Sri Lanka war crimes soldiers ordered to finish the job

two Sri Lankans who witnessed the violent final showdown of the country's 26-year civil war claim a top military commander and Sri Lanka's defence secretary ordered war crimes.

One of these eyewitnesses, an army officer, accuses Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa - the president's brother - of ordering Brigadier Shavendra Silva to execute Tamil rebel leaders, whose safe surrender had been guaranteed by the president.

The other new witness, who was also operating with Brigadier Shavendra Silva's 58 Division on the front line during the final assault, claims the Brigadier was ordered by the defence secretary "to finish the job by whatever means necessary.

Licence to kill

He said this was interpreted by the soldiers as a licence to kill. He described how he had watched as Sri Lankan forces shot dead unarmed Tamil women and children. It is the first time this allegation has been made.

The war was won by Sri Lankan government soldiers two years ago. The rebel leadership was virtually wiped out. They shot people at random.

Stabbed people. Raped them. Cut out their tongues, cut women's breasts off. I saw people soaked in blood. Fernando As the army closed in, around 130,000 Tamil civilians had been trapped on an ever-shrinking shard of land on the north-east of the island alongside the besieged rebel fighters, who are accused of using them as human shields.

The Sri Lankan president said no civilians were killed by the army during the final assault. But the United Nations now believes that up 40,000 civilians were killed during the last few weeks of the conflict. Others estimate the toll to be higher.

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• Lanka
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[TheHareendra]

no country has done war crimes than united kindom,,british they actually killed over 100,000 people when they invading sri lanka and controling the country about 60 years back..now they do the same in AFGANISTHAN, IRAQ, LIBIYA..so u dont have right to even mention my countriy's name..we will give our lifes for our country sri lanka..

[puliveeram]

@TheHareendra

so you can kill your own people no body cannot ask ?

[1982mockingbird1982]

You voted for a cold-blooded nationalist and the thing about nationalists is that they tend to be very self-serving and devoid of conscience. So its not just the Tamils problem anymore, Sinhalese dissident such as Prageeth Eknalogia (who have nothing to do with Tamil rights) are mysteriously dissapearing, the only candidate who promised democratic reforms is now in prison and election season continues to be marked with elevating violence. Whats next?

[1982mockingbird1982]

@19Thush No 'you' didnt. There is compelling evidence they systematically bombed hospitals and killed 10s of tousands of civilians and raped female cadre and civilians both on the field and inside the 'welfare camps'. And the governement has used violence, intimidation and probably bribery to silence anyone in the country who would speak out and coerce ex-LTTE and other Tamils to participate in their PR stunts. And Sri-Lanka is screwed...

[1982mockingbird1982]

@puliveeram Thats pretty much it. These people tend to be hard core nationalists who love their 'country' more than they love humanity. And they accuse the Tamils of being tribalist just for speaking out for human rights and justice.

[1982mockingbird1982]

@TheHareendra Its journalists like these who have spoken out against the war crimes in Iraq which big governments tried to cover up. Now they are simply doing the same thing with Sri Lanka and, not only do they have the right, but they have the moral imperative to speak out for the innocent not matter what 'country' they are in. If you acknowlege the truth about Iraq but neglect to apply the same level of skeptisism to your own governement out of national pride, then you are a hypocrit.

[chanaka8752]

they can't do anything this videos are fake

[19Thush]

@puliveeram we killed only the terrorist ( there could be civilian deaths in war like this scale) Point is now people are free they and live hapily. Problem is there is no place for people like you in sri lanka if you don't change your attitude, We got no worries about this accuasation because those so called super powers are no longer super powers now, Very soon they will have to come and work for us to make their living. Don't spend your hard earned tamil people's money to feed this ppl

[19Thush]

it is very clear these bancrupt countries like us,uk try to show their fading power to small nation like sri lanka, But all the people in side and out side the country with their government and leaders who gave the freedom to all the people in contry. We don't really have a time watch this stupid biased programmes(produced using the money of innoent tamil people"s money) we know what to do when they try to put their hand to our country. they loot and kill people in iraq and libya what is it?

[TheHareendra]

if sri lankan army killed 40,000 civilians..do u think sri lanka will be peaceful today?.. Killing one innocent civilian means that creating at least 10 enemies..his or her parents son daughter husband wife relatives friends that civilian has all will be enemies..that is exactly what happened in IRAQ, AFGANISTHAN, British USA armies have killed over 100,000 of innocent people there that’s why they still cant stop suicide bombing even they have full control of those countries..