Sri Lanka will study UN call for report on LTTE leaders’ deaths

Sri Lanka will study a call by the United Nations for a report on the alleged shooting of surrendering Tamil rebel leaders by the army, saying the accusation is “baseless” and a humiliation for the country.

The government in Colombo said it will make a formal response to the request made by Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary executions. The allegation was made by the former army Chief General Sarath Fonseka in an interview Dec. 13 with the Sunday Leader newspaper.

“It is clear as crystal that the special rapporteur has been carried away by the newspaper report attributed to General Fonseka mainly based on hearsay,” the government said on its Web site. The general “betrayed the nation” with his comments, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the minister for disaster management and human rights, said last week.

Fonseka is standing as the opposition candidate in Sri Lanka’s presidential election scheduled for January. President Mahinda Rajapaksa called the ballot two years before his mandate expires as he seeks to capitalize on his government ending the 26-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May.

Sri Lanka will make a “careful study” of the UN envoy’s request before responding and deciding on what action may be necessary, the government said.

Fonseka said last week his remarks were distorted in the interview and he took responsibility for every action of the army in the battle against the Tamil Tigers. He resigned as chief of defense staff in November.

Alston asked Sri Lanka to reveal what information it has on the general’s allegation that army officers were instructed by Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa “not to accommodate” any leaders trying to surrender and to show that the report is inaccurate, the government said, citing the envoy’s letter sent to the country’s permanent representative in Geneva.

Three leaders were allegedly shot while trying to give themselves up during the last battle with LTTE forces near the northeastern port of Mullaitivu. The defeat of the LTTE ended its fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east of the South Asian island nation.

“It is regrettable to note that the UN special rapporteur had taken seven long months after the war ended to raise these baseless issues,” the government said. “Sri Lanka has been pushed to untold embarrassment and humiliation by the conduct of the former army commander.”

Fonseka’s allegations were aimed at discrediting the government for political advantage, Samarasinghe said last week, according the Media Center for National Security.

Rajapaksa declared victory over the Tamil Tigers in May after the army killed rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his commanders in the Mullaitivu battle.

The U.S. State Department in October released a congressionally mandated report listing accounts of army shelling of civilians and killings carried out by the LTTE in the final weeks of the war. Sri Lanka’s government ordered a probe into the allegations while saying they are “unsubstantiated.”

Sri Lanka has called on Western nations to use their energies to help the country rebuild after the war rather than criticize its human rights record and the slow pace of settling more than 280,000 civilians displaced by the conflict.

About 94,000 people remain in the main transit camp in the north and the government aims to have all displaced people returned to towns and villages of origin by the end of January.

While Sri Lanka in July received a $2.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, the end of the conflict has boosted agriculture and tourism.

The central bank forecasts the country’s $41 billion economy will grow as much as 6 percent next year after expanding about 3.5 percent in 2009. Overseas investment in Sri Lanka rose about 10 percent in 2009 from about $3 billion last year, Central Bank Governor Nivard Cabraal said last month.

The country will hold parliamentary elections before April next year.

(Source: Bloomberg)

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