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US Under Secretary, Donald Camp, on massacre of Tamils by Sri Lankan military

1. Tamils killed in Sri Lanka attack, BBC 19 April 2006: “Police found the bodies of the five Tamils with gunshot wounds on Wednesday near Puttur on the Jaffna peninsula.”

2. Sri Lanka: Government Must Respond to Anti-Tamil Violence, HRW, 25 April 2006

“The failure of the security forces in Trincomalee to protect the Tamil population should raise alarm bells at the highest levels of government,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.”

3. Anarchy in Sri Lanka as diplomats ready to talk peace , AFP 5 May 2006 “The pro-rebel Tamilnet website reported Friday that the seven civilians shot dead Thursday were on their way to attend a birthday party when troops opened fire with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) in retaliation for a grenade attack that wounded three military men.”

4. Japan envoy meets Sri Lanka President, charges fly Reuters, 8 May 2006, Peter Apps “On Monday, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Web site accused the army of killing eight Hindu temple workers near the northern ethnic Tamil town of Jaffna, while the military said there had been several rebel attacks overnight.”

It was only in May that SLMM monitors gingerly started to leak small amounts of truth, unable to bear the burden of its weight, as shown by reports 5-7.

5. Monitors see S. Lanka hand in civilian killing, Reuters 11 May 2006, Peter Apps, “ ‘We have very strong indications that at least part of the government troops have been involved in these killings. The pattern is clear.’ Jouni Suninen, SLMM Vavuniya”

6. More attacks seen in northern Sri Lanka, Reuters 15 May 2006, Peter Apps, “ ‘We believe that the Sri Lankan army and Tamil armed groups are operating behind LTTE lines. There are so many incidents it has to be an organized thing’. Bernt Gulbrandesen, SLMM Vavuniya”

7. Foreign Monitors Investigate Killings of 13 Tamils in Sri Lanka, NYT, 16 May 2006, Somini Sengupta, “Ulf Henricsson, the retired Swedish major general who commands the monitoring force, said it had received reports of killings in which the police or soldiers could be implicated..”

The killing of 13 civilians in Allaipiddy on 13 May forced many of these bodies to talk about the massacres about which they already had suspicions as report 8, the AI report shows.

8. Sri Lanka: Amnesty International condemns killings of civilians, AI, 16 May 2006 “Amnesty International has received credible reports that Sri Lanka Navy personnel and armed cadres affiliated with the Eelam People’s Democratic Party, a Tamil political party that is opposed to the LTTE, were present at the scene of the killings…….”

It was in this context that US under secretary Donald Camp visits Colombo. As report-9 shows his comments has ignored the tragedies forced on the Tamils and repeats the old well rehearsed words.

9. US encourages European Union to ban Tamil Tigers , May 16, 2006 “Asked by reporters about the U.S. position on the EU possibly putting the Tigers on a terrorist list, American official Donald Camp said, ‘We have encouraged the EU to list the LTTE,’ according to an interview transcript provided by the U.S. Embassy. …. On Tuesday, Camp urged Sri Lanka's government to investigate unresolved killings of ethnic Tamil civilians in the country's volatile north and east. ….‘There needs to be investigations and there needs to be prosecutions,'' he said in the transcript.’ ”

He calls the Sri Lankan government to “investigate” the massacres. His comments have enraged the Tamils to say the least.

17 May 2006

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