(Reuters)

    24 October 2011

    PERTH – Meena Krishnamurthy still remembers the coloured slippers littered in the dirt around a bombed-out orphanage in Sri Lanka and a legless teenage girl unable to leave her dirt bunker, begging for a drink of nearby contaminated water.

    Then there were the bodies, too many to count, including her own stillborn baby which she was forced to bury in a bucket before hastily retreating as Sri Lankan troops advanced.

    Australian Krishnamurthy was 23 when she landed in Sri Lanka in 2004 for what she says was a return to discover her Tamil heritage. There was a ceasefire in country’s 25-year war with the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) she fell in love with a Tamil man.

    But by the time she left in 2009 at the end of the war, she says had witnessed firsthand the atrocities of one of modern Asia’s longest-running wars.

    Now, three years later, she has decided to speak out publicly, asking why no one has been held accountable for the atrocities she witnessed in the closing stages of Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tigers.

    “What I witnessed was a massacre,” recalls Krishnamurthy, referring to the final battlefield in Mullivaikkal on Sri Lanka’s northeastern coast.

    That tiny stretch of beach is where Sri Lankan troops finally defeated the Tigers, who had surrounded themselves with hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians as human shields.

    Western nations are pushing Sri Lanka for an independent probe into allegations that thousands of civilians died in May 2009 as government troops closed in on the Tamil Tigers, a group on the terrorism lists of more than 30 countries.

    Canada has criticised Sri Lanka over its human rights record, setting the scene for a confrontation at a Commonwealth summit in Perth, Australia this week.

    It has threatened to boycott the next summit, due to be hosted by Sri Lanka in 2013.

    More than 50 leaders are expected at the October 28-30 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

    Sri Lanka has rejected accusations of human rights abuses but said it was impossible to avoid all civilian casualties during the final offensive to wipe out the Tigers. It warned that the issue could split the Commonwealth, made up mostly of former British colonies.

    Protesters say they will target the Perth summit and, among a number of demands, will single out “war criminals and parasites”, including Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

    CALLS FOR INDEPENDENT INQUIRY

    Krishnamurthy said she taught English to Tamils, sometimes Tiger rebels. She said her boyfriend was an accountant for the Tigers, who was forcibly conscripted in the later stages of the war.

    She said neither was involved in LTTE actions, but she has no idea of her boyfriend’s whereabouts today.

    Sri Lanka’s pro-government newspaper The Nation reported on Sunday that Krishnamurthy was recruited as a propagandist and worked under two senior LTTE leaders, Nediwayan and Castro, who head one of the best-financed remnant LTTE groups from Europe.

    The LTTE itself attacked civilian targets throughout the war and was widely accused of forcibly recruiting children to its ranks, and at the end of the war, almost anyone between the ages of 13 to 50.

    She said she survived the worst of the war by living in dirt bunkers, cowering like everyone else at the sound of aircraft, waiting for the inevitable bombing or shelling.

    “You watched the wounded lying at the wheels of vehicles seeking cover from the bullets and shells. They reached their hands out, skeletons of hope, asking for a soul to save them,” she told Reuters in an interview.

    “But you had to save yourself, so you walked past them, turning away with guilt. You could not help them, but you can help them now, this is why I am doing this,” she said.

    “The truth can no longer be hidden from the world as memories will be shared.”

    A U.N. advisory panel report says there is “credible evidence” both sides committed war crimes, which the government rejects.

    “Both the LTTE and government forces violated the laws of war and that…should be investigated by a credible and independent body,” the International Crisis Group (ICG) said last week.

    The ICG has issued several reports documenting charges that the military targeted civilian sites, including hospitals, and that Tiger rebels killed and silenced opponents, recruited child soldiers, and attacked civilians in the majority Sinhalese community.

    Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) is due to present a war crimes report to Rajapaksa on Nov. 15, and many in Sri Lanka expect it will, like many previous probes, find little and bring no one to book.

    “Those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009 must not be allowed to go unpunished,” said John Dowd, president of The International Commission of Jurists, Australia (ICJA).

    ICJA last week handed Australian police what it says is direct and credible evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Sri Lanka Navy during the last stages of the war in 2009.

    Sri Lanka’s Canberra high commissioner Thisara Samarasinghe was the navy’s eastern and then northern areas commander in the last months of the war. The high commissioner rejects any wrongdoing, but the ICJA says military superiors hold “a command responsibility” for the actions of subordinates.

    TAMILS SAY THEY STILL LIVE IN FEAR

    Speakers at a Global Tamil Forum in Sydney last week spoke openly about their dreams of justice, but said the outlook for Tamils in Sri Lanka was bleak, with rights abuses continuing.

    “It’s been 3 years (since the war ended) and all we are seeing in the north and the east is a slavery position. We feel that we are slaves. It is strongly militarised,” said Tamil National Alliance MP Eswarapatham Saravanapavan.

    The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was formerly the political proxy for the Tamil Tigers, but has since the end of the war dropped demands for a separate nation for Sri Lanka’s minority Tamils.

    “Most of the things are not brought to light…when the night comes it is the army who rules,” Saravanapavan. “People are scared. They live in isolated places and the army can do whatever they want.”

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  • BincoModerator4 hours ago

    First I would like you to request to report, to bring the war crime charges to the

    people who did real crimes hidden in your country where you reside in.

    Former terrorist leaders are hidden inside other countries gathering

    money for their future activities (not good once).

    I don’t know you are not

    talking about them. At least the media people do not talk about terrorists keeping the innocent Tamils as a

    human shield. Why? You think that is a good thing they did? Someone can say,

    the terrorists are no longer there. Don’t worry!. There are plenty of

    them in the world. There are many frontier organizations in the name of Tamils to collect money and give them to the terrorists hands to kill people.They gave the money to buy weapons, bombs to kill the innocent people in Sri Lanka. Why I don’t see any kind of noise about their crimes (proven – since former LTTE employee Ms.Krishnamurthy clearly mentioned that in the above article)? Also, I would like to emphasize the readers of this article, don’t take to any conclusions just because media report that.

    If you want the real picture, you must come to Sri Lanka and talk with the real innocent people in Sri Lanka and see the real picture. All Sri Lankans are really happy about the peaceful environment in the country, except the former terrorists and terrorist supporters.

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  • sjeevadModerator10 hours ago

    The Independent Investigation of Truth

    by World Community to achieve the Tamil Nation.

    Baha’u'llah emphasizes the fundamental obligation of human beings to acquire knowledge with their “own eyes and not through the eyes of others." One of the main sources of conflict in the world today is the fact that many people blindly and uncritically follow various traditions, movements, and opinions. Bahá’ís believe that, as there is only one reality, all people will gradually discover its different facets and will ultimately come to common understanding and unity, provided they sincerely seek after truth. In this connection, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said:

    Being one, truth cannot be divided, and the differences that appear to exist among the many nations only result from their attachment to prejudice. If only men would search out truth, they would find themselves united.1

    And further:

    The fact that we imagine ourselves to be right and everybody else wrong is the greatest of all obstacles in the path towards unity, and unity is necessary if we would reach truth, for truth is one.

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  • sjeevadModerator10 hours ago

    The Independent Investigation of Truth

    by World Community to achieve the Tamil Nation.

    Baha’u'llah emphasizes the fundamental obligation of human beings to acquire knowledge with their “own eyes and not through the eyes of others." One of the main sources of conflict in the world today is the fact that many people blindly and uncritically follow various traditions, movements, and opinions. Bahá’ís believe that, as there is only one reality, all people will gradually discover its different facets and will ultimately come to common understanding and unity, provided they sincerely seek after truth. In this connection, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said:

    Being one, truth cannot be divided, and the differences that appear to exist among the many nations only result from their attachment to prejudice. If only men would search out truth, they would find themselves united.1

    And further:

    The fact that we imagine ourselves to be right and everybody else wrong is the greatest of all obstacles in the path towards unity, and unity is necessary if we would reach truth, for truth is one.

    SriLanka’sKilling Fields

    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

    2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

    3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

    4. http://www.channel4.com/progra…

    The Latest Channel 4 Documentary released shortly:

    Brutality of the SriLankanArmed forces:"They shot people at random. Stabbed people.Raped them. Cut out their tongues,cut women’s breasts off. I saw people soaked in blood." The witness said;

    5.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHkzCB…

    6.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwFx0W…

    Today’s (Wednesday, 10 August) documentray from IndiatodayTV, can be watched by clicking on the link below:

    7.http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/vid…

    Attached files

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  • RussellBModerator12 hours ago

    Sri Lanka is a majoritarian regime always elected by the the ultra-nationalistic vibes which prevents the grievances of minorities be heard by the international community. The unwitrnessed war and the treatment to the naked corpses by the Sri Lankan mono-ethnic soldiers is a clear indication how the regime has surpassed the cruelty by Gadhafi, Assad, Basshir and the like.

    During the conflict, UN staffer Benjamine Dix was choking with emotion when he shared his feelings about the UN was asked to leave by the Sri Lankan regime. “For me that was personally the worst moment of my life. It seemed like their greatest hour of need; there was an army sitting at their door step waiting to take the town and we drove out; that was a very difficult time for us, a real sense of abandonment of these people,” he said, pointing particularly to one girl in the crowd amidst waving hands.

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  • Chan Moderator12 hours ago

    Who is pressing for Justice on behalf of million Iraqi people killed.Who is pressing for justice in people killed in Libya.Those prssings aimed only for small contries.LTTE tried to achieve their target by war,they couldn’t.Now they are trying by law, no they cant.

    Sinhales are ready to look after thair Tamil brothers,but if diaspora is trying to F*** them up, will they?

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  • Chan Moderator12 hours ago

    Ms Krishnamoorthy never fall in love,She is a suicide cadre of LTTE.Don’t take her word. She has to thank SL president to save her life.If the war was not finished in 2009,she may blew up herself already

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  • ShivaModerator14 hours ago

    Raneesh, Sri Lankan regime has no history or evidence of impartial investigation, apply rule of law, treat minorities equally. Only an independent international war crimes and human rights investigation can bring the truth and accountability.

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  • Dr. MunasModerator20 hours ago

    Ms. Krishnamurthy’s account of Sri Lanka’s genocide is very valid and credible. Her account is fully supported by investigations conducted by the United Nations and the International Commission of Jurists. It is time to bring war crime charges against the Sri Lankan president Mr. Rajapaksa and his collaborators.

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  • RaneeshModerator20 hours ago

    The WAR ended in SRI LANKA on 19th May 2009 and it is

    been more than two years since then. I just wish to know from Mr. Jegan

    Waran why it took more than two years for him to make these accusations against

    SRI LANKAN President Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksha? Was he in ‘coma’ until now?

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  • ShivaModerator14 hours agoin reply to Raneesh

    Raneesh, more and more Tamils will be filing lawsuits against the alleged war criminals in the future. Rajiv Gandhi’s IPKF has committed war crimes in Sri Lanka against the Tamils and no one can come forward to file a lawsuit against the Indians crimes. Demand for transparency, rule of law, human rights, democratic values, accountability and justice.

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  • KCModerator1 day ago

    I think .. All our Arab Friends are seeing how the west is manipulating the news, media and organisations such as HRW, Amnesty International, ICJ etc to Create "Humanatarian Crisis" in the the this region to create oppertunities to influence the region. They have done it in Iraq, Afghanistan, Siria, Egypt, Bahrain and many other places.

    I am not telling whats happened in Sri lanka is all just and spotless… I am sure it has its black marks and dirty little secrets. But I am sure it is nothing compared to whats happening with Nato forices in Afhanistan, US forices in Iraq or CIA camps all around the world.

    The west is simply using the Human Rights and war crimes trumpet when ever they want to get in an influenc a small country… (and unfortunatly, Sir Lanka start drilling for oil and found a Natural gas depsit last month)

    One more thing to remember. As per the Iron fist of the LTTE leadership, the LTTE carders were not allowed to marry people that are out of the LTTE organisation. and this girl claims she was married an LTTE Accountant.

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  • puniselvaModerator8 hours agoin reply to KC

    State terrorism that created LTTE goes on unabated – LTTE came and went but the people in the Northeast continue to suffer under the boots of the occupation army. Just because people suffered under an armed struggle for justice does not mean that the state can go on crushing them.

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  • RussellBModerator11 hours agoin reply to KC

    In brief, you suggest that the people of Bosnia,Sudan, Syria, Libya should be allowed to be butchered by the brutal authoritarian leaders while human rights organizations must be kicke out with intimidation like what the exemplary leader Rajapaksha did.

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  • Deepak PatrickModerator21 hours agoin reply to KC

    bull crap. This is nothing to do with any oil/natural gas deposit

    sightings discovered recently. One of Srilanka govt/army supporter’s

    best defense argument is: Other countries are doing, USA is doing. those

    are way more worse than this." What a faulty logic. Two wrongs dont

    make a right. In all those places international news agencies are

    allowed to cover. Why so far the Govt. of SL has not allowed for

    independent investigation by impartial news agencies/reporters? Because

    they are scared that the truth will hurt them. hurt their image of

    humanitarian, merciful workers. All these while SL has been in a state

    of denial. Lets see how long this goes on.

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  • RaneeshModerator20 hours agoin reply to Deepak Patrick

    SRI LANKA is a sovereign country. There is a mechanism

    to investigate any complaints regarding the SRI LANKA’s WAR AGAINST TERROR and

    it is called Lessons Learnt and

    Reconciliation Commission (LLRC). When there is such a mechanism, there is no need to ask any foreign

    body to come and poke in to SRI LANKA’s affairs. The WAR was not between two

    countries but between a legitimate government and a Terrorist outfit which is

    banned in 32 countries. There for it was a internal conflict. Any international

    body should not question or held any investigation only about the last stage of

    the Final Elam War. There has to be an investigation about the incidents, War

    crimes, Crimes against humanity of last three decades.

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  • puniselvaModerator8 hours agoin reply to Raneesh

    Thank you. State terrorism that has been strengthening LTTE will be investigated.

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  • ShivaModerator14 hours agoin reply to Raneesh

    No country can commit gross violations of Human rights, ethnic clenasing and war crimes as these are under the international law. LLRC has no mandate and just a cover up and delay tactics used by the Rajapakse regime. More than two years after the end of the war, victims are still waiting for accountability and justice.