LTTE leaders claimed to be killed while waving white flags

Dr. Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary, has denied that Nambiar contacted him either about Nadesan or Puleedeevan.

June 05, Colombo: A top United Nations official said he had negotiated the surrender of a specific group of LTTE members with the Sri Lankan government while he was in Sri Lanka. UN Secretary-General's Chef de Cabinet, Vijay Nambiar disclosed this in response to questions received Wednesday.

Inner City Press: There are media reports quoting Vijay Nambiar on 17 May as having said that he spoke with these two LTTE leaders, not the founder, but the two that tried to surrender, that he spoke to them through this one person called KP and conveyed it to the Government and conveyed back through KP that they should come out with a white flag. By all accounts, they were then shot. And what I am wondering is whether… In this media account it says that Vijay Nambiar was invited to go and witness this surrender, somehow to go to northern Sri Lanka and become more involved. Can you confirm that these communications, you know, there are quotes that are out there, so the UN can either deny or confirm them? But did it take place and what’s its role?

Spokesperson Michele Montas: Let me… I’ll ask Mr. Nambiar.

   Nine hours later, no response has been provided. The UN's Vijay Nambiar has been quoted that "as for the insinuations in a section of the Press about me and my brother, I do not deem it warrants even a response." While Vijay's brother Satish has written an op-ed praising the Sri Lankan general who conducted the controversial offensive in northern Sri Lanka, the more fundamental question is whether given Sri Lankan history Ban Ki-moon should have sent a former Indian diplomat as his envoy. Even some of Ban's closest advisers think not.

London, May 24 (ANI): A Sunday Times report has claimed that two senior leaders of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam had begged their correspondent to initiate moves for their surrender to the authorities, but were killed as they were waving white flags of truce.

According to the paper, both Balasingham Nadesan, the political leader of the Tamil Tigers, and Seevaratnam Puleedevan, the head of the Tigers’ peace secretariat, made desperate telephone calls to The Times correspondent, saying that they had nowhere to turn, and would be killed in a matter of hours.”We are putting down our arms,” Nadesan is said to have told The Times correspondent late last Sunday night by satellite phone from the tiny slip of jungle and beach on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka where the Tigers had been making their last stand.

I could hear machinegun fire in the background as he continued coolly: “We are looking for a guarantee of security from the Obama administration and the British government. Is there a guarantee of security?”

He was well aware that surrendering to the victorious Sri Lankan army would be the most dangerous moment in the 26-year civil war between the Tigers and Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese majority.

“Once more, the UN 24-hour control centre in New York patched me through to Nambiar in Colombo, where it was 5.30am on Monday. I woke him up. I told him the Tigers had laid down their arms. He said he had been assured by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Sri Lankan president, that Nadesan and Puleedevan would be safe in surrendering. All they had to do was “hoist a white flag high”, he said.

I asked Nambiar if he should not go north to witness the surrender. He said no, that would not be necessary: the president’s assurances were enough. It was still late Sunday night in London. I tried to get through to Nadesan’s satellite phone but failed, so I called a Tigers contact in South Africa to relay Nambiar’s message: wave a white flag high. I was woken at 5am by a phone call from another Tigers contact in southeast Asia. He had been unable to get through to Nadesan. “I think it’s all over,” he said. “I think they’re all dead.”

That evening, the Sri Lankan army displayed their bodies.

The pro-LTTE website TamilNet yesterday reported claims from rebel officials outside Sri Lanka that Mr Nadesan and Mr Pulidevan had been shot dead by government troops as they advanced towards them carrying a white flag, as they had been instructed to do. The report claimed informed sources said what happened in the early hours of Monday was "a well-planned massacre of several unarmed civil officers of the LTTE with the aim of annihilating its political structure".

Experts say that shooting someone trying to surrender was a war crime. ICRC director of operations Pierre Krähenbühl, told reporters: "Under international humanitarian law, all those who are not or are no longer fighting must be spared. The wounded and sick must be cared for immediately and captives must be treated humanely."

But Mr Kohona said he had been told by troops present at the time that they understood the two men had been shot by LTTE cadres who learned of their attempt to escape. "This is consistent with their behaviour," he added.