Around 18 hours before the surrender of the LTTE Political Head B Nadesan and other civil officials of the LTTE that ended in their killing by the Sri Lanka Army, the UN officials served in the island met in Vavuniyaa and made plans to receive them on behalf of the UN. The UN officials were very well aware of who were coming to surrender, said a high-ranking UN worker who was involved in the arrangements to TamilNet on Monday. All the UN officers who served in the island at the time of the war are either no more in UN service or have left the island. The UN was used as a ploy in arranging and enacting the ‘surrender’ and then to kill the LTTE officials, Tamil political observers said. Vijay Nambiar, chief of staff to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was in Colombo at the time.
The UN worker who was present at Vavuniyaa during the last days of Vanni war has revealed to TamilNet Monday morning that he and his fellow officials who were present there were informed by the UN hierarchy in Colombo to do necessary preparations to monitor safe arrival of LTTE Political Head B. Nadesan and at least 9 others who were promised by Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) safety with the assistance of the UN and the ICRC.
The UN officers at Vavuniyaa were instructed to do necessary preparations confidentially without leaking the information to media at that time.
A few days in advance, two UN Protection Unit officers were posted to Vavuniyaa from Colombo and they were allowed to proceed to Oamanthai while no other UN or INGO officials were allowed to pass beyond Thaa’ndikku’lam, the former UN worker further told TamilNet, adding that he was prepared to witness at any international investigations.
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