| US wants Fonseka 'to testify against Gotabhaya' on War Crime Allegations,Dr Palitha too on the list |
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Sri Lankan government sources say the US government is seeking to question Sri Lanka’s military chief, General Sarath Fonseka, about alleged war crimes said to have been committed by the Sri Lankan army earlier this year. The military chief is currently on a visit to the US. But American officials have declined to confirm the accounts. The same US State Department Report named former High Ranking DFAT Official Dr Palitha Kohana in its detail brief of possible war crimes committed by government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the closing stages of their war.
Full Text The possibility of the US government questioning the Chief of the Sri Lankan Defence Staff comes 10 days after the State Department produced a report outlining what it said was credible evidence of possible war crimes committed by government forces and the Tamil Tiger rebels in the closing stages of their war. Defence Secretary A senior Sri Lankan government source told the BBC that the US Department of Homeland Security wants to interview General Sarath Fonseka on the allegations this Wednesday, and wants him, specifically, to testify against Sri Lanka’s powerful defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The general is in the US visiting his daughters. The source said that Sri Lanka has raised objections to the interview request. The US embassy in Colombo declined to comment. The State Department report quoted sources alleging that government forces shelled a civilian safe zone and killed combatants who were seeking to surrender. It also cited reports that the Tigers recruited children and forcibly stopped displaced Tamils from fleeing the war zone. The Sri Lankan government quickly dismissed the allegations against it but later said it would set up a committee to investigate them.
US State Dept Report |
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