Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa said the former commander of the army should “shut up”, after stating he would testify against a military colleague accused of war crimes.
In an interview to Ceylon Today, Mr Rajapaksa rebuked former army commander Sarath Fonseka’s comments.
“Everybody was shocked by Fonseka’s statement,” he said. “An Army Commander should not behave like this.”
When asked what the former army commander should do next, Mr Rajapaksa responded, “he should shut up.”
The former president also denied reports of human rights violations taking place during the armed conflict.
“All that is nonsense,” said Mr Rajapaksa. “There were no war crimes here.”
He also refused to rule out ambitions to become prime minister of Sri Lanka, telling Ceylon Today, “we will see about that later”.
Read the full text of the interview here.
