FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on 22 February 2011 – www.australiantamilcongress.com
War Crimes Complaint Filed Against Former Australian DFAT Official
Tamil rights groups submitted a complaint to the International Criminal Court (ICC), calling on it for the investigation of Dr. Palitha Kohona, a dual Sri Lankan-Australian national and former senior official at the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Dr. Palitha Kohona is alleged to have been involved in war crimes against Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka.
The two leading organisations involved in the submission are US-based Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) and the Swiss Council of Eelam Tamils. “The argument thus far has been it is impossible to file at the ICC because Sri Lanka is not a signatory to the Rome Statute. However, Australia is a signatory, and Kohona's dual nationality creates a jurisdictional workaround for this crime,” says Rajeev Sreetharan who leads the TAG team.
In Australia, the Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) has continued to gather evidence of war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the last five years. “Many in the Australian Tamil community have lost loved ones due to what strongly identify as war crimes by Sri Lankan officials onto the Tamils. If a potential criminal is an Australian citizen, this raises questions of whether Australia will indirectly protect a war criminal or whether it will assert its jurisdiction over this crime,” says Dr. Sam Pari, spokesperson for the ATC.
Dr. Kohona was one of a number of senior officials who had negotiated a surrender agreement promising prisoner-of-war status for 3 senior Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam combatants and up to 40 accompanying civilians. There is strong evidence to suggest that these surrendees were executed after their surrender. The submission calls upon an independent investigation into what unfolded during and since their surrender and focuses on all senior United Nations (UN) and Sri Lankan government and military officials involved.
In the months prior to May 2009, during the final stages of the war in Sri Lanka, up to 40,000 civilians, notably Tamils were estimated to have been killed. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International, International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch have continuously called for an international independent inquiry into war crimes but the Sri Lankan government has been defiant. The UN has since established an ‘Expert Advisory Panel’ but there has been hardly any progress.
Media contact:
Dr. Sam Pari, Australian Tamil Congress – 0433 428 967
