QUESTION: The defense secretary of Sri Lanka, Rajapaska, in an interview with headlines today, has rejected calls by the UN, U.S., and other international communities calling for war crimes investigation. He said actually, how can an international mechanism kick in? He says we have done nothing wrong. So what is the reaction of the U.S. and the ongoing UN efforts on this?
MR. TONER: Well, we continue to call on a transparent accounting of Sri Lanka’s actions, and we believe the UN panel of experts is a mechanism that should be taken advantage of in order to carry out that kind of examination and accounting. I’m aware that Sri Lanka has also conducted some reporting on human rights abuses, alleged human rights abuses, but we still believe that an international mechanism to look at these is in everyone’s interest. Full Story>>>
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SL war crimes: Gotabaya hits out at Jayalalithaa; confident of Indian support
| Colombo, August 8, 2011Sri Lanka's defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa has hit out at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa for her recent comments seeking international war crimes investigations and economic sanctions on Sri Lanka.
Talking to Headlines Today exclusively in Colombo, Rajapaksa said. "This (the resolutions in the assembly and statements by J. Jayalalithaa) must be for her to gain political advantage...It is not reasonable, because in Sri Lanka regardless of being Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim, we are Sri Lankans. We are more worried about our citizens than anyone else. This (the resolution and statements by Jaya) is without knowing facts."
"If she is so concerned about the welfare of the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, the first thing you know what she must do...they must stop Indian fishermen coming into Sri Lankan waters and fishing in areas predominantly dominated by the Tamil fishermen of Sri Lanka. Full Story>>>
