Military wants to prove innocence on war crimes

The military wants to prove its innocence on allegations related to the war and ensure justice if anyone committed a crime, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said.

He said that a situation has arisen where some military divisions are not considered for UN operations.

The Foreign Minister said that Sr Lanka has taken into consideration the reports of the Lessons Learned Commission, the Udulagama Commission and the Paranagama Commission.

“All those reports indicated that solutions could be provided for the incidents that happened in the country, but these solutions could not be provided under the mechanism of a foreign country. Accordingly, we had promised to provide solutions for this under a local mechanism, but it has not been implemented,” the President’s Office quoted Sabry as saying.

Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed the ‘Nawaz Commission’ to prepare the necessary program to provide solutions by incorporating the suggestions of the previous commissions.

“Even the security forces have expressed their interest in implementing this mechanism. The security forces say that some units have been branded differently. A situation has arisen where some divisions cannot even go to UN operations. They expect to prove their innocence, and if something suspicious has happened, they expect the law to be
enforced,” Sabry was quoted as saying.

He said the solutions to these issues can be obtained through a truth commission and Sri Lanka has discussed the idea of such a commission with South Africa. (Colombo Gazette)