04 June 2023

Gajalakshmi Paramasivam

 

 

 

WAR CRIMES OR DEFAMATION?

 

The case against Australian soldier Ben Roberts-Smith began as a civil case but turned out to be a war-crimes trial. In my case, the Police brought criminal charges against me for Peaceful Assembly outside the office of the Vice Chancellor of the University of New South Wales, but Magistrate Gilmour dismissed the charges on the basis of Balance of Probability test.

 

When I brought defamation case against family members in Australia for demoting my marital status, followed by ridiculing me in Sri Lankan court, the NSW Supreme Court held that it did not have jurisdiction.

 

In the case of Ben Roberts-Smith, the trial was on the basis of what-happened in Afghanistan and how it was reported in Australia. Using the rule by the court in my case, I am entitled to conclude that there was no jurisdiction to hear the case. But as per my own  interpretation, the defamation happened here.

 

But in terms of the hearing, only the facts relating to the defamation part ought to have been heard and not the facts that happened in Afghanistan.

 

In a war-zone, soldiers are on their own and hence ‘all is taken to be fair’. If we use ‘rules’ future recruitment would be adversely affected. Hence it is important to ‘accept’ the soldier’s judgement as true. An over-regulated army is not likely to perform well. 

 

The requirement of ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ is based on this acceptance of self-inquiry. It means that we have our own personal god as our witness. It’s why we affirm in court to speak the truth as per our personal conscience.

 

As per published details, this ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ test has been breached by the Federal Court of Australia.

 

When we operate within our respective circles of belief we have the right to be judged only by someone senior to us within that circle of belief. In the battlefield, it is one’s own conscience. Belief in one’s own conscience is soul-power.  This is why it took the Sri Lankan government 30 years to defeat Tamil rebels who were ‘free’ to act as per their own conscience in the battlefield.