war crimes ?

1 August 2012 06:30 pm

Should Australian Senator be charged for

It has been reported that Australian Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has demanded that Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner Thisara Samarasinghe be expelled from Australia.

An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman has said they had evaluated the information in the submission made by the ICJA and they would not investigate allegations against Admiral Samarasinghe. ‘‘The ICJA was advised of this decision on March 3, 2012.

It is relevant to examine here who should be prosecuted for war crimes in Sri Lanka as it is common knowledge and common practice that anyone committing a crime and anyone aiding and abetting a crime are equally guilty of that crime.
It is convenient to say that sovereign governments are more accountable than terrorist groups and therefore they should have to account for their actions. The LTTE that forcibly administered some parts of Sri Lanka and functioned as a quasi government with its own armed forces and administrative and judiciary, and received funding to kill Sri Lankans, its political leaders, and its own Tamil politicians, have not been investigated by anybody and not held accountable for any of its actions.
The LTTE has been banned in several countries but not in Australia. Perhaps the pressure exerted by the Greens party and Senator Rhianon would have made it impossible for the Labour government to follow the lead taken by the US, Britain and India among others to ban the LTTE.



Why does a country ban a terrorist outfit? Isn’t it because they commit crimes regarded as terrorist crimes and are a security threat to the country?

Wouldn’t the killing carried out by the LTTE over 30 years be considered war crimes in a 30-year war against the Sri Lankan armed forces? The UN Expert panel thought LTTE war crimes should be investigated.
If the LTTE committed war crimes, and required investigations, then wouldn’t anyone who has been associated with the LTTE or those actively supporting the LTTE, also be investigated for aiding and abetting those crimes?Senator Rhianon has been associated with several LTTE supporters in Australia. The extent of her association needs to be investigated by the Federal Police to assess her complicity, if any, of possible war crimes by the LTTE.

As pointed out in earlier Asian Tribune articles, there are several Australians who have either been members of the LTTE, and might still be, and others who have actively supported the LTTE and who might be still doing that.
Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran is the brother of Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar alias AC Shanthan. He was jailed for two years for aiding the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the notorious Tamil Tigers militia outlawed in Britain as a terrorist organisation. Shanthan, the founder of the British Tamil Association was found to have acquired electrical componentry and military manuals for the LTTE.

Some Australian organizations that have had direct links with the LTTE, or have been part of the LTTE’s international operations, either as front organizations or even official arms of the LTTE, like the Australian Tamil Congress, The Tamil Youth Organisation, and several others, and personalities like Dr Sam Peri, Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran, Meena Krishnamoorthy, who are on record as LTTE supporters or sympathisers, are potential elements that should face prosecution in Australia.
Others like Justice John Dowd, Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon, and organizations like the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, even the Greens Party of Australia, who have been supportive of the LTTE directly or indirectly through their bias or participation at Tamil propaganda meetings depicting the LTTE leader as a deity rather than the cold blooded killer he was, may also be regarded as potential cases for prosecution.

In Australia, those like Justice Dowd have addressed Tamil propaganda meetings that clearly portrayed Prabhakaran as some kind of deity and not the brutal LTTE leader who was a killing machine. Dr Sam Pari herself has done the same. Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon has had a close association with Dr Sam Peri, and also with several other Tamils associated with organisations and events supporting the LTTE.Justice John Dowd has addressed Tamil propaganda meetings and in 2005 had done so with a large than life cut out of Prabhakaran in the background depicting his support for Prabhakaran and the LTTE.
It is well known that two activists who spearheaded the move to suspend Sri Lankan membership of CHOGM were Dr Sam Peri and Meena Krishnamoorthy. The former had organised and addressed several propaganda meetings of Tamil Diaspora supporters of the LTTE, as evidenced from the presence of Prabhakaran, albeit in cut out form. On July 5, 2009, Dr Sam Peri spoke to a gathering at Martin Place Sydney. The title of the meeting was “From ashes to Empires.. ..Tamil Eelam will rise. Uprising.”



It is time the Australian Federal Police investigated all these people mentioned including Greens Senator Lee Rhianon for complicity if not direct responsibility for possible LTTE war crimes. It is also time the Australian government developed a backbone and banned the LTTE in Australia. It needs to be noted that canvassing against the LTTE is not any kind of reflection on Tamils, either in Sri Lanka, Australia or any other country.
It is only an ongoing war against the LTTE and their supporters who in fact are creating divisions amongst Tamils and between Tamils and Sinhalese communities. It is a battle against those who are opposing reconciliation amongst the Tamil and Sinhala communities.

Supporting a battle against the LTTE and sections of the Tamil Diaspora who are still wedded to separatism should also not be viewed as an extension of support to any political party in Sri Lanka, and indeed the President or the government of Sri Lanka.
This battle is more than a partisan battle. It is a national battle on behalf of all Sri Lankans who want reconciliation and who want a solution to this conflict that is kept alive by the LTTE and their supporters.
Every word uttered by the likes of Senator Lee Rhianon is a word against reconciliation and against the coming together of Tamil and Sinhala people to solve this conflict.
It is time all Sri Lankans put a stop to this, and asked Australia to call a spade a spade and banned the LTTE and prosecuted Lee Rhianon and her ilk.

(Courtesy Asian Tribune)