Army seeks war clarity

NEW UNIT TO GIVE SRI LANKA MILITARY ‘A VOICE’ IN RIGHTS VIOLATION CLAIMS

THE Sri Lankan army has formed a special unit to defend itself against alle­gations of grave human rights abuses at the end of the island’s decades-long ethnic war.

Army chief Lieutenant General Mahesh Senanay­ake said the group would collate local and interna­tional reports and establish the truth to clear the mili­tary’s name.

International human rights groups accuse the military of killing 40,000 Tamil civil­ians in the final months of the war which ended in May 2009. The government of the time said not one ci­vilian was killed.

“Different people have been saying different things, but our voice has not been heard,” Senanayake told Colombo-based foreign corre­spondents. “That is why I set up the special directo­rate of overseas operations to prepare our position.”

However, Senanayake ac­knowledged there may have been individual excesses.

“If someone says they know of specific instances (of rights violations), we are ready to investigate,” Sena­nayake said.

“I’m not going to look the other way. I want to clear the name of the army.”

He said there were con­flicting claims of casualties from the 37-year-old Tamil separatist war.

“Different units of the army involved in the final offensive maintained fig­ures of casualties. I want to collate all that,” he said.

“I know the (then) gov­ernment said no civilian was killed, but it was not our voice. We never said that. This time, we want to come back with our story.”

Senanayake said the 236,000-strong army want­ed to clear its name and play a bigger role in UN in­ternational peacekeeping.

The government has said it lost at least 26,000 soldiers in the war, with about 37,000 wounded. Around 20,000 of the injured ended up with a permanent disability.

The Tamil Tiger rebels also lost heavily and the en­tire guerrilla leadership was wiped out in the onslaught.

The government under then president Mahinda Ra­japaksa, who ordered the of­fensive, faced international censure for refusing to ac­knowledge what the UN called credible allegations.

The administration which came to power in January 2015 said it was willing to investigate and pay repara­tions to victims, but pro­gress has been extremely slow. (AFP)