Chairman of the Oversight Committee on National Security Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara MP has bemoaned the Sri Lankan government’s weak response to accusations of genocide by the Canadian government, which he claims is a politically motivated lie.
In his statement last Wednesday, Weerasekera decried the decision by the Canadian government to issue a statement recognising the Sri Lankan government’s military offensive as an act of genocide and sanctioning two former Sri Lankan presidents, Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Weerasekera made this statement in a meeting with top Sri Lanka defence and foreign ministry officials and slammed the UNHCR resolution, claiming that condemnation of the Sri Lankan military was unfounded and would lead their forces to be less willing to engage in future conflicts.
The Sri Lankan military stands accused of a litany of war crimes, including that of genocide. In the final phase of the armed conflict, the military relentlessly shelled hospitals, food lines, and designated no fire zones. Estimates place the Tamil civilian death toll as high as 169,000.
Weerasekera also lashed out at attempts to downsize Sri Lanka’s bloated military budget, maintaining that its presence in the Northern province should not be undermined. For over a decade, Tamil civilians have protested the military’s illegal encroachment on their land and constant surveillance of their civil society leaders.
The Sri Lankan minister also decried calls for repealing Sri Lanka’s draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and maintained that the island could not weaken its national security. This statement comes as Sri Lanka faces growing international condemnation for its maintenance of the PTA which has been linked to arbitrary detention, torture and extrajudicial killings.
