Attacks on Civilians by U.S. Troops News reports – October 22,2010
Posted on October 23rd, 2010
Ira de Silva London, Canada
Mr. Robert O. Blake
Assistant Secretary for South & Central Asia
State Department
Washington D.C.,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ U.S.A.
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
Dear Sir:
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
I look forward to your statement regarding the latest exposure of U.S. troops killing civilians in Iraq and the fact that up to now the U.S. has denied that it was aware ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ andƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ complicit in these attacks. You never fail to make statements on the alleged killing of civilians by the Sri Lankan armed forces knowing full well that these areƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ unsubstantiated allegationsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ that are being kept alive, with your assistance, by your LTTE friends in the U.S.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ and elsewhere who continue to promote the LTTEƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ goal of dividing Sri Lanka.
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ItƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ is astounding that Mrs. Clinton who wanted the LTTE hierarchy to be saved and evacuated,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ has merely issued a statementƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ condemning “in the most clear terms the disclosure of any information by individuals and or organisations which puts the lives of United States and its partners’ service members and civilians at risk”.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There is no concern for the fact that U.S. policy has been responsible for thousands of civilian deaths,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ that the files show the US kept records of civilian deaths, despite previously denying it, that the death toll was put at 109,000, of whom 66,081 were civilians. You keep harping on the disputed number of 7,000 killed in a legitimate war on terrorism in Sri Lanka where the government was excising it’s legitimate right to eradicate terrorism unlike in the case of foreign intervention in Iraq. It now seems that even in the case of civilians the U.S. makes a distinction – civilians who are helpful to them it is concerned about, the general population is fair game. In Sri Lanka it was theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ terrorists that the U.S. was concerned about and trying to evacuate,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ not the civilians who were being terrorised and held hostage by Tamil terrorists. ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
News reports claim that the documents also reveal many previously unreported instances in which US forces killed civilians at checkpoints and during operations. For example the report claims that “in one incident in July 2007ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ as many as 26 Iraqis were killed by a helicopter, about half of them civilians, according to the log. Another recordƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ shows an Apache helicopter gunship fired on two men believed to have fired mortars at a military base in Baghdad in February 2007, even though they were attempting to surrender. The crew asked a lawyer whether they could accept the surrender, but were told they could not, “and are still valid targets”. So they shot them. The helicopter – with the call sign “Crazyhorse 18″ – was also involved in another incident that July in which two journalists were killed and two children wounded”. Much has been made of the claim that two LTTE terrorist leaders were shot when trying to surrender even though it was in the middle of battle and in the dead of night. According to a U.S. lawyer even when U.S. troops were aware of people trying to surrender the “ruling” was that they are “still valid targets”. The question to you Mr. Blake is will you now admit thatƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ there is no case againstƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lanka?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Please note that the U.S. has also deliberately killed journalists and children.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ With these attacks on civilians being documented by your own forces, the question is when are you going to call for aƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ war crimes inquiry? An apology from you to the people and government of Sri LankaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ would indicate that you are not prejudiced against them. I am aware that that is not the “American way” but after all the bad press that you have generated against Sri Lanka and her people, in my view, the least you can do is to accept and publicise the fact that in Sri Lanka you made a mistake because of your affiliation with the LTTE.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Will you rise to the challenge?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
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By copy of this note to the other players against Sri Lanka in the blame game and war crimes dance such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group and above all the ardent Tamil supporter of the LTTE, Ms. Navi Pillay in Geneva, and the Secretary General of the U.N., what action are you going to take? When is the issue going to be debated at the U.N. in Geneva, when is Mr. Ban Ki Moon going to establish a panel to investigate and report on these documented war crimes, when is Amnesty International going to start a campaign to pressure the U.S, Human Rights Watch going to report and pressure the U.S. regardingƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ humans rights violations and the International Crisis Group use some of the funding by the west to issue a report on these war crimes even if it means that their funding will be terminated.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ For these so-called independent groups not act in the face of these documented reports of large scale attacks on civiliansƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ would show the world how independent they are, how much protection of human rights means to them.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Will they by their silence show the world that they are just the unprincipled paid servants of the west,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ a bunch of hypocrites promoting the double standards of the westƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ , a fact which is known not only toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Sri Lankans but to other third world countries who the west feels the needƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ to bully.
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I look forward to your public statementƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ of apology to Sri Lanka.
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Yours truly,
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚
Ira de Silva
London, Canada
October 23rd, 2010 at 11:26 am
Ira, excellent challenge. I hope some one will forward this challenge to Robert Blake’s desk.
October 23rd, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Who is going to complain about the self appointed sheriff? Who is going to tie the bell around the cat’s neck?
They will get away with these blatant violations without anyone making a noise about it – they have done it many times in the past, they are doing it right now and they will continue to do so in the future unless the people of the world wake up to the realities of Western style democracy, freedom and human rights where anything can be sold for a fistful of dollars!
Great letter Ira.
October 23rd, 2010 at 10:22 pm
We all know that Robert Blake, Louise Arbor, Navi Pillai, AI and HRW are all first rate supporters of LTTE terrorism in Sri Lanka. What I am amazed at is the Chutzpah shown by these idiots in criticizing Sri Lanka when their own governments were engaging in the most egregious behaviour known to man. How can one keep a straight face and defend what their own governments have done in Iraq and then turn around and criticize the Government of Sri Lanka in trying to defend secessionist terrorism? The one reason that I see for this bullying is that Sri Lanka being a small, third world country, it behooves these western embeciles and their sycophants to a sense of post-colonialist “teaching moment” to educate the Sri Lankan leadership on how they should have behaved in conducting a war.
The whole exercise of calling for an international investigation in Sri Lanka has now become a totally vindictive exercise with absolutely no credibility. Where were these self-appointed embeciles when the LTTE was terrorizing the entire population of Sri Lanka for thirty years? Also, if these idiots had any sense of fairness, they would realize that they would only be punishing only one of the two parties that fought each other. It seems that it is always easy for these morons to say that “since the entire LTTE leadership is already dead,” it is useless talking about the atrocities they committed. Try advancing these types of arguments with the US, the UK and other western nations and see how far anyone could get. Of course, poor Sri Lanka has to play by a different set of rules…..
October 24th, 2010 at 4:06 am
Ira
Please ignore the fact that all above comments (kit Athul, gdesilva nd babaloo) come from me. I am just trying to add variety to the discussion and my own life! It is as easy as creating another email account these days.
Are the ideas similar? I am a leading Sinhala Buddhist. Can you guess from the writing?
Thanks
Malinda
October 24th, 2010 at 4:45 am
Dear Ira great piece of article.Wonderful.
World has seen thousands of American and anglo saxon war crimes. In website albasrah.net I have seen photos of Americans use human shield of civilians in 2004. LTTE learned from their masters and in 2009 did the same in Mulativu. In 2004 Falluja city itself Americans and British killed 5000 civilians by chemical weapons. Where was Robert o’Blake, Navi Pillai and other human right protectors? Following website proved with photos.
http://www.albasrah.net
Statement from Falluja: 5000 were killed by USA chemical weapons in Falluja- 22/11/2004
Photos and video files (included)
American terrorists use the civilians of Falluja as human shields on their vehicles against the resistance during house raid in Falluja.
Fallujan women victim
http://www.alwasan.net/ihc/users/409/olouj…uj/bayanfa1.jpg
http://img118.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img118&image=bayanfa1.jpg http://www.w6w.com/w6w.php?
The above web page is a declaration made on by Falluja resistance about USA war crimes and their use of weapons of mass destruction. The resistance in Falluja insists that it has photos and video files of many of these crimes and it will release them whenever possible.
The statement released on 22/11/2004 has said that:
“the US army in Falluja has used weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons which killed more than 5000 of civilians”
The statement listed some of the main war crimes of the US army in Falluja: “
1. The US army bombards Falluja with poisoned gases and chemical weapons
2. The US army bombards Falluja with Phosphoric pumps
3. The US army have destruct houses, Mosques and stores and rubber value things
4. The US army killed about 5000 civilians, most of them children, ladies and elderly people, put to death wounded and sick people, and peel them in the ground. Then, the USA army has buried many of those civilians in collectivism graves. However, it also disallowed for the resistance who were killed to be buried and let them to be eaten by dogs!
5. The US army has arrested about 3000 civilians and raped women and children.”