| by Our special reporter from London
( February 27, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to information provided to the Sri Lanka Guardian by a close acquaintance of the assassinated Senior Foreign Correspondent of the London based ‘The Times’ Marie Colvin, she is said to have preserved her notes and recording of telephone conversations including that of her conference call on her negotiations to get the senior LTTE men surrendered in May 2009.
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| Medical staff examine Marie Colvin in the corridor outside the operating theatre in Colombo's eye hospital, in Sri Lanka Tuesday April 17, 2001. Colvin, an award winning American journalist working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper was caught in the skirmish between Sri Lankan government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels near the northern town of Vavuniya on Monday, hours before the a five-day truce by government troops was due to expire. Colvin won the Best Foreign Correspondent award in the British Press Awards. (AP Photo/ Gemunu Amarasinghe) |
Marie Colvin was murdered by the Syrian forces in their targeted bombing of the media hideout of the rebels.
Marie Colvin played an indubitable role to get the Sri Lankan government to agree to the surrender call of the senior leaders of the LTTE.
When she was approached by a close friend to find ways to organise the surrender of the LTTE leadership, she promptly took up the task and spoke to all those could be involved to arrange an official surrender under the international law.
As the situation was worsening in the war front, LTTE’s Nadesan had told the friend of Marie Colvin to do everything possible to arrange a surrender. During his conversation, he had told his friend about the dire situation facing the people in Vanni. Speaking in Tamil he has said: ‘the area is a jungle of corpses and the dying bodies are crying. We are unable bear this. Army is shooting everything that is moving. We cannot fight any more. Please do whatever you can to arrange a official surrender’.
According information, when Marie Colvin was contacted by her friend, she responded positively. She spoke to the LTTE’s political head Nadesan immediately to get his firm confirmation that they were willing to surrender.
She realised the importance of engaging the UN and phoned the United Nations Chef de Cabinet/Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar. For Vijay Nambiar, it was middle of the night and he did not liked being disturbed. He had told Marie Colvin not to disturb him.
Marie Colvin stood firm and demanded his intervention as a senior official of the UN to organise the surrender. Vijay Nambiar had no alternative and had to reluctantly engage to get the surrender done.
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A Man behind all the SECRETS of crime against humanity |
Some aspects of the surrender arrangements the Sri Lanka Guardian previously reported has now been belatedly confirmed by Nambiar to the Inter City Press (24 February 2012) editor Mathew Lee:
‘She talked to me, you know that’, Nambiar said of Colvin. Inner City Press asked, hadn't Colvin urged Nambiar to go witness the surrenders?
‘Nambiar nodded yes. "I asked to go, twice I contacted [US diplomat] Bob Blake, the two of us were planning to go... the ICRC was not able to go by sea route. The Government refused to give us permission. There was no way we could just force our way in."
‘Nambiar continued with this story: "in the middle of the night, Marie called me, the two people, I've forgotten the names, one was on the Peace Commission, they wanted to surrender. We need to get assurance, free passage. I said OK, I'll do it. I took it up with foreign minister, the defense minister and the president. They would be treated like any surrendering prisoner, What happened after that, I couldn't..."
‘Again Inner City Press asked Nambiar, if you passed on the assurances, then were blocked from going to witness and those you assured got killed, why haven't you spoken out?
‘Nambiar "subsequently said they could have been shot by own people. I am not prepare to hazard any guess. Even Basil [Rajapaksa], he also said that. It was mainly Gotabaya [Rajapaksa] and the President [Mahinda Rajapaksa]." "I spoke with Palitha Kohona, the Foreign Secretary."
According to Sri Lanka Guardian source, the crucial conference call recording involving Marie Colvin, Palitha Kohana, Norway and Chandra Nehru MP are available with a secured source close to the deceased reporter.
It was also reported that the Foreign Secretary Dr Palitha Kohana had told Marie Colvin that the surrendering LTTE members must carry white flags and slowly move forward to the army defence line where instructions have been given to accept their surrender. He also had said since suicide bombings are taking place on the lines of the army, the army is very agitated and every effort must be made to avoid provoking them.
The Sri Lanka Guardian also reported recently that army had shot and killed Nadesan’s wife who is a Sinhalese, when she appealed in Sinhalese to the army to spare her husband. But the angry soldiers had made very abusive statements before firing and killing her.
The Sri Lanka Guardian has also established that the former parliamentarian Chandra Nehru who was involved in the negotiations, had to leave the country with the help of a foreign mission to escape being killed by the defence establishment. Chandra Nehru was in the battle front and knew firsthand accounts of events unfolding in the final battle. There were some move to get rid of him in Vanni itself, but before then he found his way to Colombo where he was under pressure from the Defence establishment.
The said foreign mission had taken him to Katunayake International Airport and he flew to Singapore and from there to a European country. Prime witness Chandra Nehru is avoiding public involvement and according to media reports, he has given evidence to the UN Secretary General commission that investigated the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka.
Amidst widespread substantive evidence, Sri Lanka is on a desperate mission to undermined the effort of the UNHCR with threats, intimidation and engaging in covert manipulations to manage UNHCR members to tow its line. Whilst publicly attacking those supporting the proposed UNHCR resolution, it is also said to have held a luxury dinner party in Geneva two days ago that was said to be attended by 42 of the 47 member state representatives of the UNHCR.
 According to information provided to the Sri Lanka Guard...){kind=link}
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