As Killing of Those Seeking to Surrender in Sri Lanka Is Alleged, Will UN Investigate?

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/lanka1warcrimes121409.html

UNITED NATIONS, December 14 -- In the final days in Sri Lanka of what even the UN called the bloodbath on the beach, there were reports that when some in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam sought to surrender with white flags, they were killed by the Army. The UN's Vijay Nambiar, it was reported, had urged the LTTE officials to come out waving white flags.

Now, General Sarath Fonseka has confirmed that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, presidential brother and Defense Secretary, ordered his forced to execute even those seeking to surrender, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Months ago the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who has met with all three Rajapaksa brothers, spoke vaguely about an independent international inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka. While he seemed to count on the Rajapaksas to credibly investigate themselves, this has not happened.

Even since killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Sri Lanka in the first five months of this year, Ban has sent a group of UN investigators to Guinea to probe the killing of 157 civilians there.

While his excuse for the seeming double standard is that neighboring African states requested the Guinea inquiry, can the UN accept that human rights only matter if the neighbors say so? Watch this site.

Footnote: the North Korean cargo airplane found full of weapons in Bangkok, in violation of UN sanctions, reported had a Sri Lankan connection. Will the UN remain silent about this, too? Ban Ki-moon was asked about the North Korean plane during his end of the year press conference on Monday -- the questions above were not allowed -- and Ban said it is up to the Security Council. And so the buck passing continues.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/lanka1warcrimes121409.html