Leader of the House and a Minister in Sri Lanka’s parliament, Nimal Siripala de Silva, challenged opposition Parliamentarian Karu Jayasuriya to submit evidence to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) on the alleged human rights violations and war crimes committed by Sri Lanka soldiers, Sinhala daily Lankadeepa said.
According to the Lankadeepa newspaper, Jayasuriy had alleged war crimes and or human rights violations reportedly took place during the final stages of the war between the security forces and the LTTE which ended in May 2009.
The government minister claimed that Karu Jayasuriya’s statement was one that would boost efforts by certain interested elements who are bent on creating a separate homeland for the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the paper said.
The Minister made the statements in parliament in response to a statement made by Jayasuriya which was published in a weekend newspaper where he had reportedly said investigations should be carried into the allegations of war crimes and human rights violations alleged to have taken place during the war.
“If he has evidence to this effect, I challenge him to submit this to the LLRC,” de Silva said.
Jayasuriya was quoted as saying by the web edition of a Colombo daily: “It is a blight upon our military that such accusations are gathering momentum in the world. Let us be clear about one thing Sri Lanka is not facing this level of international pressure because we defeated the LTTE or because there exists an international conspiracy against us. Sri Lanka is being besieged at this time because our rulers have failed to adhere to accepted civilized standards of governance and, as a result, we have lost the moral high ground,” the statement viewed an insight of deep wisdom, by independent analysts, according to the paper.
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