… several countries undertaking criminal investigations against Lankans

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Sri Lanka had failed again to counter unsubstantiated accusations pertaining to the Eelam conflict, at the ongoing 55th session of the Human Rights Council, authoritative military sources said.

Western powers had taken specific punitive actions against selected Sri Lankan military officers as well as political leaders on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations.

Canada, two years ago, declared that Sri Lanka had committed genocide during the war against the LTTE, sources said, alleging the government of Sri Lankan had not countered such serious accusations. Canada refused to accept former Air Force Commander Air Marshal Sumangala Dias as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to Ottawa on the basis that he had been a member of Sri Lankan armed forces.

The 55th sessions that commenced on 26 February will go on until 05 April 2024.

Repeated rejection of HRC resolutions 46/1 and 51/1, as well as the external evidence gathering mechanism set up in terms of these resolutions, would not help counter the relentless Geneva campaign against Sri Lanka effectively, diplomatic sources said.The government should set the record straight in Geneva, a senior diplomat told The Island.

Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, PC, addressed the high-level segment of the session on 27 Feb., while Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in Geneva, Himali Arunatilleke, addressed the session on 01 March following oral update on Sri Lanka.

Serving and retired military officers complained that even 15 years after the successful conclusion of the war the government was yet to deal with the basis of the Geneva investigation. The unsubstantiated allegation that as many as 40,000 civilians perished in the final assault remained the primary UN allegation (March 31, 2011 Darusman report paragraph 137), they said, questioning the inordinate delay in addressing the issue.

Declaring his office continued to advance accountability in Sri Lanka, Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that he was providing support to several jurisdictions undertaking criminal justice investigations in respect of Sri Lankans. His office was in the process of deepening its information and evidence, base on specific incidents of human rights violation. The UN official said that his office was carrying out research on what he called, enforced disappearance and conducting consultations with victims.

Sources said that the UN declaration was a serious warning particularly to those against whom action had been already taken. In 2016, Australia refused a visa to veteran ground commander Maj. Gen. Chagie Gallage. In Feb 2020, the US designated Gen. Shavendra Silva in terms of Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act. His wife and two daughters were also designated.

Gen. Silva’s case remained the only instance where family members of senior officers had been designated. In January 2023, Canada imposed sanctions on former Presidents Mahinda Rajapaksa and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake and Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi. In April 2023, the US blacklisted Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, who responded swiftly that since his last visit there in 2007, as Commander of the Navy, and he hadn’t since sought a US visa.

There were several other cases, including US refusal to issue visa to the then General Sarath Fonseka during the yahapalana administration and preventing Maj. Gen. Udaya Perera from leaving for the US from the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) last year although he had a valid visa.

Sources pointed out that the UN official disclosed that several countries had conducted criminal justice investigations targeting Sri Lankans. In the absence of a cohesive plan to address accusations, foreign investigations, with the backing of Geneva seemed to have proceeded unhindered.