Sri Lanka’s Colombo-Rights group collecting evidence of alleged infringement of Sri Lanka’s rights group told Singapore’s prosecutor-general in an attempt to arrest a former Sri Lankan president for playing his role on suspicion of war crimes on the island. A country civil war that ended more than a decade ago, stating that it had filed a criminal complaint.
Attorneys at the International Truthand Justice Project, an organization run by a South African-based non-profit foundation, have filed an immediate arrest for former Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for his role as Sri Lankan Defense Secretary during the civil war. Woke up. , Ended in 2009, the group said in a Sunday release.
Rajapaksa is believed to have lived in Singapore after fleeing Sri Lanka after months of massive protests over the economic collapse of Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa fled the country in mid-July after an angry Sri Lankan protester attacked his residence. He first went to the nearby Maldives and then to Singapore.
The group said, “The complaint on page 63 was a serious breach of the Geneva Convention during the 2009 civil war in which Rajapaksa was Secretary of Defense, and these were subject to domestic prosecution in Singapore under universal jurisdiction. Claims to be a crime. “
Rajapaksa was one of the most powerful officials in the administration of his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who ruled Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015, holding the title of Secretary of the Ministry of Defense.
According to the National Defense University’s Journal of Global and National Security Issues prismThe Mahinda Rajapaksa government threatened to kill Lieutenant Saras Fonseca, the chief of the army, and succeeded in assassinating a third officer in the army, with tactics like suicide bombing adopted by separatists. I noticed that I was fighting.
Conservative UN estimates indicate that during the civil war in Sri Lanka, the Marxist riots captured the public sentiment in favor of the creation of an independent state for the Tamils of the ethnic minority, killing 100,000 people. The actual numbers are believed to be much higher.
In the last few months of the war alone, a minority of at least 40,000 people in combat with terrorist tactics by a group of Marxists, also known as Tamil, the liberation tiger of Tamil Elam, reported by the United Nations Expert Committee. Tamil civilians of the race were killed. The Tigers forced civilians to accompany radicals as human shields.
After the conflict, Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president of Sri Lanka in 2019, but due to public protests against the failure to resolve the unprecedented economic crisis that had severely affected the lives of many Sri Lankans. I had to escape in mid-July.
“Although the government has collapsed due to the economic collapse, the crisis in Sri Lanka is really linked to the structural immunity to serious international crimes dating back more than 30 years,” said Yasmin Sooka, Executive Director of ITJP. increase.
“This complaint acknowledges that it is not only corruption and financial mismanagement, but also accountability for atrocities,” she added.
Protest continues
After Rajapaksa fled the country, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe acted as president, and last week a member of parliament consisting of 225 members of Sri Lanka elected Rajapaksa as president for the rest of his term. Wickremesinghe swore last week.
Sri Lankans have been on the streets for months to demand resignation from top leaders to take responsibility for the economic turmoil that left 22 million people in countries suffering from shortages of supplies such as medicines, fuel and food came out. Protesters have focused on Rajapaksa’s family.
Wickremesinghe also elicited their anger on behalf of the perceived Rajapaksa. Protesters have accused Rajapaksa and his powerful family of sucking money from government funding and accelerating the collapse of the country by mismanaging the economy. The family denied allegations of corruption, but the former president admitted that some of his policies contributed to the crisis in Sri Lanka.
Political turmoil threatens efforts to seek relief from the International Monetary Fund. Still, earlier this week, Wickremesinghe said the bailout negotiations were nearing the end.
Cristalina Georgieva, head of the IMF, told Japanese financial magazine Nikkei Asia this week that the IMF wants to trade “as soon as possible.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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