EU never felt war against LTTE a criminal act - EU Charge'd affairs

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EU never felt war against LTTE a criminal act - EU Charge'd affairs
Guy Platton, Charge d'affaires of the Delegation of the European Union says the EU never felt that it was a criminal act on the part of the Sri Lankan government to wage war on the LTTE, though the EU always wanted to end the fighting to pave the way for a negotiated settlement to avoid massive loss of life in contravention of the Geneva Conventions.
Platton was responding to a query by The Island, in the wake of recent revelation of excesses by foreign forces including US, British and Polish troops.
Guy platton has told The Island: "Now that classified documents relating to alleged war crimes committed by foreign forces deployed in Afghanistan have been released, we would like to obtain an official comment from the EU mission in Colombo regarding the controversy. The Sri Lankan media has every right to request an explanation due to repeated EU calls for a war crimes inquiry targeting Sri Lanka. We would also like to know your position on a recent statement by Deputy British PM Nick Clegg that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 was illegal. The EU countries have committed powerful forces to Afghanistan and Iraq. What would you say to this?
EU official Guy Platton: "As stated by the US government, an investigation has been opened to examine where the leak came from and also the veracity of the documents you are referring to. As such the EU has not been accused of any war crimes. I would like to stress that in Afghanistan, ISAF operates there under a UN mandate, this being a legitimate case of self-defence against a third party, as Al Qaeda had been given refuge and support by the Taliban, whom moreover we did not recognise as the Government of Afghanistan. The argument about Iraq is similar, though there was no common EU position there as there was disagreement at the time (2003) as to what precisely had been sanctioned by the UNSC.
As regards the comparison with Sri Lanka, the EU has never suggested that it was a criminal act for Sri Lanka to start a war against the LTTE, though we had always advocated ending the fighting by a negotiated settlement so as to avoid massive loss of civilian life, in contravention of the Geneva Conventions. Unlike in Afghanistan, the media--and indeed, everyone--was kept out of the combat zone in the Vanni. Indeed, we have never accused Sri Lanka of war crimes, though we have supported the UN's efforts through independent investigation to shed more light on what had happened. We fear that without more clarity, it would not be possible to facilitate reconciliation."
On the statement of Deputy British PM Clegg, I have to refer you to the British High Commission in Colombo since, as I mentioned above, there is no common EU position on Iraq."
The Sri Lankan government said that nothing could be as regrettable as the EU assertion that Sri Lanka started the war. Had the EU perused a statement issued by the Nordic truce monitoring mission issued immediately after the outbreak of large scale hostilities in the second week of August 2006.
Dismissing LTTE claims the Sri Lanka Army had triggered the Jaffna battle, the mission (Maj. Gen (redt) Ulf Henricsson) said that "...considering the preparation level of the operations it seems to have been a well prepared LTTE initiative,"
The then Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, MP told the Colombo-based diplomatic corps early September 2006 that any military aggression on their part would entail military costs to them.
The Defence Ministry pointed out that during the period February 22, 2002 to September 17, 2006, the truce monitoring mission had faulted the government on 276 occasions, whereas the LTTE was faulted on 4,176 occasions. But the Norwegian facilitators and co-chairs to the Sri Lankan peace process turned a blind eye to LTTE aggression. The mission categorised the harassment of civilians (83 incidents) as the most frequent violation by the government and 17 hostile acts against civilians, whereas the mission ruled 1,860 cases of child recruitment, 696 abductions of adults, 225 abductions of children, 81 hostile acts against civilians, 33 cases of forced recruitment of adults, 81 assassinations and 36 incidents relating to restrictions on the movement of truce monitors.
Courtesy : Government Information Department