COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new government on Wednesday criticised Britain’s sanctions against three retired top military commanders and a former Tamil guerrilla, saying the move complicated reconciliation after its decades-long conflict.
The British government announced on Monday sanctions against the former head of Sri Lanka’s armed forces, Shavendra Silva, former navy commander Wasantha Karannagoda and former army commander Jagath Jayasuriya.
A fourth Sri Lankan, former military commander of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, was also sanctioned.
London’s “unilateral action did not assist but served to complicate the national reconciliation process in Sri Lanka”, the Colombo government said in a statement.
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The Foreign Office said that the four were responsible for “serious human rights abuses and violations” during the island’s drawn-out Tamil separatist war, which ended in May 2009.
This included “extrajudicial killings, torture, and/or perpetration of sexual violence”, the Foreign Office said.
The sanctions include UK travel bans and asset freezes.
Colombo said the sanctions came at a time when it was “in the process of strengthening domestic mechanisms on accountability and reconciliation”, but did not elaborate.
It added, however, that any wartime human rights violations should be dealt with through domestic accountability mechanisms.
The Sri Lankan former military leaders have also been slapped with travel bans from the United States and Canada.
Several former security personnel have previously been denied visas to several Western nations.
Sri Lanka’s successive governments have rejected international calls, including from the United Nations, to establish an independent, credible investigative mechanism to prosecute war criminals.
London’s top envoy in Colombo, Andrew Patrick, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to convey Sri Lanka’s displeasure.
In its Monday statement, the British government said it remained committed to human rights in Sri Lanka, including seeking accountability for violations and abuses that occurred during the civil war.
More than 40,000 people, mostly Tamil civilians, were estimated to have been killed by government forces in the final months of the war, an allegation Colombo has consistently denied.
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