by International Truth & Justice Project Sri Lanka, South Africa, January 29, 2019
http://www.itjpsl.com/reports/shavendra-silva
Full dossier (Sangam mirror)
This is a dossier on Major General Shavendra Silva – appointed Chief of Army Staff of the Sri Lankan Army in January 2019. Shavendra Silva was arguably the most important frontline ground commander in the 2008-9 war in Sri Lanka, in which a United Nations investigation found reasonable grounds to say international crimes were committed.
This dossier presents the most detailed body of evidence against any Sri Lankan military figure to date. In investigating the linkage evidence between the crimes and those responsible, it has sought to identify command structures, patterns in conduct, and indicators of control and discipline. This is a complex task normally involving significant circumstantial evidence and the material collected provides an invaluable basis for future prosecutions and accountability.
ITJP
Please note there is a report summary attached to the press release which is in word and pdf in English, pdf in Tamil and Sinhala.
ITJP 29 Jan 2019 Shavendra Silva press release
Press Release: Enough Evidence to Charge Sri Lanka’s new Chief of Army
Staff with War Crimes.
29 January 2019
Johannesburg: There is more than enough evidence to suspend Sri Lanka’s
new Chief of Army Staff, Major General Shavendra Silva, and charge him
with war crimes and crimes against humanity, said the International Truth
and Justice Project. The South Africa-based investigative group
published a 137-page dossier on Silva, detailing his role as one of the
most important Field Commanders during the 2008-9 War. The dossier
presents the most extensive body of evidence against him – or any Sri
Lankan War-time commander – to date. It amalgamates photographs,
contemporaneous SMS and witness testimony, including from insiders, and
evidence of official Army releases which were deleted offline after the
war to hide the truth, as well as drawing on the findings of past UN
investigative reports.
“There is a staggering amount of evidence in this dossier meticulously
collected by my team over many years,” said ITJP’s Executive Director,
Yasmin Sooka, “Many successful cases at international tribunals or the
International Criminal Court had less to work with. There is now no
excuse for this man to remain as number two in the Sri Lankan Army; he
must be suspended immediately and a criminal investigation instituted.”
Ms. Sooka was one of three international legal experts appointed in 2010
by the United Nations Secretary General to look into the conduct of the
final War in Sri Lanka. This was followed in 2012 by an internal review
of the UN’s own grave failures in Sri Lanka and then an investigation
by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“After the UN investigation completed its work in 2015, the ITJP
continued to document and collect evidence regarding the War. This means
our NGO now has the most extensive archive of evidence pertaining to the
final phase of the Civil War and violations in its aftermath. This
dossier is just a fraction of the information we hold,” said Ms. Sooka.
“This illustrates the importance of a dedicated team of experts to do
this work with knowledge that builds up over years.”
Promising reform, in 2015 Sri Lanka’s new Government co-sponsored a UN
resolution backing an ambitious transitional justice programme,
including a hybrid court – which it then refused to implement. Despite
promises to address the past, no senior military official has been
convicted for their role in the conflict which ended a decade ago.
Instead many alleged perpetrators have been promoted.
Shavendra Silva’s promotion to Chief of Army Staff in January 2019 was
the most shocking. It caused alarm and horror in the former conflict
areas of Sri Lanka where Tamil war survivors still live. However, some
in the south still regard him as a hero.
“The international community cannot seriously talk about progress on
rule of law and accountability so long as Shavendra Silva enjoys
impunity. How can the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations continue
to recruit peacekeepers from Sri Lanka when the army is run by this man?
It would condone the gravest international crimes. If Sri Lanka fails
to act, we look especially to countries in the region with close military
ties to Sri Lanka to deny Shavendra Silva visas or, better still, to
arrest him under universal jurisdiction,” added Ms. Sooka.
In 2017, the ITJP filed a series of war crimes cases under universal
jurisdiction against Shavendra Silva’s immediate Commander in the War,
General Jagath Jayasuriya, who was an ambassador in Latin America.
Jayasuriya fled on the eve of the filing of the cases and has shown no
sign of returning to Brazil or Chile to test the allegations against him
in an independent court of law.
Dossier Summary
This dossier on Shavendra Silva details the attacks on a series of towns
and villages in the north of Sri Lanka in 2008-9 by the 58 Division
which he commanded. It makes the case that those attacks involved:
– indiscriminate and intentional attacks conducted against the
civilian population,
– attacks on hospitals and medical staff,
– attacks on No Fire Zones,
– the use of prohibited and indiscriminate weapons.
Command responsibility
Under international law, a commander like Shavendrea Silva can be held
directly responsible for:
– ordering his subordinates to carry out unlawful acts,
– failing to act when the unlawful acts have been committed by
his subordinates (irrespective of whether he ordered them).
Silva must know this, as the Army says he has been teaching international
humanitarian law to soldiers.
Attacks on Civilians
The dossier finds the scale of civilian casualties and injuries among
the civilian population nothing short of catastrophic. Thousands of
photographs that have emerged clearly show how this was a war on
civilians. Eyewitnesses describe scenes of total panic in the makeshift
hospitals as they came under repeated Government attack:
“It was complete chaos, it cannot be described in words. Crying and
screaming parents carried their wounded children here and there in panic.
The children were severely wounded, some with their half-severed limbs
hanging from their bodies.”
Tamil survivors of the 2009 War still suffer nightmares and trauma a
decade on, haunted by the images of the dying. One described a baby’s
head landing next to him; another remembers passing a man holding in his
intestines which were hanging out. Some tried to dig trenches for
protection and kept finding decaying corpses; others talk of running
barefoot through puddles of blood. They frequently describe seeing people
carrying their loved ones to shelter, not having realised they had
already died. Horrific images have remained with the War survivors, many
of whom also suffered torture and sexual violence in detention in the
post-War period.
“In one family everyone died except one child of about 18 months and his
father. Both were wounded in the head and the boy was so hungry. The
blood was running from his head. He had no idea what was going on around
him and I think he was just sucking his thumb because he was so hungry,
disregarding the blood and the pain of his headwound.”
Kilinochchi Attacks
Major General Shavendra Silva was in command during the repeated attacks
on and capture of Kilinochchi. There are reasonable grounds to believe
that Shavendra Silva ordered attacks with the deliberate intention to
hit the civilian objects, such as the hospital and UN buildings,
resulting in civilian casualties.
PTK Attacks
The 58 Division was directly involved in the military operation in PTK
led by Shavendra Silva. He knew about PTK Hospital’s coordinates as they
were communicated to the Government, and he had access to drones and
UAVs that surveyed the area. There are reasonable grounds to believe
that Major General Silva was fully aware that PTK Hospital was being
bombarded and shelled as UN officials informed the Sri Lanka Army on
multiple occasions that the hospital was coming under attack. Major
General Silva knew, or must have known, that subordinates under his
effective control were committing serious violations of international
humanitarian law in the predominantly civilian area and did not stop the
attacks even though he was in command and it was in his power.
Pokkanai Attacks
Troops under the effective command of Shavendra Silva were involved in
the military operations in Pokkanai, when indiscriminate and intentional
attacks were directed against civilians, including at milk powder
distribution points, which resulted in heavy civilian casualties,
including the killing and injuring of women and children.
There are reasonable grounds to believe that Silva knew or had reasons
to know that subordinates under his effective control were intentionally
directing attacks at the civilian population and civilian objects in a
densely populated area, as well as launching indiscriminate attacks that
caused death and injury among civilians. The attacks were repeated over
a prolonged period of time and the information of the previous attacks
must have reached him.
Putumattalan Attacks
The evidence in this report confirms that Major General Shavendra Silva
led the military operation against the hospital in Putumattalan and that
troops under his command captured the hospital. There are also reasonable
grounds to believe that Major General Silva planned and ordered attacks
at Putumattalan, including at the hospital, which resulted in the
extensive civilian casualties in and around the hospital. There are
reasonable grounds to believe that Major General Shavendra Silva ordered
attacks with the intention to hit civilian objects, as the hospital was
attacked on a number of occasions. Furthermore, there are reasonable
grounds to believe that the attacks against the Putumattalan were
disproportionate.
Valayanmadam Attacks
There are reasonable grounds to believe that Shavendra Silva’s troops
were involved in attacks against the hospital and church in Valayanmadam,
which resulted in the civilian casualties and damage to the buildings.
The Sri Lankan Army, including 58 Division, employed shelling, tanks and
cluster munitions, which points to an indiscriminate means and method
of warfare. There are reasonable grounds to believe Major General Silva
had reasons to know that subordinates under his effective control were
intentionally directing attacks at the civilian population and at
civilian objects in Valayanmadam as well as launching indiscriminate
attacks likely to cause extensive death and injury among civilians.
Mullivaikkal Attacks
There are reasonable grounds to believe that Major General Silva knew
or had a reason to know that subordinates under his effective control
were intentionally directing attacks at the civilian population and
civilian objects in Mullivaikkal as well as launching indiscriminate
attacks likely to cause extensive death and injury among civilians.
Moreover, the evidence indicates that he was present in the area as he
“personally directed ground troops” and therefore must have witnessed
displaced civilians being affected by the attacks, given that the Third
No Fire Zone (NFZ-3) was only 2km² in size. There is no indication that
he punished those responsible under his command or tried to take all
necessary and reasonable measures to prevent the attacks.
Surrenders
The UN report states that the surrenders at the Wadduvakkal Bridge were
to the 58 Division. An eyewitness interviewed by the ITJP confirms that
Major General Shavendra Silva, who has said he was in overall command
of the area, personally shook hands with LTTE political leaders who
surrendered to him; their corpses were seen on the roadside some time
later on the other side of the Wadduvakkal Bridge. Given his presence
in and command over the area, there are reasonable grounds to believe
that Major General Silva knew of or consciously disregarded information
which clearly indicated that the troops under his responsibility were
responsible for the enforced disappearance of those who surrendered,
summarily executing some of them.
Rape and other forms of Sexual Violence, and Torture
A witness, who was himself tortured, testified that Major General
Shavendra Silva indicated that he approved of the use of torture. In
light of the OISL report and of evidence set out in this dossier, there
are reasonable grounds to believe that Shavendra Silva knew about or had
reason to know about the torture committed by the troops under his
effective control, and that he failed to prevent these violations or to
punish those responsible. Similarly, given the evidence set out in this
dossier, and the findings by the OISL, Major General Shavendra Silva can
and should face charges of war crimes of rape, torture and outrages upon
personal dignity, as well as torture as a separate crime, committed by
troops under his effective command and control.
ends