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Karuna Group attacks Human Rights Watch for presenting one-sided report without checking the facts
Sunday, 4 February 2007 - 6:56 AM SL Time
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Tamil Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP), headed by Karuna Amman, has accused the Human Rights Watch (HRW), based in New York, of publishing one-sided reports against them without first visiting their bases in the east to verify the allegations of TMVP holding child soldiers, even after facilities were offered for HRW to conduct their investigations.
Rebutting the charges made by HRW, S.Padhmini TMVP`s Political Secretary has asked Ms Joe Becker, Advocacy Director Children`s Rights Division Human Rights Watch.`to provide us (TMVP) with your reasons for not accepting our offer to contact us or our Leader and to check the veracity of the allegation against our political party, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal.`
She states that HRW collected affidavits against the TMVP with the assistance of Tamil Tigers agents -- the arch rivals of the Karuna Group. She wrote: `We are ready to provide you with sworn statements from people who have seen your Human Right Watch officials going around with LTTE agents and preparing affidavits alleging that our cadres were involved in child recruitment. It is regrettable that HRW officials have become victims of the manipulated propaganda machine of the LTTE.
`Despite the personal invitation by the TMVP Leader to visit our military base, a concession which we do not offer to any other organizations, you have failed to make use of the privileges provided to you as well as to the other staff members of the Human Rights Watch.
`Unfortunately your officers who have been in Sri Lanka to prepare the questionable report never cared to contact us to verify the authenticity of the allegations contained in the affidavits. We believe that, if you checked the facts on the ground you would not have fallen for the propaganda of our political and military rivals aimed at tarnishing our image.
`This also raises a serious issue about your methodology of arriving at conclusions unsubstantiated by the ground realities. In particular, we would thank you to provide us with your reasons for not accepting our offer to contact us or our Leader and to check the veracity of the allegation against our political party, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal,` she wrote.
She added: `We once again offer you the opportunity to visit our bases and camps to carry out your investigations. This is an opportunity that will never be offered to you by the LTTE because they have so much to hide.
`We trust in fairness to us and to the principles of justice, you will consider suspending/withdrawing your report until you contact us and verify the allegations before you. If you have any objections to our offer, we will be most pleased to learn all about it from you.`
Padhmini had copied this letter to UN Secretary General Kim Ba-Moon and Special Representative of the Secretary ? General for Children and Armed Conflict, Ms.Radhika Coomaraswamy
Here is the full text of the letter sent to Ms Joe Becker:
Dear Ms. Joe Becker,
This e-mail letter bears reference to your e-mail communication Wednesday, January 24, 2007 2:03 AM addressed to me in my capacity as Secretary, Political Headquarters of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal , located in Colombo.
In the main, we wish to lodge our strong protests against two aspects contained in your letter:
1) You state that you received our `letter too late for it to be reflected specifically in the report.` We think that this is not good enough reason for Huamn Rights Watch (HRW) to rush to judgment against us. Your urgency to publish a one-sided report is not a valid reason to damage the reputation of our organisation. We see it as an attempt to avoid our offer for your agents to investigate the allegations in the affidavits collected by your agents with the collaboration of the LTTE.
2) You state that `the report does reflect the commitments made by Mr. Muralitharan to Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy in December and the telephone conversation I had with Mr. Muralitharan in late November.` We thank you for that. But we are more concerned about publishing a damaging report without first verying the allegations made against us even after we offered your agents to verify it with the ground realities in our bases in the east.
Besides, in your letter you have indicated your interest in talking to Mr. Muralitharan Leader of the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal after releasing your report under the headlines `Sri Lanka: Karuna Group Abducts Children for Combat Government Complicit in Forced Recruitment of Young Tamils.`
The said report was released on Jan 24, 2007 at 07:17, well after your conversation with him in the latter part of November 2006.
In the telephone conversation Mr. Muralitharan had with you we are fully aware that he clearly explained that he was not involved in the recruitment of underage Tamil children.
In the taklks with you Mr. Muralitharan explained very clearly to you that when he left the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in March 2004 he took the bold risk of handing over nearly 4,000 underage children recruited by the Vanni Tigers to their parents.
These children were recruited by the Vanni Tigers even when he was the overall commander of the LTTE in Batticalao and Amparai districts. However, he clarified to you that though he was the `Overall Commander` he was helpless in preventing the child recruitment as they were done directly by the intelligence unit of the LTTE on the special orders of Mr. Velupillai Prabakaran, the Leader of the LTTE.
Members belonging to the intelligence group of the LTTE were involved in all recruitments of child soldiers and they were never under his command, he has clearly indicated to you in his conversation. They were operating as a separate unit under the direct control of Mr. Prabhakaran, which is a known fact to everyone.
Muralitharan told to you that one of the reasons for him to leave the Vanni Tigers was because of his inability to stop the recruitment of children in the East. As in any other military organization there was no room for him to obstruct or disobey orders coming from the higher command structure based in the Vanni. He clearly explained to you that the only alternative left for him was to leave the outfit.
Before he decided to quit the LTTE, he freed the 4000 cadres most of whom were underage children and safely handed all of them to their parents.
Mr.Muralitharan when talking over the telephone, explained these things to you very clearly and said that those belonging to Human Rights Watch as well as you are welcome at any time to visit our political as well as our military bases to speak to our cadres and also to see for yourself whether we have any underage children with us.
Despite the personal invitation by the TMVP Leader to visit our military base, a concession which we do not offer to any other organizations, you have failed to make use of the privileges provided to you as well as to the other staff members of the Human Rights Watch.
Unfortunately your officers who have been in Sri Lanka to prepare the questionable report never cared to contact us to verify the authenticity of the allegations contained in the affidavits. We believe that, if you checked the facts on the ground you would not have fallen for the propaganda of our political and military rivals aimed at tarnishing our image.
This also raises a serious issue about your methodology of arriving at conclusions unsubstantiated by the ground realities. In particular, we would thank you to provide us with your reasons for not accepting our offer to contact us or our Leader and to check the veracity of the allegation against our political party, Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal.
I think the credibility of your organization is at stake when you decide to present reports that are based on mere allegations without giving due consideration to a fair cross-checking of the material available to you. You will agree that we too have a right to be heard before being accused of guilty to charges that were not verified, or examined thoroughly in the interest of justice to all.
We regret to say that you have accused our Leader Mr. Muralitharan on hearsay and not on the facts that would have contradicted your allegations against us and our organization if you were keen enough to make use of the facilities provided by us to check the allegations against the realities found in our bases.
Consequently, we regret to say, that your report will be a one-sided and a misleading report. It will be damaging not only to us but to the Tamil children who been the victims of a deliberate policy of child recruitment by the LTTE for years.
We see your report as an attempt to deflect attention from the sole criminals of child abuse in Tamil politics --namely, the LTTE. Mr. Velupillai Prabakaran, the leader of the LTTE, survives solely on the child soldiers recruited forcibly by his cadres.
UNICEF figures indicate that the LTTE has recruited 5956 children since 2002. They continue to do so despite assurances given to Mr. Allan Rock himself that all children will be released from their ranks. The only way they could deflect attention from their crimes was by accusing us of committing the same crime. We are fully aware of your agents, guided by the Tamil Information Centre and the LTTE representative in the Batticaloa district, meeting Tamil people to obtain sworn statements against us.
We are ready to provide you with sworn statements from people who have seen your Human Right Watch officials going around with LTTE agents and preparing affidavits alleging that our cadres were involved in child recruitment. It is regrettable that HRW officials have become victims of the manipulated propaganda machine of the LTTE.
However, even at this late stage we would urge to send your officials to investigate our bases and modus operandi. Your affidavits need to be tested against the evidence available in our bases. As you are aware untested affidavits are not the worth the paper on which they are written. We once again offer you the opportunity to visit our bases and camps to carry out your investigations. This is an opportunity that will never be offered to you by the LTTE because they have so much to hide.
We trust in fairness to us and to the principles of justice, you will consider suspending/withdrawing your report until you contact us and verify the allegations before you. If you have any objections to our offer, we will be most pleased to learn all about it from you.
Hoping to hear from you soon.
Yours sincerely
Padhmini
TMVP
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Saint
Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2006
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4 Feb 2007 00:59:55 GMT Report for Abuse
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Oh, I for one second thought this guy went after them with his loaded weapon.
Really.
:-D
Edited By - Saint - 4 Feb 2007 01:10:22 GMT |
chinthanaya
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 899
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4 Feb 2007 01:21:08 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Asiantrash prepared the e-mail on behalf of so called Padhmini. |
Revy
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4 Feb 2007 01:34:48 GMT Report for Abuse
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Saint, with you on that, the title is a little dramatic at first read LOL.
Anyway karuna poodle what is the point of visiting your bases at your invitation, who do you think you are fooling?
Are these two year olds to believe that you would leave any of the abducted children at your bases when the HRW came for a visit. You would have moved them into the jungles for the visit, what a joke. |
Rays123
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 351
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4 Feb 2007 01:39:00 GMT Report for Abuse
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Karuna or LTTE, it is difficult for them now to enlist any one to their forces willingly. Those young people and their parents know that if they join, ultimately they are going to die for nothing. They learn it by twenty five years of experience.
Edited By - Rays123 - 4 Feb 2007 01:41:28 GMT |
pharoah
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4 Feb 2007 01:57:10 GMT Report for Abuse
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This is nonsense
are karuna group trying to imply they are a human rights organisation |
srimal111
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4 Feb 2007 02:02:49 GMT Report for Abuse
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| They are doing the same thing LTTE is doing. |
Chris119
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4 Feb 2007 07:12:23 GMT Report for Abuse
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Are these two year olds to believe that you would leave any of the abducted children at your bases when the HRW came for a visit. You would have moved them into the jungles for the visit, what a joke.
At least this man ( Karuna ) is genuine enough to invite HRW to his bases.but will LTTE ever do that.how many children LTTE is keeping by force.some fools in this forum are trying to cover up LTTE's activities by typing lies..and lies.these fools doesn't know that they are fooling themselves..so called ' We Pissu Tamils' |
ranaguna
Joined: May 2005
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4 Feb 2007 07:13:02 GMT Report for Abuse
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Srimal111
They are doing the same thing LTTE is doing
You say when LTTE does its wrong & Karuna its Ok as GOSL is benifited & helping him |
Robins
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4 Feb 2007 07:44:35 GMT Report for Abuse
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Srimal
If they are recruiting children, then the GOSL is involved, no amount of lies and bullying the Human Rights watch will help either the GOSL or the Karuna Group.
There is a new culture in SL of bullying the NGOs and similar independent organisations protecting the public in the war zones!!
Reminds me of the BB House recently in the UK!! BULLYING AND RACISM!
Edited By - Robins - 4 Feb 2007 07:46:17 GMT |
UpulJ
Joined: Sep 2006
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4 Feb 2007 09:03:41 GMT Report for Abuse
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| Karuna faction has been treated very unfairly.It proves HRW only concern about what is been told and not what is been seen.Soon world can see the truth. |
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