Thread by @Nirmanusan

🧵@GGPonnambalam is a strong witness of the #Tamil #Genocide in #Mullivaaikaal.Below is a summary of one of his testimonies.On 16 May 2009 KP informed me that the LTTE had decided that they wanted to get the civilians out in a safe&accountable way,&wanted GGP to speak to the gov.

I communicated this clearly to Basil Rajapaksa. The initial agreement we hoped the government would agree to was to have the ICRC broker a population exchange to get the civilians out. The government disagreed. They were only willing to have local actors involved.

They suggested lawyers or bishops.

On 17 May 2009 while the National Security Council meeting was taking place and the heavy artillery fire was continuing non-stop. The government announced in the government media that all civilians had been rescued from LTTE control and quoted a figure of 50,000.

This meant that from the information I knew that the remaining 100,000-150,000 people in LTTE controlled areas were going to be massacred on the grounds that they were all LTTE.

I got in touch with diplomats, including the Indian High Commissioner, the American Ambassador and the British High Commissioner and briefed them entirely.

The American Ambassador specifically said America was aware of the large number of injured people who are unable to move and an equally large number of people caring for the injured - he quoted a figure of around 20,000.

But the government had told them that without white flags there were not willing to accept any other sort of surrender.

There were many stories that LTTE was holding people as human shields,they were refusing 2allow civilians to move.I have personal knowledge that at least as of 16 May2009 LTTE was not only willing 2allow civilians out but they were also completely militarily not willing to fight.

So whatever justification the government says that the aim was to target the LTTE, from 16 May 2009 the fact the LTTE was a military target ceased to exist.

And whatever deaths happened after the 16 May 2009 clearly in a military sense was unnecessary&the only conclusion one can draw is they were intentionally targeted on the basis that these were Tamil people who had stood with the Tamil struggle & therefore needed to be destroyed.

The #Tamil struggle was one for self-determination and therefore those who stood strongly for the right to determination had to be eliminated. In my view that constitutes #genocide.
ptsrilanka.org/2017/03/26/int…
Remembering #Mullivaikkal Genocide. #WeRemember #WeResist