Sri Lanka calls for formal
apology from ICJ for false allegations
SECRETARY GENERAL
Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process
Justice Arthur Chaskalson 13th August 2007
President
International Commission of Jurists
PO Box 91
Rue des Bains 33
1211 Geneva 8
Switzerland
Dear Justice Chaskalson,
I write with reference to my letter of June 25th regarding the ICJ
statement regarding the killing of 17 Aid Workers in Mutur last year.
I received a response to that from the ICJ Secretary General Mr. Howen,
which reiterated his concern - which we all share - about that unfortunate
event. It did not address the main point of my letter, which was the
unwarranted assumption by him, based on the report by Mr. Birnbaum,
that there had been tampering with evidence.
As you know, Mr. Birnbaum's report, which was an addendum to his initial
report on the subject, was concerned largely with a discrepancy between
the identification of a single bullet in two reports. This discrepancy
was used by Mr. Birnbaum to raise an allegation of 'powerful grounds
to suspect that someone removed from the exhibits a bullet that he thought
might be incriminating and substituted another'. This led to the assertion
that an investigation should be held into 'who had access to the bullets
and who tampered with them.'
Mr. Howen goes further and refers to 'evidence of tampering' in his
letter of 6th June to our ambassador in Geneva. On June 25th the ICJ
issued a press release which asserted, on the basis of Dr Dodd's report,
that 'There is therefore evidence to indicate the 5.56 calibre bullet
was removed from the evidence submitted as exhibits to the Kantale Magistrate,
and that another bullet of a different type was substituted.'
Though your release of July 5th was more temperate, there was no retraction
whatsoever, let alone an apology, for the outrageous allegation of the
June 25th release.
In the July 5th release you made a further claim, about the number
of aid workers killed, citing the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies.
I checked with them and conveyed to Mr. Howen that they denied the attribution,
but I have not as yet had a response to that letter. He should of
course check again with CHA but, if what they told me is correct, ICJ
should realize that some of the sources it uses cannot be trusted. This
is the more serious in that recently Sir John Holmes, UN Under Secretary
General for Humanitarian Affairs, has repeated the same canard.
Meanwhile, as you must be aware, Dr Dodd, having reviewed the evidence
as the Sri Lankan government had always requested, has registered that
his original identification was erroneous and the presence of 'a 5.56
calibre projectile can be confidently excluded'. He further states that
he hopes 'this supplementary report now settles convincingly the issue
of calibre of projectile removed' and 'that all projectiles retrieved
from the bodies examined were of the same calibre' viz 7.62. The long
discourse therefore of your so-called legal expert Michael Birnbaum
on the arms used by the Sri Lankan army is therefore not at all relevant,
though I trust you will take measures as to who briefed him in this
area. If we were to go by his and Mr. Howen's standards of evidence,
we might conclude that there was evidence that he had been briefed by
terrorists and their sympathizers who are determined to denigrate the
Sri Lankan forces.
Dr. Dodd goes on specifically to refute Mr. Birnbaum's Addendum
which has regrettably been issued in the name of the ICJ, in saying
'there is no suggestion in my mind of substitution of exhibits, and
to this end I would categorically refute the suggestion in the Birnbaum
Report'.
I am writing therefore to request that ICJ issues a formal apology
for its false allegations. In an earlier and more decent age such professional
incompetence would have been a reason for resignation, but I suspect
this is too much to expect from Mr. Howen.
I hope however that ICJ will be very wary of making further use of
the services of Mr. Birnbaum, and that your Executive Committee will
ensure that the ICJ Secretary General does not continue, as the old
proverb has it, to put his foot in his mouth.
Needless to say, assuming we can be sure that ICJ too has not been
lured into the current campaign of the LTTE to destabilize the government,
we look forward to further cooperation with you in what should be your
basic purpose of upholding the rule of law. For this it is necessary
to observe the high standards of analysis and objectivity that a decent
judicial system requires.
Yours sincerely
Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha
Secretary General
Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process
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