4TH LEAD (ADDS AUDIO)

New evidence leads to war crime committed on LTTE's Col Ramesh

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 27 April 2011, 22:47 GMT]
The wife of slain Batticaloa Commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), on Thursday verified that the dead body shown in the photo released on Wednesday was that of her husband, Col. Ramesh. On Wednesday, a former member of the LTTE identified a photo leaked in recent days by the soldiers of the SLA as that of showing the dead body of Col. Ramesh, who had come to SLA controlled territory with civilians during the final hours of Vanni war in May 2009.

A UK based freelance journalist, Para Prabha, told TamilNet Thursday that the wife of Col. Ramesh, Vathsala Thurairasasingham, who has fled the island, was prepared to give evidence verifying the identity of her husband in any international investigation.

According to an earlier leaked video footage, filmed while Sri Lanka Army soldiers were interrogating the former Tiger commander on 22 May 2009, Col. Ramesh confirmed his identity as Thurairasasingham Thambirajah, born on 18 August, 1964, in Arasadith-theevu, Kokkaddichchoalai of Batticaloa district.

The earlier leaked video footage also documented that Mr. Thurairasasingham in civil clothes was captured by the SLA and was instructed to change into military uniform while he was being interrogated on 22 May 2009.

Ramesh, a father of three children, was a special commander of the Tigers and had been in the LTTE since 1986.

The video evidence also showed identifiable faces of the SL military personnel involved in the interrogation of Col. Ramesh.

In the meantime, the fate of another Ramesh alias Mr. Ilango, the chief of Tamil Eelam Police, who surrendered to the SLA along with the LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan, is not known.

According to earlier information, Mr. Palitha Kohona had confirmed that the SLA had received Mr. Ramesh of Tamil Eelam Police, carrying a white flag, as the first person in the group that surrendered along with Mr. B. Nadesan and Mr. S. Puleedevan in the early hours of 18 May, 2009.

Now it is learnt that the surrender was facilitated by the UN Chief of Staff Vijay Nambiar. The episode later turned into a serious war crime of killing of those who surrendered.



Video clips leaked earlier, follow:





Chronology: