TAG will be using several images of the war area acquired from a Satellite Image vendor at different dates prior to and after May 18th when the Sri Lanka’s war officially ended, and will be processing the data to collect evidence of the massacre by Sri Lanka. Times UK has alleged from aerial photos and using expert analysis that the number of killed is close to 20,000 civilians. TAG has assembled a group of experts and volunteers to do the work, and have sought help from image analysis departments in two premier educational institutions for assistance.
As part of the effort, the team will attempt to correlate the documented attacks on hospitals in Puthukkudiyiruppu and those located inside the Safe Zone, using the images. Evidence will be likely produced of attacks by the SLA on hospitals outside the safe one as directed by Sri Lanka’s Defense Secretary that Sri Lanka Army can shell hospitals outside the Safe Zone.
While the indictment document TAG produced earlier and submitted to the Justice Department covers the crimes of Sri Lankan State on Tamils during the period from independence in 1948 to January 2009, the new effort will document similar evidence from January 2009 to May/June 2009, including Satellite based analysis that covers several weeks prior to, and after, 18 May.
TAG believes that the totality of evidence collected in this project and the evidence currently available from TAG’s previous work can, in addition to being used to file war-crimes action in international criminal courts, can also be used to file civil claims in the U.S. Legal action can also be filed in courts in several other countries that have statutes allowing universal jurisdiction for war-crimes.