Couldn't resist myself

I am neither an advocate nor with political interests, but as Einstein felt, it is where I live and this poem iterates it

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

-Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

 

Something that happened, shook me, and tells me this is not YOUR COUNTRY, you are not WELCOMED here .. [via dailymirror]

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=9864

Crying for justice!

The families of victims and a survivor of the Trincomalee massacre which brought death to five students testify from undisclosed locations via video conferencing, revealing yet undisclosed information on the case, which is yet unresolved after two years.

When the IIGEP is no more…

The IIGEP setup on President Rajapaksa’s invitation with the mandate to observe CoI proceedings to ensure that the investigations are carried out in a transparent manner, in accordance with basic international norms and standards will be wrapping up its operations at the end of the month. However, they would continue to provide technical assistance on request.

President’s Counsels Ranjith Abeysuriya opines that “the commission will not collapse” despite IIGEP shutting shop, adding that all measures would be taken to ensure the independence of the commission. However, the space available for the commission to manoeuvre independently is an issue of contention with the Presidential Secretariat holding on to its purse strings.

Commissioner Dr. Devanesan Nesiah said that the withdrawal of independent observers would have “a very bad impact” on the investigations, as they would detract from the perception of validity of the commission’s work.

Lost in Translation?

Difficulties in translation also seemed to have a bearing on the inquiry with the IIGEP Legal Advisor D. Urban noting that “some of the interpretation is inaccurate with the answers in fact being the opposite of what is being translated in  English.”

At one time one whole statement was omitted from the translation where witness Mr. P. Yogarajah emphasised thrice that “if I had not come out of this country (Sri Lanka), I would not have been able to give evidence.”

Commissioner Manouri Muttettuwegama also had to request the interpreters to tone down at one point because the interpretation took an aggressive tone. 

Meanwhile the retired Tamil language Parliamentary interpreter himself felt that he was caught between the “devil and the deep blue sea.”

Witness protection made impotent?

As per the public statements issued by the IIGEP, it is of the opinion “that the Commission still lacks an effective victim and witness protection and assistance scheme.”

Informed sources state that despite the witness protection unit officials being sent for training programmes in Australia very little has happened thereafter, mainly due to the lack of funding. 

The absence of a National Witness Assistance and Protection Bill also detracted from the effectiveness of the commission’s witness protection unit earlier. However, with the Act now in place, the CoI’s witness protection unit is slowly trying to put a mechanism in place to ensure the safety of the witnesses.

Yet, when an issue about witness protection cropped up during the inquiry when the STF counsel questioned Mr. P. Yogarajah about the date on which he left the country, representatives of the commission’s witness protection unit were rendered helpless since they didn’t even have the documents outlining the protocol which stipulates the areas of questioning that need to be avoided to ensure that the victim’s location is kept secret.

Defence claims inadequate time to prepare  

The STF counsel H.A.A.A. Prassanna stated that they had not been allowed adequate preparation for cross examination, specially in the case of the 1st witness Dr. K. Manoharan.“We were only informed that he was testifying on Tuesday afternoon and the documents pertaining to his testimony were not given on time,” he said. He noted that the chance for the defence to cross examine this vital witness had been denied due to this. .

By Poornima Weerasekara

The suffering of Kokularaj Pararajasingham one of the surviving victims of the killing of five youth in Trincomalee on January 2, 2006 is a life long one.

“I was born in Colombo and when I was about 6 months old we moved to Trincomalee. I went to school at the R.K.M. Konnaiswar Hindu college. My father, Ganeshapillai Pararajasingham served in the Sri Lanka navy as an electrician. I have never been involved in politics either with the government or the LTTE or any other Tamil group. And I have never been involved with the conflict between the government and the LTTE,” he said in a statement presented to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry recently.

“None of my family members including my parents have been involved with politics, nor were they supporters of the LTTE or any other Tamil groups. I was never in trouble with the police,” it said. 

“In 1995 my mother died of leukemia. Apart from this my family lived a normal life. I didn’t go out much because it was too dangerous for a Tamil boy to go out with the presence of the army. But I had a group of friends who were together since Grade 1 at Hindu College,” it said. 

“After high school studies I went on to study automobile engineering in Colombo. The incident occurred when I returned to Trincomalee on holiday,” it said.

“Hemechandran (a youth killed in the incident) was at the shop. He was waiting for results to enter university where he wanted to study dentistry. Then we went to the Gandhi statue. Around sunset when we reached the area, there were over a 100 civilians, men, women and children sitting, playing and talking. There didn’t appear to be any tension at the time and the situation seemed to be normal,” the statement said.

“All the friends were together for about 30 minutes. The street light above the statue was turned on and the area was illuminated. I was standing facing my friends with my back to the road. Then I saw a green auto come from behind me. After I saw it pass me  an explosion occurred,” the statement said.

“Shrapnel hit my head and I lost consciousness. When I regained consciousness after 2 hours in the hospital I saw that Yoganathan Poongulalan was in the same ward and being treated. Doctors said that I had lost about 4.5 litres of blood. I thought I had only suffered injuries from the hand grenade explosion. It was only later that I learnt that I had been shot at,” Kokularaj’s statement said.

“The doctors said that it was the STF who had shot us after the explosion. They had removed 7-8 bullets from my body in addition to several pieces of metal from the explosion. But neither the harbour police nor the CID ever asked me about the shooting incident,” the statement said. 

“My other surviving friend said that after the grenade exploded the STF who were dressed in camouflage uniforms came and dragged us to the back of the vehicle and beat us. After the beating they threw us back on to the ground and shot us many times. This was when my five friends died,” it said. Initially the police and the government claimed that the students were in-fact LTTE cadres killed in a premature detonation of a grenade that they were about to throw at government troops.

The government claims were contradicted by the post mortem reports, which stated that the deaths were caused by gun shot wound in execution style. The witnesses accused a local police superintendent of being the mastermind of the operation behind the killings.

Witness also revealed that a Buddhist monk who attended a memorial ceremony held to commemorate the killings was subsequently gunned down. According to RSF, pictures taken by a journalist of the slain students proved that they died of gun shot injuries, not by an explosion of a grenade as claimed by local military authorities and were shot dead by unknown gunmen suspected to be paramilitary men.

Hush tactics

Dropping a bombshell on the government witness, Dr. Kasippillai Manoharan stated that a cabinet minister had contacted him and offered him a house in Colombo after accepting that the security forces may have made a mistake.

“The Minister said, you must release yourself from this trauma as you have other children also. It may be that the forces may have mistaken these children as LTTE and shot them. We are attempting to give you some sought of compensation from the government. If you consider that in Trincomalee there is no security for you we can provide you with a house in Colombo and we can make arrangements for the education of your children,” Dr. Manoharan, the father of Manoharan Ragihar said.

“He said not to make this as a big issue and to get out of this trauma and get back to my normal life. I said that I didn’t want all of these things and I asked whether they could give my son back. That is the only thing I asked for,” Dr. Manoharan said through tears.

“I have also mentioned the telephone number on which he asked me to call him back. I gave this number to a Singhalese gentleman, who is a family friend I knew through my father and made sure that this was the Minister’s number,” he added when asked if he was sure it was the Minister on the telephone.

“I have no confidence and trust that I will get justice from the government of Sri Lanka. There are several reasons for this. The minister who spoke to me said “you are trying to approach international human rights organisations and create an issue and trying to tarnish the name of the country.” Even this commission could be dissolved before the proceedings come to a proper conclusion,” he concluded.

A government minister who wished to remain anonymous denied any assumption that the gesture to offer a house in Colombo for Dr. Manoharan and his family was a form of coercion to remain silent over the issue but asserted instead that it was offered to ensure their security.

Intimidation

However, the witnesses revealed evidence of intimidation which forced them to flee the country, afraid for their lives.

“The following morning, while the post mortem was being carried out four policemen threatened me to sign a document claiming that my son was from the LTTE. They said that they would release my son’s body only if I signed this document. I also came to know that there were demands on the other parents to sign a similar document. There were officers from the Harbour police and other important police officers from the area present at the hospital at that time,” Mr. Ponnuthurai Yogarajah, the father of Yogarajah Hemachandran said.

“How could I accept such a thing? My son had just completed his AL exams and was awaiting university entry. I am confidant that my son had no connections with the LTTE whatsoever,” the father said, in an appealing tone.

He also said that he had received threatening phone calls in both Sinhalese and Tamil demanding him to leave Trincomalee. “They said that if I revealed the truth in the court they will shoot all my family members and that they won’t allow us to live there. They were anonymous threats via telephone calls and letters. I stopped going to work and my child who was schooling had to drop out because of this,” Mr. Yogarajah said.

Tilted balance

The lack of any legal representation for the families of the victims and the survivors was also apparent.

For instance the witness P. Yogarajah was in visible distress holding his head while answering and making paper fans to channel out his frustration, when pelted with a barrage of questioning by the STF counsel in an attempt to attack his credibility. The witness who repeatedly stressed that he had only studied up to grade two was attacked for his lack of knowledge of certain court rulings pertaining to the Buddhist statue erected in Trincomalee. Finally, Mr. Yogarajah was at the mercy of the IIGEP Legal Advisor D. Urban who made an observation stating that “we have concerns about the manner of questioning that has taken place by the Counsel from STF.”

“Though it is true that the counsel is able to attack the credibility of the witness, that attack must still be a fair attack and within the realm of the issues that have to be decided by the commission. There has to be a relevance to the questions. This witness has kindly agreed to do something that it is not a must to do. Therefore, he must be treated with respect and fairly and with compassion after having lost two children,” Mr. Urban stressed.“These proceedings are not a commercial for the government of Sri Lanka and whether a Buddhist statue is properly or lawfully erected in the centre of Trincomalee is irrelevant to these proceedings. Yet the counsel for the STF chose this irrelevancy to attack the credibility of Mr. Yogarajah,” he said.

An emotional appeal 

As the video conferencing sessions drew to a close, with one of the survivors of the massacre yet to testify, the emotional appeals made by both fathers who came forward to testify on the killings of their sons, still reverberates in my ears.

“This sort of thing has been happening in Sri Lanka for a very long time and nothing has been done so I thought at least in my son’s case I should try to get some justice. That is why I came forward to testify,” Mr. Yogarajah said.

In a state of anguish having lost sleep during the three days of the inquest, having to re-live the trauma of loosing not just one child but another during the killings of 17 aid workers attached to the NGO Action against Hunger in Muttur also in 2006, Mr. Yogarajah said that “if not for you at least God will give us justice.”

While we salute the commission on its untiring efforts in dealing with 16 prominent cases associated with human rights, let us not leave the act of dispensing justice to the Gods.