to another and cannot produce the movie images of Colonel Ramesh being interrogated – a movie that would be the most difficult for the government to explain away.

The Col. Ramesh footage melts any heart to see a hardened Tiger cowing down before semi-educated soldiers and addressing them as “Sir” as they ask him for his “live place.” The evidently visible fear and anxiety on his face measure the terror of the army that would have been felt by less hardened Tamils in Mullivaikal and throughout refugees camps in May 2009. The interrogators’ faces are recognizably visible. Within the army, they would be quickly identified, making it awkward for the government. Trophy photos being taken – the undoing of the murderers – is also seen. For Col. Ramesh’s family the images of their father/husband reduced to what we see would only deepen their grief.

If the world ignores this irrefutable record in the documentary (with promises in the documentary of more to come from film-maker Callum Macrae), we might as well stop speaking of rights, justice, peace and accountability – which are a precondition to the reconciliation the government so glibly mouths.

Call to confront Sri Lanka's 'authoritarian turn'

This aerial photo shows part of the former conflict zone on the north east coast on the Jaffna peninsula of Sri Lanka in 2009. (AAP)

Listen: Ron Sutton reports

A 2012 United Nations review concluded as many as 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009.(Transcript from World News Australia Radio)

The UN review found credible allegations of war crimes by both government forces and the rebel Tamil Tigers.

Now, the International Crisis Group has issued a new report calling on the world to act to force an investigation into those matters and the restoration of the rule of law in the country.

The International Crisis Group has called for strong international action against Sri Lanka's government and is urging Australia and others to reject certain Sri Lankan diplomats.

Sri Lanka's High Commissioner to Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, would fit into the group of diplomats the independent, non-governmental organisation wants barred.

The report comes almost four years after the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka spanning three decades and comes ahead of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The report, entitled 'Sri Lanka's Authoritarian Turn: The Need for International Action', says Sri Lanka has made no meaningful progress on reconciliation or accountability.

"The government has conducted no credible investigations into allegations of war crimes, disappearances or other serious human-rights violations. Rather than establish independent institutions for oversight and investigation, the government has, in effect, removed the last remnants of judicial independence through the impeachment of the chief justice."

The report calls on Australia and a range of other countries to look further into the war against the separatist Tamil Tigers, or LTTE, to:

"Investigate, gather and share evidence regarding alleged war crimes and human-rights abuses by government forces and the LTTE where possible."

And to:

"Refrain from accepting the diplomatic credentials of Sri Lankan military officers against whom there are credible allegations of serious crimes."

The High Commissioner to Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, was cited in a 2011 submission by the International Commission of Jurists' Australian section.

It recommended the retired admiral be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed by the navy under his command in 2009.

Mr Samarasinghe has dismissed the International Crisis Group report, calling it one more report timed to come out before the Human Rights Council meeting each year.

"This is the action of people with a vested interest trying to give oxygen to defeated terrorists who are crying for a separate state from outside Sri Lanka."

The report says the Sri Lankan government is becoming increasingly authoritarian.

The International Crisis Group says the recent impeachment of the country's chief justice completes what it calls a constitutional coup.

The group says that began with an amendment in 2010 that revoked presidential term limits and the independence of government oversight bodies.

The Crisis Group says what it calls the government's attacks on the judiciary and political dissent threaten Sri Lanka's long-term stability and peace.

Thisara Samarasinghe says the claim is baseless and argues Sri Lanka has created stability in three-plus years as other troubled countries around the world have failed.

"Long-term stability and peace is very much established in Sri Lanka. After the trauma of conflict, death and destruction by terrorists -- a brutal terrorist organisation, which international leading countries termed invincible or most ruthless -- evidence and runs on the board,** Sri Lanka has put. Three years after defeating the terrorists, there has been no death or destruction from terrorist activities. You just have to compare this to the rest of the world."

Among other charges, the International Crisis Group says the Sri Lankan government has conducted no credible investigations into war-crimes and human-rights violations.

It says there has been no progress toward a lasting and fair constitutional settlement of the concerns of the country's ethnic Tamil minority through devolution of power.

The report claims the military still controls virtually all aspects of life in the Tamil-dominated north and has intimidated and sidelined the civilian administration.

The Crisis Group says more than 90-thousand people remain displaced in the north and east of the island, amid continued land seizures by the military with no effective right of appeal.

Australian Tamil Congress spokesman Bala Vigneswaran says that figure itself belies any idea the country is stable.

"We had nearly 360,000 people in camps immediately after the war. It shouldn't take more than three-and-a-half years for one-fourth of them still finding themselves in the wrong place. The Sri Lankan government has built a fence around the so-called high-security zone in the north particularly and the south as well. People are not allowed to leave, they're not allowed to go back to their traditional homeland, the place they lived for centuries and generations."

Mr Vigneswaran says he welcomes the Crisis Group's push for sanctions until the government restores the rule of law, investigates abuses and devolves power to areas where Tamils and Muslims are in a majority.

"We welcome this particular report by the International Crisis Group recommending the Sri Lankan government to listen to the international community and the UN Human Rights Council to come up with a stronger resolution, with a time frame, within a year. (The government) can't keep going, saying that 'we are improving and we are developing.'"

Christian clergy from northern Sri Lanka have also written a letter to the UN Human Rights Council, asking it to push for an independent international inquiry into alleged war atrocities.

The truth must be told

February 22, 2013

New photographs of a 12-year-old Balachandran Prabakaran in the apparent custody of Sri Lankan security personnel in the final days of the war against the Tamil Tigers have caused widespread anguish and outrage, and understandably so. Last year, when another photograph showing the body of the LTTE chief Prabakaran’s son with visible bullet wounds on his chest surfaced, Sri Lanka’s explanation that the boy died in crossfire seemed plausible. But the photographs obtained by Channel 4 Television, in which Balachandran is seen sitting inside a sandbagged military enclosure, suggest an entirely different story of how the boy’s life ended, one that underscores other allegations of war crimes against Sri Lanka. Colombo has dismissed the photographs as “concocted lies, half-truths and speculations” intended to embarrass the country at the forthcoming Human Rights Council session in Geneva. If that is so, it is in Sri Lanka’s own interest to begin immediately an honest and credible investigation to find out how Balachandran died, and make the findings public. If the young boy was indeed in an army bunker, as the photographs indicate, the chain of custody can easily be established and those responsible for his eventual killing in cold blood must be identified and handed down exemplary punishment. For its part, Channel 4 says that experts consulted by it have established the three photographs were taken with the same camera. It has also openly said that its reason for releasing the new evidence at this time, and a documentary next month, is precisely to bring maximum international pressure on Sri Lanka to make it accountable for civilian deaths in the final weeks of the war in 2009.

It took three years for the Rajapaksa government, which first spoke of “zero civilian casualties” to accept that some civilians died, though how many and in what circumstances are still contentious issues. It undertook to implement the recommendations, as advised by the 2012 HRC resolution, of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, but a “national action plan” towards this end displayed on the government website gives no sign of progress. New Delhi, which worked to tone down the language of last year’s resolution before casting its vote for it, will need to chalk out a more well thought out response to the new photographs than its initial reaction that their “authenticity” needs to be established. Reactions from political parties in Tamil Nadu, and the State government’s decision to cancel the July Asian athletics meet to avoid hosting Sri Lankan participants indicate that the issue is set to take a toll on the traditionally good ties between people of both countries. Quickly and confidently, before the situation deteriorates, India needs to chart a course that can convince its own people and the international community that it is on the side of what is right and just in this matter, while impressing on Colombo that the issue will not fade away just by stout denial, as it seems to hope.

Maldivian journalist rushed to Sri Lanka after attack

[ Saturday, 23 February 2013, 09:00.05 AM GMT +05:30 ]

The news reporter of Maldives opposition television station Raajje TV, who suffered serious injuries during a brutal attack on Friday night, has been brought to Sri Lanka for treatment early Saturday morning.

According to media reports, the reporter was attacked near artificial beach area in the capital Male and had been rushed to ADK hospital. Raajje TV deputy CEO Abdulla Yamin said the station’s reporter Ibrahim ‘Aswad’ Waheed was attacked with an iron rod while riding with him on a motor cycle. Waheed had suffered serious injuries to the head and is in critical condition. He has not regained consciousness since the attack, Haveeru Online reports. Meanwhile, during the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) protest on Friday night, two State television TVM journalists who were covering the protest were injured when a packet filled with paint thinner was thrown at them from the crowd.

“We'd even implement 13 plus” – Rajapaksa has told Manmohan Singh say TN MPs

SATURDAY, 23 FEBRUARY 2013

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stressed that there would be no compromise on government of Sri Lanka’s promise to implement the 13th Amendment of the Constitution.

Indian Premier has given this undertaking to a delegation of Congress MPs from Tamil Nadu in Parliament House yesterday (22nd).

Singh has said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had assured him that his country “would even implement “13 plus” (more than what was there in the amendment) for the welfare of Tamils.”

The Tamil Nadu delegation urged Dr. Singh to ensure that India voted keeping Sri Lankan Tamils’ interests in mind when political resolutions are taken up at United Nations meetings. They said New Delhi must vote against the Rajapaksa government when a resolution is taken up at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva next month regarding Colombo’s alleged human rights violations against Tamils.

Among the delegation that had discussion with Indian PM were E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan, N.S.V. Chithan, Manicka Tagore, P. Viswanathan, M. Krishnaswamy and S.S. Ramasubbu.

When the no fire zone became a killing field

Preview of film on Sri Lankan civil war contains disturbing testimony

NEW DELHI, February 23, 2013

A week before its official launch in the Geneva Human Rights Film Festival, the capital on Friday caught a 20-minute preview of the film ‘No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka,’ which included footage of the alleged cold-blooded killing of LTTE chief V. Prabakaran’s minor son.

“It was a culmination of three years of journalistic investigation on war crimes and crimes against humanity,” said director Callum Macrae in a recorded message from London, adding that he hoped the film would lead to informed debate about the issue in the United Nations.

“Sri Lanka has demonstrated that it is unwilling and incapable of conducting an investigation. If the world betrays the Tamils again, they will take justice into their own hands.”

The film, which contains deeply disturbing evidence, powerful eyewitness testimony and personal stories of survival in a war zone, also has a former U.N. staffer, Peter Mckay, publicly speaking about his experience of being trapped in a war zone for two weeks and witnessing first-hand the shelling of the no fire zone. “There’s a crucial point to be made on why the Sri Lankan government declared the no fire zone… There is only one intent and that is because you don’t really care you are going to kill the people that are located in that safer zone or more importantly you are actively targeting them,” Mr. Mckay says in the film.

In a panel discussion that followed the screening, G. Ananthapadmanabhan of Amnesty International India said it was appropriate for India to take a stance on the issue, not only over Sri Lanka’s “historical accountability” but also to “improve the current situation.”

However, IANS Executive Editor M.R. Naryanaswamy drew on his vast journalistic experience from reporting in Sri Lanka and said the footage “does not surprise me.”

With the film including substantial footage that was shot as part of “war trophy and passed around,” he said: “As more footage comes out and the evidence mounts up, Sri Lanka will find it very difficult to not take a stand.”

Communist Party of India leader D. Raja, who was present at the screening, said notices had been given out in Parliament to conduct a meaningful debate on the issue. “With the screening of the film in Delhi there is enough evidence to show how war crimes and human rights violations have taken place in Sri Lanka. The Indian government should push for an international investigation on the matter.”

Callum Macrae: Without truth, there can be no justice or peace

Manoj Ramachandran Feb 22, 2013

Callum Macrae's documentary No Fire Zone: Sri Lanka's Killing Fields is making waves, showing war crimes during the LTTE-government conflict. Speaking with Manoj Ramachandran , Macrae discussed his views on the Sri Lankan government, why accountability is crucial — and how India can help:

Why is your film significant?

What's significant is the shocking scale of war crimes committed by a government which claims democratic legitimacy and adherence to international humanitarian law. The crimes we're talking about aren't executions of prisoners and sexual violence against fighters — we're talking about the deliberate targeting of civilians in the No Fire Zone, which the government itself encouraged them to gather in.

A UN panel concluded that most who died did so as a result of government shelling — we're talking about tens of thousands dead.

Have there been serious attempts to get victims justice?

The people who stand accused are at the highest levels of the Sri Lankan government. They're unlikely to investigate themselves — and if they do, i fear they will simply find themselves innocent.

At the end of the war, many hoped the government would hold out a hand of friendship and reconciliation to Tamil citizens. They did the opposite. Their behaviour seems to suggest they regard all Tamils in the north as indistinguishable from the Tigers, that they're in effect an enemy within which must be thoroughly repressed — that`s a recipe for more conflict and tragic bloodshed.

You claim to have footage of LTTE supremo Prabhakaran's son, Balachandran, alive in a bunker, apparently held by Lankan troops, later showing the 12-year-old shot two or three feet from his chest. Would you tell us more?

The new photographs of Balachandran alive are not just distressing and disturbing — they are also enormously important evidentially because they appear to rule out any suggestion that he was killed in cross-fire or during battle or that he was executed by some maverick band of paramilitaries.

They show he was held — even given a snack — before being taken and executed in cold blood. There was time to take photographs. It is difficult to imagine the psychology of an army in which the calculated execution of a child can be allowed with apparent impunity.

Against this backdrop, can a film make a difference?

Without justice, there can be no peace — and without truth, there can be no justice. We hope we can be an important part of that truth-telling. Our job is to present the evidence to the world. I think there are enough people who care about the rule of law, human rights and the need for reconciliation to take up the campaign for justice.

Forthcoming events, starting with the UN Human Rights Council meeting in March, going on to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka in November, will focus attention on this.

Many people are already asking whether their governments should be attending that CHOGM meeting unless the government shows significant progress on accountability. Also, human rights defenders argue for a credible independent international inquiry. If India was to declare its support, it could mark the start of the movement towards peace and justice in Sri Lanka. India has a huge responsibility in the forthcoming UN meeting.

Finally, is your film absolving the LTTE?

The LTTE were a brutal army, guilty of appalling crimes. There should be no doubt about that — we make that point very clearly in our film. But the Sri Lankan government needs to understand that the crimes of one side do not justify the crimes of another.

An Exclusive Preview Of ‘No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields Of Sri Lanka’

February 23, 2013 

An exclusive preview of the documentary ‘No Fire Zone – The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka’ which will be shown for the first time next month in Geneva, to coincide with the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting. 

Norochcholai Power Plant US$ 300 M ‘pocketed in commission’

By Lashane Cooray-2013-02-23 The main opposition, United National Party (UNP), has accused that the government's estimated cost of US$ 1,300 million for the construction of the Phase 1 of Norochcholai Power Plant, included US$ 300 million 'pocketed in commission'. They alleged the actual construction cost was US$ 1,000 million, sans commissions. "The cost of Phase 1 of Norochcholai has now been estimated to be US$ 1,300 million. The excess US$ 300 million had been pocketed as commissions," UNP MP Harin Fernando alleged, addressing the media in Colombo yesterday. He claimed the Chinese entrepreneurs, who had been involved in the construction of the Norochcholai Coal Power Plant, were now refusing the Sri Lankan Government's offer to sell it back to them, because of the excess US$ 300 million that had been 'pocketed as commission' by those involved in the construction project. MP Fernando alleged the actual cost incurred during the 'phase one' of the Norochcholai construction project was US$ 1,000 million. "The government claimed the cost was US$ 1,300 million. However, the Chinese have said otherwise, in their refusal to accept the ownership of the plant. This means US$ 300 million was pocketed as commission by those involved in the project," he said. Also addressing the media, UNP MP Ajith P. Perera said, the Norochcholai Power Plant "didn't live up to its expectations," and "the only result was getting Sri Lanka into a long-term partnership with China, which is of no benefit to Sri Lanka." He claimed a further US$ 890 million would be required for the completion of the second and third phases of the Norochcholai construction project. He said former Power and Energy Minister, Champika Ranawaka, vehemently opposed the conditional partnership with the Chinese, and he ended up being kicked out of his portfolio. "We know the current Power and Energy Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi was appointed to ensure that the second and third phases of the project are passed to the Chinese without any hassle," Perera, UNP MP alleged. He went on to say many 'patriots' seemed to have no qualms about 'selling Sri Lanka off to China,' while at the same time, 'shouting to high heaven about western influences in the country.' "Recently in Parliament, permission was sought to bring the largest hotel chain in Sri Lanka, the Hyatt Regency, under a new establishment called the 'Sino-Lanka Hotel and Spa', which , it was assured would be a 'completely Sri Lankan' business. But how could they make such a claim, when 'Sino' refers to 'Chinese'? The government must give us an answer," Perera said. Rs 6.4 B fraud at RMV By Gagani Weerakoon-2013-02-23    Minister of Transport, Kumar Welgama, admitted in Parliament yesterday a fraud to the tune of Rs 6.4 billion had taken place at the Department of Motor Traffic, due to the registering of assembled vehicles. Welgama said the fraud was highlighted in the 2010 annual report of the Auditor General, and added it had been committed by a group of vehicle importers, who had imported chassis of vehicles citing them as spare parts. "The parts were assembled here and released to the market under the numbers of vehicles already registered at the Department. The government lost around Rs 6,400 million due to this loss of new registrations," he revealed. The fraudsters had made use of the special permission granted to import vehicle chassis in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster, the minister said adding the engines and gear boxes too had been imported under the category of spare parts. Around 2,000 vehicles had been released to the market in this manner and of them 1,900 have been assigned registered numbers of old vehicles. Minister Welgama said not only the officials attached to the Department, but also some in the Import and Export Department and Customs Department are responsible for this. He said he asked the Commissioner of Motor Traffic to send inquiries to the Controller of Import and Export with regard to this issue. "Under previously used mechanism of motor vehicle registration, the numbers were not issued in batches and the English letters were not there either. A group of officials had got involved in this operation by helping the fraudsters to find old registration numbers," he charged. Minister Welgama said an investigation is in progress and the Criminal Investigation Department and the Fraud Investigation Bureau are also involved in the probe. The minister said this in response to a question raised by Matara District UNP MP Buddhika Pathirana.