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Associated Press

Sri Lanka’s president on Sunday vowed to protect his former ambassador to six South American nations, an ex-army chief accused of crimes in the bloody final phase of the country’s civil war.
“I state very clearly that I will not allow anyone in the world to touch Jagath Jayasuriya or any other military chief or any war hero in this country,” President Maithripala Sirisena said on Sunday, addressing a convention of his Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

Sirisena’s statement came a week after rights groups filed criminal lawsuits in South America against Jayasuriya, who until last week served as the country’s envoy to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Suriname.
The suits are based on Jayasuriya’s role as a commander in the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009. They claim he oversaw military units that attacked hospitals and killed, disappeared and tortured thousands of people.

The suits had been filed in Brazil and Colombia and more were to come in Argentina, Chile and Peru. Suriname had refused to accept the petition.
Sri Lanka’s military has also denied the allegations against Jayasuriya.
Sirisena’s comments are seen as an attempt to woo majority ethnic Sinhalese, most of whom oppose action against military personnel accused of crimes in the fight against minority Tamil rebels. Sirisena is being painted as anti-Sinhalese by hardline sections of the community.
More than 100,000 people are believed to have been killed in Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, including up to 70,000 in the final phase alone.

In a joint resolution in 2015 at the UN Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka promised among other things a truth-seeking mechanism, a judicial mechanism to prosecute those accused of human rights abuses, and a new constitution that covers the island nation’s varied ethnicities and religions. However, little progress has been made.
Sri Lanka had agreed to allow foreign judges but backtracked later, insisting that only local courts could investigate the allegations.
The criminal suits, reviewed by the AP, were spearheaded by the human rights group International Truth and Justice Project, an evidence-gathering organisation based in South Africa. They had three central aims: push local authorities to open investigations of Jayasuriya, remove his diplomatic immunity and expel him.

However, Jayasuriya left Brazil last week to return to Sri Lanka after completing his two-year tour of service. The petitions can be amended to ask for arrest warrants in case he returns, according to the lawyer who filed the suit.
The civil war in Sri Lanka raged intermittently between 1983 and 2009. Fuelled in part by ethnic tensions between the majority Sinhalese and minority Tamils. An insurgency against the government was led by a group called the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. They fought to establish a separate Tamil state in the northeastern part of the island.
Both sides are accused of war crimes.

The suits say Jayasuriya was commander of the Vanni Security Force from 2007 to 2009, and oversaw an offensive from Joseph Camp, also known as Vanni, which the papers claim was a notorious torture site.
Just after the war’s end, Jayasuriya was promoted as chief of the army and in 2015, he retired from the military. He was appointed ambassador to Brazil in 2015, and the other countries were added to his purview over the following two years.


Sri Lanka president defends ex-general accused of war crimes

Soldiers from the Sri Lankan army celebrate their victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009. Photo: Reuters

This handout picture received from the Sri Lankan ministry of Defence on May 18, 2009 is said to be of troops walking amongst debris inside the war zone on May 17, when they helped evacuated the last of the Tamil civilians from the area. Defence officials announced that Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and the entire rebel leadership had been killed on May 18, 2009 by government troops. AFP PHOTO/Sri Lankan ministry of Defence - RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE

FILE PHOTO - President Maithripala Sirisena of Sri Lanka addresses attendees during the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York, September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo

The Sri Lanka embassy stands in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017. Human rights groups in South America are alleging war crimes violations in lawsuits filed against a former Sri Lankan general who is now his Asian nation’s ambassador to Brazil and five other countries in Latin America. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

TOPSHOTS A general view of the abandoned conflict zone where Tamil Tigers separatists made their last stand before their defeat by the Sri Lankan army is seen in northeastern Sri Lanka on May 23, 2009. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon came face-to-face May 23 with the despair of Sri Lanka's war-hit civilians as he toured the nation's biggest refugee complex, home to 200,000 displaced by fighting. Just days after Colombo declared victory over Tamil Tiger, he toured the sprawling Menik Farm camp, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Colombo, which was jammed with civilians who had fled the war zone. AFP PHOTO/JOE KLAMAR

A sign points out the location of the Sri Lanka embassy in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 28, 2017. Human rights groups in South America are alleging war crimes violations in lawsuits filed against a former Sri Lankan general who is now his Asian nation’s ambassador to Brazil and five other countries in Latin America. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

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