Australian accuses Sri Lankan president of war crimes

An Australian man who says he saw hospitals deliberately attacked by Sri Lankan forces has filed war crimes charges against Sri Lanka's president in the Melbourne Magistrates' Court.

Thousands of civilians were killed in the three-decades-long civil war which came to an end when Sri Lankan forces defeated Tamil rebels in 2009.


Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa arrives in Australia for CHOGM today.
Two years ago, retired engineer Jegan Waran left Sri Lanka for Australia, but he is still haunted by what he saw in the hospitals and displaced persons camps at the end of that country's civil war.
"Everybody who's alive today, it's a miracle that they have escaped death or injury," Mr Waran said.
Mr Waran is an ethnic Tamil and sympathised with the Tamil Tigers, or LTTE, which fought for a Tamil nation for decades until their defeat in 2009 by Sri Lanka's military forces.
In 2007, the Australian citizen returned to Sri Lanka to offer what assistance he could, volunteering in Tamil hospitals, schools and displaced persons camps.
It was here he says he witnessed Sri Lankan military forces deliberately attacking clearly-marked civilian infrastructure such as hospitals.
"Patients were killed and patients who were in the hospital were killed, and there were other patients waiting for treatment, they were killed," Mr Waran said.

Patients were killed and patients who were in the hospital were killed, and there were other patients waiting for treatment, they were killed.

Jegan Waran

"There was a medical store where they kept the medicines; those were destroyed, scattered all over the place, you can see.
"Ambulances were destroyed. So I have seen that personally."
Jegan Waran says that on Christmas Day 2008, drones circled another hospital before Sri Lankan Air Force planes attacked.
"The hospital, clearly a big Red Cross sign was marked on the roof, and drones usually take surveillance, so I'm very positive that they know where the hospital is and they know it will be damaged," he said.
This and other incidents have led him to issue summonses for three war crimes charges against Sri Lanka's president.
He says he wants to bring these charges against the president "because I feel that he's the commander-in-chief and nothing would have happened without his knowledge or his directions, and ultimately, he should be answerable to what was happening".

Photo: A government soldier (R) watches civilians flee during the 2009 fighting (David Gray, file photo: Reuters)

Sri Lanka's government has repeatedly denied allegations of war crimes.
Last week, Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Australia, Thisara Samarasinghe, who led the navy in the north of the country, was named in a brief by the International Commission of Jurists. It suggested he be investigated for war crimes.
The Australian Federal Police is examining the allegations.
"Such allegations are baseless and unsubstantiated. In the contrary, I have been commended for my role during the period of my career," Mr Samarasinghe said.
Claims that Sri Lankan armed forces deliberately attacked civilians are not new, but this is the first time charges have been brought by an Australian citizen in an Australian court.
The federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland will need to give final approval for the Australian indictments to proceed.
Lawyers in the case have asked the federal Attorney-General to become involved, but a spokesman for Mr McClelland says the Attorney-General has not been informed of any criminal matter or charges relating to Mr Rajapaksa.
"We've written to the commissioner of the AFP and we've written to the Commonwealth Attorney saying here's your opportunity, Mr Rajapaksa will be in Australia, it's appropriate to conduct those investigations," said Mr Waran's lawyer, Rob Stary.
Last Thursday, Victoria's chief magistrate authorised the charges brought by Mr Waran to proceed, noting that they satisfied Victoria's Criminal Procedure Act.
"These are not frivolous or vexatious complaints; they are bona fide credible complaints," Mr Stary said.
The Sri Lankan government declined Lateline's offer of an on-camera interview and issued a statement, which said in part:
"The issue of the proceedings which are apparently to be the subject of your story are plainly a violation of Australia's obligations under public international law. Furthermore, the purported proceedings are incompetent under Australian law."