Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena abandons promise to investigate wartime atrocities
- Government troops accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final months of 37-year guerilla war that ended in May 2009
- Sirisena previously promised accountability for excesses carried out by the largely Sinhalese military
Sri Lankan government troops were accused of killing at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians in the final months of the island’s 37-year guerilla war that ended in May 2009.
President Maithripala Sirisena said he will formally ask the United Nations Human Rights Council to reconsider a 2015 resolution which called for credible investigations into alleged atrocities.
“It is a decade since we have established peace in this country,” Sirisena told reporters at his official residence in Colombo. “I want to tell them [the UN] not to pressure us.”
“What I want to tell them is don’t dig the past and reopen old wounds. Let us forget the past and ensure that we all live in peace.”
Within hours of his remarks, Sirisena’s cohabitation government sought to distance itself from his stance and said the administration of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe will remain engaged with the UN on war crimes.
The foreign ministry, which is under the prime minister, said it will back a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council on March 20 seeking a further two-year extension for Sri Lanka to deliver on promises of accountability.
“A further extension of two years through a co-sponsored rollover resolution accordingly needs to be viewed in this backdrop,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.