Untitled - International Commission of Jurists
Untitled - International Commission of Jurists
Untitled - International Commission of Jurists
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Notwithstanding these considerations, the <strong>Commission</strong> decided to conclude that the<br />
actual attack upon the vehicle by the air force helicopter and fixed wing aircraft had<br />
lasted only 26 minutes in total while the remaining period had witnessed only<br />
different attacks on targets some 500 yards near the MSF vehicle but not directly at it.<br />
Consequently, it concluded that no person or persons in the service <strong>of</strong> the Sri Lanka<br />
government were responsible for any wrongful act or omission? and the question <strong>of</strong><br />
what action should be taken against such person does not arise for consideration. 244<br />
Interestingly, the precise time <strong>of</strong> the last point <strong>of</strong> radio contact that the Colombo MSF<br />
<strong>of</strong>fice had with the MSF personnel is omitted in the <strong>Commission</strong> report. (That contact<br />
was some time after 1.25 pm when one <strong>of</strong> the doctors had confirmed that a bomb had<br />
fallen ten or twenty metres from the vehicle, stating further that ‘we can’t say<br />
anymore. We are going to hide ourselves.’ 245 ) This omission is material and highly<br />
significant if one independently evaluates as to whether the shooting and attacks on<br />
the vehicle had continued intentionally, even after the responsible command had been<br />
notified that it was an MSF vehicle that was being fired upon.<br />
Even with this omission however, the time period <strong>of</strong> 26 minutes (from 1.00 pm to<br />
1.26 pm) that the <strong>Commission</strong> defines as being the limited period during which the<br />
MSF vehicle was fired upon (based on the evidence <strong>of</strong> the air force <strong>of</strong>ficers and their<br />
records) does not accord with the recorded radio message from the MSF doctor under<br />
attack to the MSF Colombo <strong>of</strong>fice at some point after 1.25 pm. As stated previously,<br />
the uncritical acceptance <strong>of</strong> the evidence <strong>of</strong> the relevant air force personnel leads this<br />
<strong>Commission</strong> to its inevitable conclusion that no blame can be attached at all to<br />
government personnel.<br />
According to the <strong>Commission</strong> report, the next radio contact that MSF Colombo had<br />
with their injured personnel was at 3.00 pm when the nature <strong>of</strong> the injuries caused to<br />
the passengers were described. This part <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Commission</strong>’s report is also quite<br />
confusing, given that the term ‘radio contact was on right throughout’ is used in this<br />
paragraph contradicting its earlier claim that radio contact was lost between MSF<br />
Colombo and its personnel under attack at an unspecified time. 246<br />
2.3. The Kokkadicholai <strong>Commission</strong> <strong>of</strong> Inquiry<br />
Date <strong>of</strong> Appointment: 18 June 1991 247<br />
Date <strong>of</strong> Report: 9 March 1992 248<br />
Mandate: to report on whether there was any connection between the two<br />
incidents <strong>of</strong> the explosion <strong>of</strong> a device on 12 June 1991 resulting in the deaths<br />
<strong>of</strong> two soldiers and the injury to another and the killing <strong>of</strong> sixty-seven civilian<br />
inhabitants <strong>of</strong> nearby villages in Batticaloa. It was also required, inter alia, to<br />
report on whether the civilian deaths resulted from actions <strong>of</strong> the armed forces<br />
244 ibid, at p. 16.<br />
245 ibid, at p. 15.<br />
246 ibid, at p. 15.<br />
247 Appointed by President R. Premadasa. The <strong>Commission</strong>ers comprised K.D.O.S.M. Seneviratne,<br />
Sivanathan Selliah and Abdul Majeed Mohammed Sahabdeen. Sessional Paper No. 11, 1992.<br />
248 Sessional Paper No. 11, 1992.<br />
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