Mahinda slams UK sanctions on former military commanders

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa slammed the sanctions imposed by the UK on former military commanders who served during the war when he was President.

The United Kingdom had announced sanctions including travel bans and asset freezes against Sri Lanka?s former Chief of Defence Staff Shavendra Silva, former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda and former Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya over allegations of human rights violations committed during the war with the LTTE.

“It was I, as the Executive President of Sri Lanka who took the decision to militarily defeat the LTTE and the armed forces implemented that decision on the ground,” Rajapaksa said.

He said that despite the 2002 ceasefire agreement, the LTTE had carried out 363 killings during the ceasefire between February 2002 and the end of September 2005.

“LTTE attacks intensified in the first few weeks and months after I was elected President in November 2005. Among the most serious such incidents were claymore mine attacks on 4 and 6 December 2005 in Jaffna that killed thirteen soldiers, a suicide attack on a naval craft on 5 January 2006 that killed 15 naval personnel, and the suicide attack on the Army Commander inside Army Headquarters in April 2006,” he said.

The former President said that his Government held two rounds of peace talks in January and June 2006 in Geneva and Oslo which were unilaterally halted by the LTTE.

“The LTTE landmine attack on a civilian bus in Kebithogollawa in June 2006 which killed 64 and seriously injured 86, many of them children ? was a pivotal moment for me and my govt. Military operations commenced in July 2006 when the LTTE closed the Mawilaru anicut cutting off irrigation water to cultivators in the Trincomalee district and did not stop until the LTTE was completely defeated on 19 May 2009,” he said.

Rajapaksa said that he categorically reject the UK Government’s allegation of widespread human rights violations during the military operations.

“Just months after the war ended, when my wartime army commander came forward as the opposition candidate at the 2010 presidential elections, the Tamil National Alliance issued a statement on 6 January 2010 appealing to the Tamil people to vote for the former army commander and he won over 60% of the votes cast in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, thus directly contradicting the narrative being promoted by the UK Government. Imposing sanctions on Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan a.k.a Karuna Amman who broke away from the LTTE in 2004 and later entered democratic politics is a clear case of penalizing anti-LTTE Tamils so as to placate the dominant segment of the Tamil diaspora in the UK,” Rajapaksa said.

Rajapaksa said that he expects the present Sri Lanka Government to resolutely stand by and defend former armed forces personnel who face persecution by foreign governments and organisations for doing their duty to safeguard Sri Lanka?s national security. (Colombo Gazette)