Wed, Apr 10, 2013, 07:55 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
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Apr 10, Colombo: The Sri Lankan Army exonerating its troops from the civilian casualties during the last phase of the war said it is however, ready to investigate civilian casualties if new evidence giving precise information is presented by anyone. Presenting the first part of a report of an army-appointed Court of Inquiry to the Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the Commander of the Army Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya said in any war, even those fought by western powers using state of the art hi-tech equipment, civilian casualties are inevitable.
The Army Commander appointed the Court of Inquiry comprising six army officers to probe the observations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and the allegations made against the Army in the Channel 4 video.
The Court of Inquiry has examined the senior field commanders and infantry, armour, artillery, intelligence, civil affairs and medical officers who had participated in the offensive and concluded that the military operation was conducted strictly in accordance with the "Zero Civilian Casualty" directive made by the President.
Evidence before the Court has "conclusively" established that commanders at all times obeyed the President's directive and even when the LTTE terrorists had fired from No Fire Zones (NFZs), commanders refrained from firing back at the NFZs.
It further said that despite heavy bombardments by LTTE, Army's self-imposed restriction to fire back at the LTTE artillery fire had caused heavy casualties to Army troops.
The Court of Inquiry has concluded that LTTE terrorists had violated the international law with impunity by using civilians as human shields, placing artillery and other heavy weapons amidst civilian concentrations and illegally conscripting civilians including children and elderly to fight and exposing them to danger.
From the testimony presented, the military court has concluded that the instances of shelling referred to in the LLRC Report were not caused by the Sri Lanka Army and civilian casualties might have occurred due to LTTE firing at fleeing civilians and to their inexperienced fighters shelling civilian concentrations.
The Court of Inquiry will now proceed to investigate the 2nd part of their mandate, to probe the Channel 4 allegation on summary executions of captured LTTE terrorists.
The report presented to the Defence Secretary has not been made public and the United States recently urged the government to make the report public.
