By Charles.S.Perera

 If they have no answers or if the answer is no” to most of the questions, the team and the three advisors should resign if they have any self-respect, as there cannot be a probe against Sri Lanka Armed Forces if evidence presented to them are beyond reasonable doubt.  

 To be accused for a crime the crime should be pre-meditated , deliberate and intended.  The Sri Lanka Armed Forces were carrying out a war” against terrorists who were not fighting according to  any convention, who had no human considerations. It was a terrorist war.  In such a war there is no winner.  Because in Sri Lanka the winner won over the terrorists who were the winner’s own people turned terrorists, who forced a war upon themselves.

 Sri Lanka armed forces during the last phase of the war were fighting against the terrorist who were  not visible shooting from behind their human shield of TYamil civilians.  If there were civilian deaths,  who could really recount as eye witnesses who killed whom, unless the dead come to life !!! 

 If there are witnesses coming forward now to tell what happened they are only imagining or repeating what had been told to them, and recount from imagination what may have happened.  And what is the law which allows to accepts such evidence,   as evidence beyond reasonable doubt.

 If the Sri Lanka Armed Forces are accused for that, any war against terrorism is a crime. Because the terrorists themselves are after all civilians who takes arms  mislead by their false convictions.

 If the Sri Lanka Armed Forces  are accused for war crimes it is then all the people of Sri Lanka that should be held responsible for those war crimes, as it is in protection of them and to free them from the thirty years of suffering due to terrorism that  the Sri Lanka Armed Forces were made to fight the war against terrorists.

 Was their terrorism in Sri Lanka ?  Was the group of Sri Lanka Tamil terrorists banned as a group of ruthless terrorists in 32 countries in the world ? Were the Sri Lanka Armed Forces fighting against terrorist or against Sri LabnkaTamils ?

 Is Sri Lanka the most dangerous Country in the world because it eliminated the group of ruthless Tamil terrorists five years ago ? Are the people in Sri Lanka now living in  fear of explosion of  claymore or suicide bombs of the terrorists ?

 Did  the Sri Lanka Army carryout airstrikes against  Jaffna  from Colombo, like Israel is doing against  Palestine ?  Does the President Mahinda Rajapakse of Sri Lanka order  air strikes against Muslims in Sri Lanka, like President Barrack Obama does against ISIS in Iraq or  did against Colonel Gaddafi in Libya ? Do Sri Lanka Buddhists tell the Muslims to become converted to Buddhism or die as ISIS tells Christians in Iraq ?  Are Sri Lanka Armed Forces taking women as sex slaves as ISIS is doing to Yazidis in Iraq ?

 Are Sri Lanka Armed Forces or armed groups in Sri Lanka chasing  Christians and minorities at gun point like the Jehadists are doing  in Iraq ? Have  Sri Lanka  armed terrorist groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria  kidnapping young girls and holding them prisoners in jungle ?  Has Sri Lanka a terrorist group like  Al Shabaab in Kenya, that kill innocent people in Super Markets ?

 Has Sri Lanka military prisons  like those of Abu Ghraib in Iraq where the USA military police and CIA physically and sexually abused, tortured , raped, sodomised and killed  Iraqi prisoners ?  

Has Sri Lanka detention camps like those of Guantanamo Bay where prisoners were treated like animals ?

 Prisoners, according to Jamal, were told they had no rights. “They actually said that–’you have no rights here.’ After a while, we stopped asking for human rights–we wanted animal rights.”In Camp X-Ray, my cage was right next to a kennel housing an Alsatian dog. He had a wooden house with air conditioning and green grass to exercise on. I said to the guards, ‘I want his rights,’ and they replied, ‘That dog is member of the U.S. army.’”  http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/04/01/tortured-at-guantanamo-bay/

Had the Sri Lanka army taken captured terrorists in helicopters up in the air and drop one to make others talk,  as American pilots did in Vietnam ?

He also told us a good way to get POWs to talk was to take 2 up in a helicopter and throw 1 out, and the other talked immediately. He said it in a very serious vein. I rec’d no meaningful instruction whatever on the law of land warfare while I was in West Point. I did not know what the law of land warfare was until I returned from Vietnam in 69.” http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=48;t=000156;p=0

Has Sri Lanka imposed sanctions or trade embargoes  to North and East of Sri Lanka  where the Tamils live,  like USA practiced sanctions against Iraq as an instrument of American policy ? 

 When asked on US television if she [Madeline Albright, US Secretary of State] thought that the death of half a million Iraqi children [from sanctions in Iraq] was a price worth paying, Albright replied: This is a very hard choice, but we think the price is worth it.”

(Governor Richardson:Well, I stand behind the sanctions. I believe that they successfully contained Saddam Hussein. I believe that the sanctions were an instrument of our policy. [Emphasis Added] http://www.globalissues.org/article/105/effects-of-sanctions

 Did  Sri Lanka impose sanctions  to North and East Sri Lanka during terrorism as an instrument of policy like USA does to Cuba, or now imposing on  Russia over Ukraine ?

The 28-member nations tied to the EU were first to acknowledge in a statement Tuesday that they’ve agreed to impose broader sanctions to limit access to EU capital markets for Russian State-owned financial institutions, impose an embargo on trade in arms, establish an export ban for dual use goods for military end users and curtail Russian access to sensitive technologies particularly in the field of the oil sector.” http://rt.com/usa/176516-bank-moscow-financial-sanctions/

THE United States first placed an embargo on Cuba in 1960, one year after Fidel Castro seized power and one year before Barack Obama was born. It has since become part of the furniture of American foreign policy. Five decades of use will wear anything thin, and the logic behind the embargo looks ever weaker. It has failed to dislodge the Castro regime of either Fidel or, since 2006, his brother Raúl. Indeed, by enabling the island’s rulers to present themselves as the victims of hegemonic bullying, it has shored up support for Cuba abroad and given an excuse for totalitarianism at home. America’s allies think the embargo is counter-productive at best, vindictive at worst.” http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21600117-would-be-especially-good-time-change-americas-relations-cuba-if-not-now

Didn’t Sri Lanka send food and Medicine to North and East of Sri Lanka during terrorism even when the those  food and medicine were plundered  by the terrorists for their own use ?

Did Sri Lanka Armed Forces drop napalm on terrorists as USA did over Vietnam burning and mutilating civilians and poisoning the ground ?

Napalm is a gel, which in its original form contained naphthenic and palmitic acid plus petroleum as fuel.  The modern version, Napalm B, contains plastic polystyrene, hydrocarbon benzene, and gasoline.  It burns at temperatures of 800 to 1,200 °C (1,500 – 2,200 °F). When napalm falls on people the gel sticks to their skin, hair, and clothing, causing unimaginable pain, severe burns, unconsciousness, asphyxiation, and often death. Even those who do not get hit directly with napalm can die from its effects, since it burns at such high temperatures that it can create firestorms that use up much of the oxygen in the air.  Bystanders also can suffer heat stroke, smoke exposure, and carbon monoxide poisoning.”

Are the Sri Lanka soldiers after the terrorist war suffering from post traumatic  stress disorders like the American war veterans  ?

 …. a very large number of veterans haven’t made it all the way home from the war in Southeast Asia. By conservative estimates, at least half a million Vietnam veterans still lead lives plagued by serious, war-related readjustment problems. Such problems crop up in a number of ways, varying from veteran to veteran. Flashbacks to combat… feelings of alienation or anger… depression, loneliness and an inability to get close to others… sometimes drug or alcohol problems… perhaps even suicidal feelings. The litany goes on.  » 

On the Contrary, hasn’t the Sri Lanka made use of its armed forces after eliminating terrorism to rehabilitate the displaced civilians and  beautify Sri Lanka as it had never been before ?

Did not the people of Sri Lanka from North to South and East to West suffer for over  thirty years from a ruthless terrorism  ?  Did the USA and the European Countries help Sri Lanka to stop terrorism and help the people find peace and freedom ?  Where were USA and the Western Countries accusing Sri Lanka Armed Forces now, when the Sri Lanka Armed Forces were fighting a well armed ruthless terrorists amidst difficulties sacrificing its young soldiers ?

Was there a war in the world in which in  its fight against the enemy did not put the civilians in danger and some died as victims of those wars ?  If they are not regarded as war crimes how can such death of civilians in Sri Lanka war against terrorism be considered as violation of human rights or  war crimes ?

The Navi Pillai Investigation team known only to herself, should ask why Sri Lanka is singled out for a probe for war crimes when there are wars carried out by USA and its allies of the West, where there war crimes are well documented and they could be taken to war tribunal with documented proof  of their war crimes.

The Navi Pillai’s team probing war crimes of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces should ask themselves whether their probe is for the UN Human Rights Commission or a personal probe  for Navi Pillai,  who as a Tamil is taking revenge from Sri Lanka Armed Forces for eliminating her favourite Group of Tamil Terrorists.