Prasanna De Silva

Educated at Ananda College, Colombo.

He joined Sri Lanka Army 1982 during the early phase of Eelam War I.

Prasanna de Silva was Colonel in command of Sri Lankan army’s Special Forces Brigade during the army's eastern military offensive to capture the Eastern province of Sri Lanka from LTTE (starting July 2006). He was later ground commander in army operations to capture the eastern towns of Mayil Aru, Sampur, Manirasakulam and Vakarai. During this time, De Silva was complicit in war crimes and genocidal acts committed by the Sri Lankan army against Tamils using heavy weapons, including the artillery bombardment of Kathiravelli school on November 8, 2006, which was hosting around 1000 internally displaced persons, that killed numerous Tamil civilians.[3]

Following the eastern military offensive, de Silva was promoted to Brigadier and appointed commander of the 55th division (2008 to May 2009) as part of the Sri Lankan army's northern military offensive to capture the Tamil areas Jaffna and Vanni. He took over command of the army's 59th division on or around 30 April 2009, for advancing Sri Lankan troops from Mullaitivu North to Mullivaikkal to capture Vadduvakkal causeway.[4]

As commander of the 55th division of the Sri Lankan army in the final months of the Sri Lankan war, de Silva has criminal liability (command responsibility) for genocidal acts, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his troops against Tamil civilians and LTTE cadres in these final months. These mass atrocity crimes mainly occurred in "No-Fire Zones", which were areas unilaterally announced by the Sri Lankan government for Tamil civilians to congregate in order avoid shelling and artillery fire,[1] but in reality were areas of premeditated massacre of tens of thousands of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan government.[5] International crimes for which Prasanna de Silva is responsible include:

• Deliberate, systemic shelling and artillery fire targeting no-fire zones (NFZs), especially civilian facilities in Vanni, such as medical hospitals, UN facilities and food distribution centres. This killed tens of thousands of Tamil civilians, including numerous women and children.[3][4]
• Internationally banned cluster munitions and white phosphorus were deployed by his troops.[3][4]
• Troops led by de Silva carried out mass shooting of Tamils and surrendering LTTE cadres who tried to cross over from the Mullivaikkal war zone (via A35 road and Vadduvakkal bridge) into Mullaitivu town. Tanks bearing 55th division label drove over bodies of Tamils on the stretch of A35 road from Mullaitivu town to Vadduvakkal, dead and alive.[6]
• De Silva's 55th division was specified by the United Nations OHCHR Investigation In Sri Lanka report as one of three Sri Lankan army units to have perpetrated torture during and after the Sri Lankan war.[3][4]

After the war, de Silva served as Defence Attaché to the Sri Lankan Embassy in London, UK (September 2010 – April 2012), possessing diplomatic immunity that prevented him from being prosecuted for his role in the Sri Lankan army's mass atrocity crimes. In January 2012, the international human rights organizations Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and Track Impunity Always (TRIAL) submitted a 28-page background dossier on de Silva to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), including detailed information of de Silva’s command responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by his troops in the Vanni during the final months of the Sri Lankan war. Following submission, the FCO refused to declare de Silva as "persona non grata", allowing him to avoid prosecution and leave for Sri Lanka in April 2012.[2]

He is married to Dinithi de Silva who is a former air hostess at Sri Lankan Airlines and they have two daughters Yohani de Silva and Shavindri de Silva.[7]