Testifying at the controversial 'white flag' case, Major General Shavendra Silva who was the commander of the 58th Division during the last phase of the war last year told the court that military forces did not shoot at anybody who wanted to surrender.
Major General Silva was called to the witness stand at the trial against former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka who in an interview to an English weekly had accused the Defence Secretary of giving orders to Major General Silva to kill all the LTTE cadres wanting to surrender with white flags.
Silva told the court that lot of LTTE cadres and people with and without white flags surrendered to the forces at the time and none was shot. The surrenders were given food, water, and emergency medical treatment as best as they can under the circumstances, he has said.
Army's 58 Division led by Shavendra Silva entered the northern border of no-fire zone of Putumatalam where the Tamil Tigers were held up with 300,000 civilians in April 2009 during the final phase of the war.
Former Army Commander Fonseka was accused of disclosing state secrets in an interview to The Sunday Leader newspaper on December 13,2009 and implicating Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa for alleged killing of LTTE cadres who wanted to surrender.
However, he later clarifying his story said that not a single LTTE leader with white flags surrendered to the forces even though an order has been issued by the Defence Secretary to shoot them but the LTTE leaders had died during the battle.
Sri Lankan government blames that the former Army chief's comment during the campaign for presidential election in January this year was the reason for the UN Secretary-General's decision to appoint a panel of experts on Sri Lanka to probe war crime charges.
If found guilty of charges against him, Fonseka, who is serving a 30-month jail term currently, could get another jail sentence of 20 year, media reports said.
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