The populations of the hamlets close to EPS were displaced in the fighting initiated by the LTTE when they broke the ceasefire in June ‘90. There were no longer civilians within range of regular rifle fire (600m). In fact, I don’t think there were any within 5km of the base perimeter.

The target of the mortar fire on the road were the Tigers. Unfornunately, civilians were hit too, but that was not the intention.

The blonde medic was tending the LTTE casualties as well. So he was arguably in a military situ. I think he was a legit target. The LTTE targets are medics and we do the same.

The little boys were in school uniform and at a range of aproximately 850m from our position, if I remember correctly. If they had been in LTTE uniform, we would have opened fire, or called in artillery. There was a crosswind, and so we avoided targeting the LTTE guards as we might have hit the children or set off the mines.

What is quoted as sylogism is the usual logic. Example of sylogism is “God Is Love” , “Love Is Blind’ . Therefore God Is Blind. Only when there is anabsurdity in the, premises assumed, inference, induction or deduction that it becomes sylogical When there is sense its logical and not sylogical as EM claims.

Is EM trying to defend David Blacker for their mixed burgher Tamil roots? What transpires in almost all these commentaries from these reports and articles is that transparency is not genuime and that the truth is almost always sanguine.

Though there are exceptions similar to role palyed by Rajan Hoole and the UTHR (J).

“I am not surprised that a foot soldier of the same army that massacred innocents around me in the 1980’s–90’s when I lived in SL would think the ACF staff’s massacre by SL armed forces ‘improbable.’”

Regardless of our backgrounds, prosecutions must be looked at objectively. Your past experiences lead you to accuse someone blindly, regardless of evidence. This doesn’t surprise me. However, you’re still wrong to do so. The reason I think it’s improbable isn’t because of my past, but because there is no indication of such a prepropensity towards such crimes. Most atrocities committed by the SL security forces have been in retaliation for perceived wrongs by civilians, and usually in the heat of the moment. The LTTE on the other hand, has amply proven that it calculatedly targets civilians as a terror tactic.

“Oh,yes, I find it very credible when such a soldier, having been taught to believe that most Tamils in the North-East are Tigers, says he killed only the Tigers.”

Ah, so I’m already guilty of racism and murder is it? If you’re so eager to condemn someone in this forum whom you don’t even know, I’m not surprised that you would jump to believe everything in the UTHR report. FYI I’m half Jaffna Tamil on my mother’s side, and until fairly recently had relatives in Jaffna. I still have friends in the NE. Some of my Tamil relatives had their home burned in ‘83 and had to leave the country. So don’t be so keen to talk about things you have no clue about, Expatriate. Don’t let your sense of revenge lead you to blindly condemn.

If you know anything about the fighting around Elephant Pass in ‘90-’91 you will understand my comment about civilians and my unit.

As for the LTTE atrocities against Muslims, you seem keen to blame it all on Karuna & Pilliyan. The fact of the matter is that they were not expelled from the LTTE, but left of their own accord. To the contrary such people were rewarded and promoted for their treatment of Muslim civilians. The LTTE policy of terror was formulated by VP and passed down to the minions such as Karuna, who gleefully carried it out. So it’s absurd to try and shove the blame onto them. In addition, everything done to the Muslims waas aalso done to the Sinhalese civilians of the border areas, and these weren’t done just by Karuna & Pilliyan.

“I don�t want to waste any more time with such people.”

Really? Who would you like to waste your time with then?

Elephant Pass was a fairly isolated base, and most civilians who had any sense had left the area, so ANYTHING WE SAW COULD BE KILLED. When I first arrived in EPS in December 1990, the garrison was securing the base’s perimeters after the LTTE onslaught of the previous months that had started off the Second Eelam War. During this security operation, the base perimeter had been expanded to swallow several small hamlets that, upto the end of the ceasefire, had been populated. The civilians had obviously left in a hurry, leaving most of their stuff behind, and my platoon was detailed to clear the houses. We burned everything we couldn’t use, and watching all those saris and flowery frocks burning, I was also struck by how unfair it all was. Sometime in ‘91, I was spotting for a sniper, and he called in mortars on a Tiger column that was on a road. There were CIVILIANS on the road as well, and some of them WERE HIT too. Afterwards, we watched through our scopes as a foreign DOCTOR OR MEDIC(we could see his blonde hair even at six-hundred yards) tended to the fallen, including the Tigers. MY PARTNER THEN SHOT HIM.

so self-confessed doctor and civilian murderer David Blacker trying to speak through his arse as usual.
*** Quote David Blacker:

I have however watched little children being forced to plant antipersonnel mines under armed LTTE guard
..and you were overseeing if the LTTE were doing a proper job of it? At least lie without insulting our intelligence.
see you. yours OaO.:))))

“ Oh,yes, I find it very credible when such a soldier, having been taught to believe that most Tamils in the North-East are Tigers, says he killed only the Tigers.”

Is it then surprising, that after the teachers of the army have created this near Aristotelian syllogism, the LTTE claim to be the soul representatives of the Tamil people.

I am not surprised that a foot soldier of the same army that massacred innocents around me in the 1980’s–90’s when I lived in SL would think the ACF staff’s massacre by SL armed forces ‘improbable.’

Oh,yes, I find it very credible when such a soldier, having been taught to believe that most Tamils in the North-East are Tigers, says he killed only the Tigers.

The UTHR has been compiling reports for a long time and many reports have been harshly critical of the LTTE’s atrocities against all ethnic groups.

Specifically about Muslims, outside the forced exodus of Muslims in the North, most such atrocities against Muslims happened in the East, when Karuna was the LTTE commander there, with people like Pillaiyan under him.

That such people were part of the LTTE should have caused hardcore LTTE supporters to rethink their views about the nature of the LTTE; but we also know that the Karuna/Pillaiyan (TMVP) group is now part and parcel of the GoSL/SLA.

In the face of such naked involvement in murders, rapes and abductions by the GoSL/SLA/TMVP/EPDP, any SL citizen who rushes to the defense of the GoSL/SLA is guilty of being enablers of the same crimes. How can such people speak about justice? I don�t want to waste any more time with such people.

One Possible War crime (and the Trial is not even over) and the people who have been looking for any excuse to stick it to this government finally have a little morsel to chew on. With this they will erect skyscraper analogies and implications all the way to the President on this.

I would not be surprised if people would believe that Mahinda Rajapakse directly text messaged the Order to Kill these people,….

Enjoy folks!

Some of you scoff at my suggestions on justice, but if you’re not interested in justice, or feel it will never be served in SL, what’s the point discussing this case. The UTHR report will NOT undermine the GoSL as long as it remains uncorroborated hearsay with no evidence or eye witness testimony. So if you want to congratulate yourselves on a great victory, go ahead, but you’re fooling yourselves.

Having said that, it’s historically clear that it is almost impossible to prosecute a war crime while a war is in progress, due to the inaccessibility of the site, eye witnesses, etc. Even once the war is over, it needs the fullest cooperation of all parties concerned. If you take Malmedy and Mai Lai as examples, this can be seen. In the Malmedy case, German cooperation was guaranteed by their defeat and the POW status of the accused Waffen-SS officers and men. Even then, it was seen as an American kangaroo court, and several sentences were later commuted or overturned, a case in point being Sturmbannfuhrer Joachim Peiper who was later released. In the Mai Lai case, the US government cooperated in the prosecution of the Americal Division officers and men, but even then Lt Calley was the only man sentenced, and his life sentence was commuted to house arrest and even that for only four years, after which he was pardoned.

In cases such as Muttur, it may be many years til the war is over, and there is no guarantee that any of the witnesses or the accused would even survive the war.

The UTHR report is full of contradictions, and some gaping holes, particularly about the weapons used by the killers.

Jack Ranasinghe & Expatriate who seem to have already pronounced me guilty of war crimes and the intention to harm the witnesses, I suggest you take your misguided and self-serving little moralisation and stick it up your backsides.

Frankly, I have never seen any physical atrocities carried out by my unit on civilians, though I admit that the Tigers we faced were shown little mercy. I have however watched little children being forced to plant antipersonnel mines under armed LTTE guard. I have also walked through a Muslim village after it had been attacked by the LTTE, and seen the bodies of the male civilians that had been nailed to their front doors before having their genitals removed in front of their womenfolk.

Believe me, I have seen with my own eyes just what the LTTE is capable of doing not just to Muslims and Sinhalese, but to their own people.

The fact that there is a hue and cry about the ACF staffers but nothing about the 70 Muslims killed just a day before is shameful. Are you guys only interested in justice for Tamils?

I am quite aware that it is possible that the police or security forces killed the ACF staffers, but I think it’s improbable, and I see nothing in the UTHR report that proves anything.

Under the section ” The rape and murder of Miss. Tharshini Elaiyathamby” the UTHR report of April 1, 2006 (see Special Report #20) contained the following wording: We unreservedly apologise for the wording, which we now know to be ill-founded and very unfair by the deceased.

This was probably not in the immediate next report as I said in my previous post, and the wording of this apology was not sufficient in my view, but still an apology.