While applauding the U.S. Government for revealing significant amount of details that point to complicity of Sri Lanka Government in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity, Professor Francis A. Boyle of University of Illinois College of Law, urged American Tamils to "pressure the relevant agencies of the United States government to produce as much evidence in public as they possibly can against the Rajapaksas, Fonseka, the GOSL General Staff, etc." Prof. Boyle noted that "[t]he United States government did this once before against the Serbian genocidaires Milosevic, Karadzic et al. for what they did to the Bosnians and the Kosovars. The United States government can certainly do the same against the GOSL genocidaires against the Tamils," Prof. Boyle said.
While informed sources in Europe said that the Office of War Crimes Issues (S/WCI) of the U.S. State Department is collecting evidence from eye-witnesses who escaped from the battle-zones in the Northeast, Boyle said, more detailed imagery from defense satellites will be in possession of the U.S. Government. Some of the latest commercial imagery has finer resolutions of 9.75 inches, but these images are controlled by the Defense Department, according to reports.
"For example, during the Serbian War/Genocide against the Bosnians, President Bush Sr.’s Acting U.S. Secretary of State Larry Eagleburger publicly condemned Radovan Karadzic –now on trial in The Hague before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia(ICTY)– for committing international crimes against the Bosnians and provided public evidence to the United Nations in order to back up those charges.
"The same could be done to the Rajapaksas, Fonseka, the GOSL General Staff Members, etc.," Prof. Boyle said.
"Later on, during Slobodan Milosevic’s genocidal rampage against the Kosovars, then U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met with then ICTY Prosecutor Louise Arbour and promised to provide the ICTY with U.S. intelligence information on atrocities being committed by Serbia in Kosova.
"With that promise and information, Arbour was able to indict Milosevic for war crimes and crimes against humanity under the ICTY Statute for what he did to the Kosovars. Milosevic died while on trial before the ICTY for the commission of international crimes in Kosova, Bosnia (for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity) and Croatia (for war crimes and crimes against humanity)," Prof Boyle said.
"The United States agencies will respond to public pressure by Tamil American Citizens and Members of the United States Congress. The time to get organized for this is now," exhorted Prof. Boyle.
While promising U.S’s assistance in providing war crimes evidence against Milosevic and Serb Military commanders, Albright said in April 1999, "[t]here should be no misunderstanding. When it comes to the commission of war crimes or crimes against humanity, "just following orders" is no defense. These are crimes for which individuals are responsible and for which individuals will be held accountable. Justice Arbour has rightly indicated that the Tribunal will follow the evidence no matter where it leads. In that, it has the full support of the United States. American personnel are assisting in the difficult work of documenting refugee charges, and doing what they can to gather supporting accounts.
"Justice Arbour and I today discussed how the United States can provide more information to the Tribunal, and how to speed up delivery of potential evidence to The Hague. I assured her that we are asking Congress for additional resources for the Tribunal to meet new demands for investigations in Kosovo. And we discussed other needs of her investigations, which I am not going to get into, but which I assure you that the United States will do everything we possibly can to meet.
"The Tribunal now needs real-time support for its Kosovo investigations, and the United States is determined to give it. The world needs to know exactly what is happening there, and we are committed to helping discover it. Milosevic’s victims, and those everywhere who love justice, need to know that there will be no impunity for those who commit these heinous offenses. And we’re committed to helping the Tribunal ensure that those responsible are held accountable."
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