Emanuel Stoakes | Jan 29

Truthout - The extrajudicial killing of civilians, surrendering soldiers and dissident journalists under the direction of the Sri Lankan government has been alleged by a former general in the Army who was extremely well-placed to comment on military activity during the island nation's bloody civil war.

The source, whose name is withheld for reasons of safety, had high-level security clearance and access to the flow of orders during the final days of the conflict. He made the assertions in legally binding testimony to a US lawyer in New York in 2010, recorded in an affidavit seen by Truthout.

His statements hold particular significance because they appear to corroborate claims made in reports by prominent human rights organizations, international media and a report for the United Nations by a panel of experts published in 2011. The allegations also closely corroborate the accounts of other members of the Sri Lankan Army during the civil war.

It is believed that representatives of the United States State Department have spoken to the source and hold a rich collection of testimonies and other evidence regarding alleged crimes committed during the civil war.

The most explosive claims have meaningful implications in terms of international law, given that they contribute to a body of evidence that places the command responsibility for alleged war crimes at the feet of key figures in Sri Lanka's civilian leadership.

In one of these claims, the source makes the assertion that, during the war, an assassination unit operated out of "white vans" under the direction of the Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa in order to kill civilians.

These vehicles were mentioned in the United Nations report in 2011 as one of the many "credible allegations" of crimes against humanity made against the Sri Lankan government. The alleged assassinations were committed by what the source described as "hit squads" consisting of a group of men hand-picked by the defence secretary and assembled upon his appointment to high office.

The UN report refers to "an elite squad within the Special Task Force (STF) ... implicated in running these white van operations" that were used to abduct civilians to "secret locations" where they were "interrogated and tortured in a variety of ways." The report further states that many of the abductees "were killed and their bodies were disposed of secretly."

This agrees with further statements made by the source, wherein he names a "Colombo Security" figure connected to the police, who oversaw the white van assassinations while "directly getting orders from the secretary."

Internal US diplomatic memos released by WikiLeaks also appear to corroborate high-level ambassadorial awareness of the vans. In a memo dated 2 February, 2010, entitled "Post Election: New Threats to Media Freedom," US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis refers to the suspicious disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda, a journalist known for his dissenting views, as "one of many examples of what appears to be the government's campaign to silence critical media."

According to the memo, "white vans" had been "spotted outside" the offices where Eknaligoda worked "prior to the attack" and "death threats" were made to colleagues at his newspaper; additionally "paramilitaries surrounded the premises on the evening of January 28 and placed a padlock on the gate."

Mangala Samaweera, the former foreign minister of Sri Lanka, has acknowledged the existence of white vans in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper published on February 16, 2009. Samaweera, who was close to President Rajapaksa until his resignation from the cabinet in February 2007, told The Telegraph that "it is an open secret that extra judicial death squads have been operating with impunity since 2006." Samaweera also remarked, "The notorious white van abductions ... have been attributed to this group called the K9 group and lately this same squad under the name of 'Mahasona group' ... Within Army circles these killers are also known as [Gotabaya's] sinha mafia'."

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Asian Human Rights Commission have noted with concern a large number of cases of disappearances where witnesses describe seeing white vans. The US released a State Department report in 2010, which included acknowledgement of disappearances involving the same vehicles.

Elsewhere within his testimony, the source makes the allegation that extrajudicial killings of surrendering or captured members of the rebel LTTE group, with whom the government forces were at war, were committed as "standard operating procedure" during the last months of the conflict.

In a crucial exchange with the lawyer who took his deposition, the source confirms that he was informed that the defense secretary had passed on "some instructions to a field commander to get rid of those LTTE cadres who are surrendering."

What Does America Know?

It is believed that the State Department holds a live file containing evidence of multiple offences committed by both sides during the war, including testimony from the source and other military, diplomatic and civilian figures.

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