New allegations have emerged of war crimes during the Sri Lankan military’s crushing of the Tamil Tiger rebellion last year. The British television network Channel 4 says it interviewed a senior Sri Lankan military commander and a front line soldier who each claim top military leaders ordered the killings of Tamil prisoners.
Unidentified #1: “Yes, our commander ordered us to kill everyone. We killed everyone.”
Unidentified #2: “Definitely the order would have been to kill everybody and finish them off. I don’t think we wanted to keep any hardcore elements, so they were done away with. It’s clear that such orders were in fact received from the top.”
Reporter: “What happened when the LTTE and their families surrendered with white flag?”
Unidentified #1: “First we arrested them, tortured them, then killed them. In the final days, we straight killed them. A lot of people died. A lot of bodies were there. Yes, our commander ordered us to kill everyone. We killed everyone.”
The two former Sri Lankan military members are said to now be in hiding. A recent report from the International Crisis Group says tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died in the last months of Sri Lanka’s civil war, most as a result of Sri Lankan military shelling.