FEIN: A genocide inquiry?
Bruce Fein
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images HUNTING TIGERS: Sri Lanka military commandos prepare for an operation against the separatist Tamil Tigers in June.
COMMENTARY:
Bosnia has its Radovan Karadzic, Sudan has its Omar Bashir and the United States could have its Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. He is a United States citizen serving as Sri Lanka's Sinhala Buddhist defense secretary who may be complicit in an ongoing genocide against Sri Lanka's Tamils.
While Mr. Rajapaksa enjoys a presumption of innocence, the United States should be investigating to ensure it is as scrupulous in genocide enforcement as is expected of foreign governments.
Until Mr. Karadzic's recent capture by Serbia, the United States had imposed economic sanctions against the Serbian government for noncooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal. An additional earmark of United States abhorrence of genocide is the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in the U.S. Justice Department. It is tasked to investigate individuals complicit in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution who subsequently entered the United States by fraud. The guilty are denaturalized or deported.
The OSI would thus be well suited to lead a genocide investigation of the defense secretary. The United States criminal code prohibits the crime, wherever perpetrated, by a United States national, green-card holder or any other person found or brought into the country.
Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" featuring anti-Jewish diatribes previewed the Holocaust. The parallel political dynamic at work in Sri Lanka is the Buddhist Mahavamsa combined with Buddhist monk teachings that non-Buddhist Tamils must be exterminated to honor Buddha's vision of an ethnically pure Sri Lankan state. As recently as July 20, 2008, AFP news service quoted Mr. Rajapaksa's close colleague, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, as describing Sri Lanka as a "Sinhala nation" to the exclusion of Tamils. That exclusionary concept is reminiscent of Hitler's ambition to make Nazi Germany "judenfrei," or free of Jews. And just as Hitler's Waffen SS was pure Aryan, the Rajapksa-Fonseka Sri Lankan armed forces are virtually pure Sinhala.
An investigation of Defense Secretary Rajapaksa would seem amply justified by the benchmarks of the Karadzic or Bashir indictment or arrest warrant. All three are potentially culpable under the time-honored doctrine of command responsibility. Generally speaking, it imposes criminal liability on government superiors who either knew or had reason to know of war crimes by subordinates and neglected to take reasonable measures to prevent or to punish the perpetrators.
Mr. Karadzic confronts a trial for, among other things, genocide of thousands of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. On July 14, 2008, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, applied for an arrest warrant against President Bashir. The application accused him of genocide by killing, raping and starving members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.
The prosecutor specially emphasized that President Bashir "denies victims [of genocide] access to the criminal justice system, while using the system against those who did not comply with his genocidal orders. [He] protects, promotes and provides impunity to his subordinates, in order to secure their willingness to continue committing crimes. He could authorize investigations of members of the armed and security forces, but the only officers investigated are those who refuse to participate in crimes." Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo concluded: "Al Bashir's motive was control of power. His pretext was a 'counterinsurgency.' His intent was genocide."
There is reason to believe that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been complicit in a Srebrenica-like genocide or worse against Sri Lanka's Tamils on the installment plan. Since entering office in November 2005, he has been witness to the extrajudicial killings of more than 1,500 Tamils, torture, scores of kidnappings, countless arbitrary detentions and displacement of more than 250,000, a staggering percentage of Tamils who have not fled abroad seeking asylum. The Asian Human Rights Commission reported on Feb. 2, 2007: "A disappearance every five hours [in Sri Lanka] is a result of a deliberate removal of all legal safeguards against illegal detention, murder and illegal disposal of bodies."
The U.S. State Department's 2007 human rights report on Sir Lanka elaborated: "[T]he overwhelming majority of victims of human rights violations, such as killings and disappearances, were young male Tamils. Credible reports cited unlawful killings by government agents, assassinations by unknown perpetrators, politically motivated killings and child soldier recruitment by paramilitary forces associated with the government, disappearances, [and] arbitrary arrests and detentions. ... By year's end, extrajudicial killings occurred in Jaffna on a daily basis and allegedly perpetrated by military intelligence units or associated paramilitaries."
There has not been a single prosecution for these crimes. Indeed, in the entire 60-year history of the Sinhala-Buddhist dominated governments in Sri Lanka, no crime against a Tamil has ever been punished - a grisliness that apes Hitler's impunity for Nazi crimes against Jews.
The United States cannot credibly berate other countries over lax assistance in genocide prosecutions if does not meticulously enforce its own genocide prohibitions. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa deserves a presumption of innocence. An investigation could exonerate him of criminality. But both direct and circumstantial evidence militate in favor of taking at hard look at what has been done and is being done to Sri Lanka's Tamils.
Bruce Fein is a constitutional lawyer at Bruce Fein & Associates and a representative of Tamils Against Genocide, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prosecution of perpetrators of genocide against Tamils.
END:
Tamils For Justice, who introduced Bruce Fein to the Tamils, and abuses, and serious human rights violations in Sri Lanka, by the armed forces would comment further on this commentary by it's former attorney who suddenly left the Tamils For Justice, while he was fund raising in Toronto, between June 17th and 22nd. 850 Tamils attended the 3 public meetings and private donor meetings arranged by Tamils For Justice, where the Tamils from Toronto contributed very generously.
Bruce Fein joined a group headed by Bavan Sriskandarajah , who was the representative of Tamils For Justice from November last year, and Subakanth Pararajasingam the unemployed son of the late Joseph Pararajasingam the nominated MP for Batticaloa murdered by the Tamil para military forced headed by the Karuna-Pillaiyan group, with the assistance from the military itself.
However, Bruce Fein needs to understand and comprehend the US Law, on Genocide, and how the US Federal courts would treat a pleading if he is foolish enough to bring such a motion in courts after working on it for 10 months, since November 2007, or even longer. Just writing an Op-Ed commentary only on Washington Times will not bring any results except excite the poor Tamils to part with their money through Tamil charities.
Tamils For Justice had worked diligently for a year on such evidence, documentation, finding credible witness until July 2008, and Mr.Fein who has had the benefit of all such evidence ,
and handsomely profiting out of it, via Justice For Thamils and the new organization called Tamils Against Genocide led by Dr. M Sreethran, who is the editor/Financier of Tamil Net, TRO USA, WTCC, and Tamil Sangam.
Mr. Fein, Bare Words butters no Parsnips.
It is time that court action be undertaken if you really believe that Gothabaya Rajapakse, Basil Rajapakse, and General Sarath Fonseka are guilty of Genocide in Sri Lanka. The US judicial system does not dispense justice via Op-Eds on Washington Times. The Time has come to
show the Tamils that Genocide inquiry and prosecution is really possible without wasting so much time like in the past 60 days, occupying yourself in collecting funds from the Tamils, including the supporters of Tamils For Justice. It is also time that allegations of genocide
against Basil Rajapakse is removed as suggested by T4J last week, as Tamils need to be
precise on making allegations of Genocide against members of Parliament in Sri Lanka, in
US courts, or Department of Justice, even though Basil is a resident alien - Green Card Holder.
May I once again remind you that there is a huge difference between blatant human rights violations in Sri Lanka, and GENOCIDE, especially if you really intend taking this matter in Federal courts. Otherwise, please GO BACK to the original goals and objectives
of the Tamils For Justice and strictly follow plan of action put together by both of us last
November, in working via the US attorneys, grand jury, and US department of Justice.
Please remember money was paid for work and not for promises, or just some commentaries
on Washington Times or arguments with the Editor of Asian Tribune K T Rajasingam. It is also time to engage the Sri Lankan Ambassador Jaliya Wickramasinghe without getting involved in Tamil diaspora politics in USA and Canada, and allowing your wife Mattie to get involved as well.
Tamils For Justice suggest that you keep this work in a professional frame, and remember your role what you were hired for. An attorney for Tamils For Justice, and now to these two new organizations who have stolen every thing from Tamils For Justice for name, fame, self promotion, and cheap publicity. We at Tamils For Justice will still hold you to the ethics, code of conduct and professionalism expected from members of the American Bar Association, and Washington Bar Association.
Donald Jayantha Gnanakone
Tamils For Justice
Founder.
Tamils For Justice.org
Tamilsforjustice@gmail.com
teneeds@hotmail.com
Comments 21 - 22 of 22
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By: Sam Perera
I would like express my extreme displeasure towards the author of this article Mr. Bruce Fein for wrongfully accusing a brave soldier Lt. Col. Gotabhaya Rajapakse of Sri Lanka for the commendable job he does in saving his country from the worst terrorists the world has ever seen. Sri Lanka has suffered more than it’s fair share of terrorist activities by LTTE. Sri Lanka’s secretary of defense is skillfully maneuvering the Sri Lankan Armed Forces currently to eliminate the terrorist LTTE from the civilized world. Those who are not familiar with this terrorist group, LTTE is currently a banned group of terrorists in USA, EU, India, and many other major nations around the world.
Mr. Fein, is rumored to be, currently acting as a hired gun of a group indirectly related to LTTE terrorists in Sri Lanka. Contrary to the picture Bruce Fein tries to paint, it is the LTTE who wants a racially pure homeland in Sri Lanka. LTTE has killed, expelled all non-Tamil Sri Lankan civilians as well as Tamil Sri Lankans who dare to go against them from certain parts of Sri Lanka. The modus operandi of LTTE is to be concerned about HR issues when they are cornered assuming the world will bail them out. In other days, they will continue the killing spree of civilians unabated.
It is one thing to be an advocate of HR and it is a totally different matter to be a hire gun of the LTTE terrorist group. In addition to retracting this article, I strongly believe that Mr. Bruce Fein owes an apology to the civilized world for posting such misleading articles.August 19, 2008 at 11:55 p.m.
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By: Vettivel
Thanks for the article and exposing Sri Lankan state terrorism and government officials behind these worst crimes against humanity.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa openly mentioned that his government is responsible for coward operations that mean abductions and killings of Tamils. Further, he was well exposed when he tried to send the paramilitary leader to UK using fraud diplomatic passport. This alone reveled how closely Sri Lankan government and paramilitary work together in abduction and killing Tamils.
US must at least step in and apply sanction on Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan government is already having very tight relationship with Iran, which US president already mentioned as axis of evil. In fact, Iran currently supports 50% of aid to Sri Lanka. Pakistan supply arms and am munitions to these worst human right violators.
If US do not take any actions, Eelam Tamils will be completely eliminated by Sri Lankan government within couple of years. Sri Lankan government wage a genocide war against Tamils and act against Tamils political and democratic will. Tamils decided to free from the Sri Lankan state terrorist and form a separate state in 1977 via an election. Sri Lankan government used state terrorism to oppress the Tamil population. Like Kosovo, Eelam Tamils should be freed.
August 19, 2008 at 11:50 p.m.
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