Sri Lanka protests US Fonseka meeting request

Sri Lanka has expressed its outrage over a request by the US Department for Homeland Security (DHS) for meeting with Chief of Defense State General Sarath Fonseka

The request for the meeting outraged top Sri Lankan officials who demanded Washington officials to drop the request for the interview.

"The Department of Homeland Security should forthwith desist from any endeavor to interview General Fonseka," Rohitha Bogollagama told Reuters.

"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."

"The U.S. authorities should not exert procedures on [Fonseka]. The interview should not take place,” Bogollagama was quoted by Time magazine as saying to US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Patricia Butenis .

The Sri Lankan government believes that despite Fonseka's status as a green-card holder, the U.S. does not have any jurisdiction over him at this point because he entered the country on a Sri Lankan passport.

"General Fonseka is a citizen of Sri Lanka and he holds a diplomatic passport from Sri Lanka," Bogollagama added.

The minister said that Fonseka could not divulge privileged information he knew of the war and its conduct without approval from his superiors and the Sri Lankan government.

Whilst the request was termed to be a ‘volunteer meeting’, the Sri Lankan embassy in Washington was quick to organize legal representation for the former Army commander and to seek advice on whether the US authorities had the legality to override his diplomatic immunity.

Responding to previous international criticism, the Sri Lankan government has declared that it would not subject any of its military commanders or civilian officials who led the war to any kind of international investigation or war-crimes tribunal.

The Sri Lankan government is coming under mounting pressure internationally about its human rights abuses, including from the European Union which has threatened not to extend the GSP + program that allows Sri Lanka certain trade advantages on its garment exports to the EU.

The office of the UN High Commissioner for the Human rights also made fresh calls on October 22 into an external inquiry into war crimes committed by Sri Lanka, along the lines of war crimes investigation into the Israeli attack on Gaza.

Bruce Fein, a lawyer for the US-based group Tamils Against Genocide, has argued that the political justification for a genocide investigation was strengthened because the "United States has been vocal with Serbia, Bosnia and other nations about policing and punishing their own citizens or residents for genocide", reported ther Guardian newspaper.