Shenali D Waduge

The white tiger lives in London and none of her crimes ever gets even a word of mention in the halls of humanity. Adele Ann Wilby Balasingham is directly responsible for denying a child’s fundamental rights by turning children as young as 10 into child soldiers and ordering them to commit suicide by biting into a cyanide capsule which she gifted at the end of the training. We do not know how many children she trained, nor do we know how many of those children are alive to tell their tales of woe but we do know and sufficient evidence is at hand to prove she was culpable for turning innocent children into killers and making them commit suicide as well. Two crimes for which she needs to be indicted. The problem is why is she happily living in the UK and none of those claiming to fight for truth and justice are bothered to demand that charges be pressed against her?

International opinion on suicide bombing

• Suicide terrorism has no legitimacy under international or local laws. There is no ‘just cause’ in homicide.
• Suicide missions are all crimes against humanity. No suicide bomber or suicide commander/trainer can be more important than the life or lives they are intentionally planning to eliminate. Suicide attacks fall into the category of murder with a mens rea – willingness to kill and willingness to die. Adele must be proved guilty.
• Human Rights Watch declares suicide bombing a crime against humanity. HRW also declares that ‘political elites, commanders, and those that organize, facilitate, and encourage these suicide attacks are likewise guilty of conduct that offends against prevailing norms of international criminal law’. Thus, Kenneth Roth, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, [t]he people who carry out suicide bombings are not martyrs, they’re war criminals, and so are the people who help to plan such attacks.”
• [Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Article 28(b), U.N.Doc. no. A/CONF. 183/9 (17 July, 1998), 37 I.L.M. 999].

Conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 is a war crime prohibited by

• Article 8 (2) (e) non-international armed conflict of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court
• Article 77 (2) of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions
• Article 38 (2) of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) as well as the
• Optional Protocol to the CRC prohibits compulsory conscription of children under 18 years as direct participants in hostilities.
• we would like to know why LTTE has not been punished for the crime of conscripting children.

Background

• Adele Ann Wilby born 30 January 1950
• nurse from Warrigal, Victoria,
• Presently living in a £500,000 house in New Malden, Surrey (purchased after the dead of husband Anton Balasingham 14 Dec 2006). LTTE hired the prestigious Alexandra Hall in London to keep the remains of Balasingham costing £40,000 for 7 hours!
• Born in Australia now a British citizen
• Married Anton Balasingham on 1st September 1978 at the registry office in Brixton, South London

The Evidence : What is Adele Balasingham guilty of

1. If suicide terrorism is treated as a crime, Adele Balasingham stands guilty for her role in mass murder, recruitment leading to death, destruction of life and intentional killing of others.
2. In 2002 TIME magazine was taken to a female LTTE tiger base. Foreign NGOs operating in the North held seminars in these LTTE training sites some of which were LTTE run ‘orphanages’ – Sencholai being one. If these foreign representatives/agencies were concerned about the welfare of children why did they not report to their principals the violations being committed by the LTTE?
3. Adele was advisor/trainer of the LTTE women’s wing, LTTE’s female military unit was headed by Adele Balasingham; she christened them Freedom Birds” – with no worries economically, socially or politically, all these girls were focused towards was to kill.
4. Adele was trained by Prabhakaran himself to fire weapons.
5. Recruited, mentored, trained child soldiers, as young as nine to kill, maim, disfigure and injure initially in Skandapuram camp, Anbu base.
6. Denying their rights – These trainee suicide killers could well have been talented individuals. They were neither psychologicall nor mentally imbalanced. They were however indoctrinated perhaps even drugged. 10,000 or more are estimated to have died and for each death Adele & LTTE have to stand accountable to both the world and in particular to their parents as most of these children were kidnapped and raised in ‘orphanages’. These parents never desired their children to turn into killers leave alone suicide killers. These parents do not have the means to file action against Adele or LTTE but poverty cannot come between justice so where are the lawyers coming forward to file charges on behalf of these parents against Adele and LTTE for what happened to their children?
7. Students at Kanishta vidyalaya were taken by the LTTE to Lima 06 Camp in Kanahapuram, Vallipunam
8. Adele went from school to school recruiting children and camp to camp providing guidance. She is referred to as Adel Aunty and her baby brigade”. What aunty would lead children as young as 10 to their deaths?
9. In Patrima school 543 students were indoctrinated by LTTE propagandists including Adele.
10. It was the Tamil Tigers who created, recruited several thousand child soldiers and put them in the frontline so they died first”, Lord Naseby Chairman of the All Party British Sri Lanka Parliamentary Group http://www.sriexpress.com/articles/item/311-adele-balasingham-is-living-comfortably-in-southern-england-lord-naseby.html
11. Adele is seen garlanding LTTE cadres mostly kids with a cyanide capsule with orders to commit suicide if caught by the Sri Lankan troops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ien4dgqfdU
12. The oath taken at the passing out ceremony is

Our revolutionary organisation’s purified aim

is for a free society to achieve Tamil Eelam

My life and soul and all this I sacrifice to

our organisation’s leader, our brother, Mr Prabhakaran

We fully accept that for him we will be very faithful and trustworthy

The aim of the Tigers – Tamils’ freedom.”

13. Interview with Russel Skelton of The Age in April 1990 http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/in-the-eyes-of-the-tiger/2009/05/22/1242498922811.html
14. Suicide Killers, BBC documentary in 1991 shows Adele in Tiger striped uniform carrying an AK 47 and wearing a Cyanide capsule around her neck
15. Her book Will to Freedom released in 1993 Adele praises the role of the 3000 women Tiger cadres
16. Escapees were arrested assaulted and tortured and some died and others became mentally ill and imprisoned.
17. Tamil children who fled from the LTTE or freed by the Sri Lankan security forces implicated Adele in recruitment, indoctrination, training, and direction
18. The children speak of how the LTTE harmed them and parents speak of how they forced their children into marriage ensuring pregnancy to prevent recruitment.

Role in LTTE

• Adele introduced by the Norwegian peace facilitators as a member of LTTE delegation to peace talks in Thailand. Proof of Adele Balasingham being a LTTE key member is given in the Norwegian Government website (SL) where she is listed a member of the LTTE delegation during the 2002 round the world peace talk sessions held in Thailand (three sessions), Oslo, Germany and Japan. http://www.norway.lk/Embassy/Peace-Process/peace/
• Wikileaks cable from US embassy of 11 September 2002 brief on Adele by Lewis Amselem, Charge d’Affaires She is secretary of the LTTE team going to Thailand. Based on all reports, she came from a middle class background in Australia, and became involved in LTTE and radical politics only after her marriage. Adele Balasingham is considered extremely dogmatic and inflexible regarding LTTE issues. A “Marxist-feminist” (to use her term), she had for years been deeply involved in the LTTE women’s wing. Her key party duty now (ironically) is serving as assistant to her husband, who needs constant medical attention for his kidney ailment.” 

She even wrote about the LTTE women – 2001 book The Will To Freedom: An Inside View Of Tamil Resistance,

‘Accountability’ must start with charging Adele Balasingham for turning men, women and children into killers, kidnapping them from parents, giving them training in arms, placing suicide vests on them, drugging and brainwashing them into killing others and taking their own lives – can a nurse be proud of by adopting euthanasia into cyanide capsule and asking her trainees to kill and die at the same time? Adele called them ‘Freedom Birds’ and even wrote a book on them!

In 2014 Sinhala expatriate groups and individuals in Australia, Britain, Canada, the Middle East, New Zealand and the United States say that they have petitioned the Sri Lanka Government to seek the extradition of Adele Balasingham from the UK and put her on trial in Sri Lanka for her terrorist activity and crimes against humanity spanning three decades.”

No UN, foreign envoy, human rights organization can claim to seek justice for children and their rights if they omit to demand legal action against Adele Balasingham for her crimes which are beyond reasonable doubt. Why are they not taking legal action is the question we are all asking in particular the UK Government and leaders who deliver plenty of speeches and statements on justice and accountability while keeping silent about action against Adele! 

Shenali D Waduge

Additional Reading:

• Is Adele Balasingham a war criminal?  http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090616_06
• ‘Aunty’ to female Tamil Tigers run London protests from New Malden http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20090601_06
• Sinhala Expatriates Seek Extradition From UK Of War Crime Suspect Adele Balasingham https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/sinhala-expatriates-seek-extradition-from-uk-of-war-crime-suspect-adele-balasingham/
• Extradite Adele before the investigationhttp://www.dailynews.lk/?q=features/extradite-adele-investigation