Sri Lanka asks U.S. to stop war crimes probe

[lkdood]

The Sri Lankan government has asked the United States government to stop a scheduled interview with its Chief of Defense Staff General Sarath Fonseka over an alleged war crimes probe, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters here on Monday.

"The Department of Homeland Security (of the United States) should forthwith desist from any endeavor to interview General Fonseka," Bogollagama said.

According to Bogollagama, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security had called Fonseka for an interview on Nov. 4 in Oklahoma.

The objective of the interview is to use him "as a source against human rights violations done by Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the defense secretary (of Sri Lanka)," the Sri Lankan foreign minister said.

Bogollagama said the Sri Lankan government's position was conveyed through the U.S. Ambassador in Colombo Patricia Butenis.

He asserted that Fonseka was not within his right to convey to a third party the information which he was privy to and was vital to the island's security.

Sri Lanka's human rights record during the final stages of the military campaign against Tamil Tiger rebels came to be questioned in a U.S. State Department report.

The U.S. State Department presented a report to Congress last month containing 170 incidents between May 2 and 18. It is based mostly on internal reports to Washington from the U. S. Embassy in Colombo, satellite imagery, international relief organizations and media outlets.

xinhuanet

 

[lkdood]

Sri Lanka said on Monday it had demanded Washington drop an attempt to question its top military official over possible human rights violations in the last phase of the country's 25-year civil war.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said he had been told General Sarath Fonseka, the chief of Defense Staff, had been asked by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to attend an interview aimed at gathering information against Sri Lanka's defense secretary.

Fonseka, who led the army to victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in May, is visiting the United States where his daughters attend university.
The foreign minister said an attorney at the Department of Homeland Security told Fonseka the aim of the interview was to pull together information against Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, a brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and a naturalized U.S. citizen.

The department's Immigrations and Customs Enforcement division would normally have authority only to probe a matter related to Fonseka's prospective U.S. citizenship as a green card holder and not any possible human rights violations.
Bogollagama said Fonseka, army chief at the time of the final offensive against the Tigers, had received a letter followed by a phone call to attend an interview on Wednesday. Fonseka is now in Oklahoma.

"The Department of Homeland Security should forthwith desist from any endeavor to interview General Fonseka," Bogollagama told reporters, adding he had called in the U.S. ambassador to Colombo, Patricia Butenis, to give her that message.

"Whatever information General Fonseka may have acquired in the exercise of his official duties is privileged by nature. Therefore, it cannot legally be shared with third parties without the prior approval and consent of the Sri Lanka authorities."

Asked for details of the interview request and the reasons behind it, Jeff Anderson, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Colombo, said: "We are looking into it."

Sri Lanka faces heavy Western pressure over its human rights record.

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights on October 22 suggested an external inquiry in Sri Lanka similar to Gaza on war crimes, while the European Union is considering whether to withdraw a trade concession that helps Sri Lanka's top export, garments.

Sri Lanka said last week that it would appoint a panel to probe a report by the U.S. State Department detailing possible atrocities by both warring parties in the final battle of the 25-year war.

The government defeated the Tamil Tigers in May in a bitter final phase led by Fonseka with both Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa giving all the necessary support.

Fonseka's name has now surfaced as a potential presidential contender to President Rajapaksa, speculation opposition parties have been happy to fan against the incumbent's enormous post-war popularity.

But the government has said there was no rift between Fonseka and Rajapaksa, who promoted the army commander to the Chief of Defense Staff in July, which many analysts saw as neutralizing the wide powers Fonseka had in wartime.

reuters

 

[prasadana2]

wonder what happens next..

 

[lkdood]

wonder what happens next..

deviyo thamai dan ne

 

[Hasitha-Kasun]

deviyo thamai dan ne

Samahara wita mahinda lokkath dannawa ethi

 

[lkdood]

Samahara wita mahinda lokkath dannawa ethi

kohomada oya dan ne ?

 

[lkdood]

Sri Lanka on Monday categorically urged the United States to “desist from any endeavour to interview” its Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Sarath Fonseka, currently on a private visit to the U.S., in connection with the alleged human rights violations in the course of the Eelam War IV between the security forces and the LTTE.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters at a specially convened news conference here that he met U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis to convey the message and added that Sri Lankan Ambassador to the U.S. Jaliya Wickramasuriya had also made similar representations to the State Department in Washington DC.

Mr. Bogollagama confirmed that on October 28 an attorney of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) telephoned General Fonseka to inform him that the department had fixed an interview with him on November 4 in Oklahoma City and the objective of the interview was to use him “as a source against human rights violations done by Secretary/Defence”.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa and is a U.S. citizen. Mr. Gotabhaya was the Defence Secretary and General Fonseka, a U.S. Green Card holder, was the Army chief throughout Eelam War IV.

“I have invited you to meet with me this afternoon, to emphasise in my capacity of Foreign Minister that the President and the government of Sri Lanka stand firmly behind the Office of the CDS of Sri Lanka. We will not allow that high post to be denigrated or made vulnerable,” said the Minister.

Mr. Bogollagama maintained that Mr. Gotabhaya’s duties required his dealing with a situation of a grave onslaught by the LTTE that threatened the integrity of Sri Lanka and the allegations levelled against the Defence Secretary affected the vital interests of the government of Sri Lanka.

In response to a question, Mr. Bogollagama said the Sri Lankan Defence Secretary had already been questioned by U.S. Immigration authorities on his arrival in the U.S. as a member of the Sri Lankan delegation for the U.N. General Assembly in the last week of September.

The desire of the U.S. Homeland Security to quiz General Fonseka appears to be a follow-up to a 68-page report from the U.S. Department of State to the Congress on October 22 detailing allegations of “atrocities” by both the military and LTTE cadres during the final stages of the war.

thehindu

 

[lkdood]

The United States was tightlipped Monday about Sri Lanka's visiting top military commander, after the island said US authorities planned to grill him over alleged war crimes.

Sri Lanka summoned the US ambassador to demand the Department of Homeland Security drop what the island's government said were plans to question General Sarath Fonseka over the campaign that crushed Tamil Tiger rebels.

"The Department of Homeland Security cannot confirm nor deny the existence of any investigation," department spokesman Matt Chandler said.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said separately that he was not familiar with the case.

Fonseka, Sri Lanka's chief of defense staff, holds US permanent residency and arrived in the United States last week to see his daughters in the central state of Oklahoma.

Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said the Department of Homeland Security, which handles US immigration, had requested that Fonseka make himself available for questioning on Wednesday.

The minister said US authorities were trying to force Fonseka to testify "as a possible source" against Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse over allegations of human rights violations.

The defense secretary, who holds US citizenship, is the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Sri Lankan troops in May killed the top leader of the Tamil Tigers, ending one of Asia's longest-running and bloodiest insurgencies that aimed at creating a separate homeland for the island's Tamil minority.

A State Department report presented to Congress last month charged that both the government and Tamil Tigers committed serious human rights violations in the finale of the conflict.

An advocacy group from the Tamil diaspora said it would welcome questioning of Fonseka.

"As US citizens, we are encouraged by our government's important first step towards bringing justice to Sri Lanka," said Anjali Manivannan, representative of Washington-based People for Equality and Relief in Sri Lanka.

"We were gravely disappointed by America's inaction as the death toll of Tamil civilians climbed into the thousands earlier this year, and we hope to see the US now take stronger leadership in promoting a political solution that respects Tamils' fundamental rights," she said.

The UN reported that more than 7,000 civilians may have perished in the fighting during this year. The Sri Lankan government contends that not a single civilian was killed by its own troops.


AFP

 

[lkdood]

Re: General Fonseka

US Agency spokesman Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery said:

"If there was an investigation, there's nothing we can provide. Especially in cases that are very sensitive under human-rights violations, until that person or group were fully investigated [we] would never comment."

Time