Colorado Murder and Sri Lankan Murders
TAMIL TRIBUNE, November 1999 (ID. 1999-11-03)
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OUTLINE
Abbreviations
1. The Colorado Murder
2. Sri Lankan Murders
3. Comparison
4. What is the Truth?
ABBREVIATIONS
USA - United States of America
1. The Colorado Murder
On the morning of December 26, 1996, a wealthy and well-respected couple in Boulder City, Colorado State, USA, called the police and reported that their six year old daughter Jon Benet Ramsey had been kidnapped for ransom. Police arrived. Instead of preventing anyone from disturbing or removing any potentially useful evidence in the house, police officers allowed the parents and their friends to go around the house. Later in the day, the girl's father found the lifeless body of his daughter in a secluded room in the house, picked her up and took her to the police already in the house. Possibly, useful evidence and clues were disturbed by the father.
Because the murdered girl was a popular children's beauty pageant winner, and her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, were rich and locally well known, the case received much media coverage around the country. Months passed, and police were unable to identify the murderer(s). Parents were considered the primary suspects. Press and the public criticized the police of poor investigation. Belatedly, the internationally known criminal forensic scientist Dr. Henry Lee was brought in to analyze the evidence. He could not break the case either. Crucial evidence have been lost or disturbed months ago. Almost two years after the murder, in October 1999, a Grand Jury said that there was not enough evidence to charge anyone with murder. The murderer(s) escaped justice.
What went wrong with this murder case? To use police parlance, "the crime scene was not secured immediately". People, even those considered potential suspects, were allowed to disturb potential evidence in the house.
2. Sri Lankan Murders
Sri Lankan armed forces are engaged in a brutal war with the Tamil minority fighting for an independent nation (Tamil Eelam) in their historical homeland where they can live peacefully and honorably without the majority Sinhalese' discrimination and oppression. After the Sri Lankan army wrestled control of the major Tamil city Jaffna in 1996, several hundred Tamil civilians disappeared. In July 1998 a Sri Lankan soldier alleged that the army murdered hundreds of minority Tamil civilians and buried some 400 bodies in mass graves in Chemmani, Jaffna. There was an outcry from international human rights agencies for an investigation. The Sri Lankan President Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga agreed. Instead of "securing the crime scene" (the alleged mass-graves site) so that evidence cannot be disturbed, altered or removed, the Sri Lankan government asked the very army that was accused of the murders to guard the site until forensic experts can dig the site. The Sri Lankan government ignored suggestions that international observers be posted there to keep an eye on the site.
After putting the mass-graves site under the control of the very army accused of the murders, the Sri Lankan government delayed the investigation of the site again and again. No reporters were allowed anywhere near the site during this period. Some critics charged that the government was giving ample time for the army to remove the buried bodies and make the site look normal. Finally the digging started in June 1999 (almost a year after the allegation of mass graves was made). The Sri Lankan government, which until then would not allow reporters to go anywhere near the alleged mass-graves site, now allowed reporters to witness the digging of the site and widely publicized it abroad. A total of 15 bodies were unearthed in 8 graves in the area. In October 1999 the Sri Lankan government announced that there were no mass graves in Chemmani and absolved the army.
3. Comparison
What is the comparison between the Colorado murder and the Sri Lanka murders? In both cases the "crime scene was not secured immediately" so that criminal forensic scientists can investigate the site without any evidence being disturbed or lost. In both cases forensic experts were brought in after much delay. In both cases culprits could not be brought to justice.
4. What is the Truth?
Who murdered the young beauty queen in Colorado, USA? We may never know.
Were there mass graves of Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka? We may never know with certainty. Let us examine this case a little further. If in fact the Sri Lankan army murdered hundreds of minority Tamil civilians (there is no dispute that at least 600 Tamil civilians disappeared after the Sri Lankan army took control of Jaffna City) and buried 400 or so bodies in mass graves in Chemmani, Jaffna, once it was revealed to the world and an investigation was ordered, will that army leave the bodies in those graves? Surely it would remove the bodies and any telltale signs if it could. That is what murderers do. Did the Sri Lankan army have the opportunity to do so? The Sri Lankan army was in charge of the mass-graves site from the time the mass-graves were alleged (July 1998) to the start of the digging (June 1999) with no independent observers to keep a watch on the site. Could the Sri Lankan army have removed the 400 or so bodies without anyone noticing it? Of course it could. No one, other than army personnel and Sri Lankan officials, were allowed anywhere near the site day or night and there was curfew in all of Jaffna City at night. The army could easily remove the bodies and dispose them. The Sri Lankan government postponed the digging again and again and so the army had almost a year (July 1998 to June 1999) to cover up the evidence. What about the 15 bodies unearthed? The Sri Lankan army did not do a thorough job of clearing the graves. It missed 15 bodies out of the 400. That is all.
If, after the Second World War, the German Nazis were allowed to guard for a year the areas where concentration camps were located, with no one else allowed in those areas, would there be any evidence of those concentration camps left? Why do we think that any bodies would be left in the mass graves when the very Sri Lankan army accused of the mass graves was put in charge of the site for almost a whole year?
Sri Lankan government's investigation of the mass graves is a total farce. What is the purpose in digging the alleged mass-graves site in the presence of international observers, after the site was in total control of the very Sri Lankan army accused of the murders for almost a year with no independent observers posted there to watch over the site during that time? True, there were not 400 bodies in June 1999 when it was dug up in the presence of international observers. That does not mean that 400 bodies were not buried there and then removed between July 1998 and June 1999 when no reporters or observers were allowed anywhere near the site.
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