Colombo Defiant As Pressure Mounts

By Munza Mushtaq

A defiant Sri Lankan government has vowed to take on the world over allegations of alleged war crimes committed by security forces during the latter stages of the quarter century long war.

The Government’s Defence Spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella declared that an ‘international conspiracy’ was in place to bring disrepute to Sri Lanka and despite such conspiracies, his government will not waiver but will instead fight till the end to protect the nation and its sovereignty.

He also pooh-poohed next month’s tribunal in Dublin to investigate allegations that the Sri Lankan Government and Army were guilty of war crimes against the Tamil community.

“These are all part of the international conspiracy, we have defended these allegations before and will do so in the future,” Rambukwella said.

He emphasized that despite his government defending war crimes allegations in the past including at the United Nations, conspiracies were still very much prevalent and cited the Dublin hearing as one such conspiracy.

“We won’t bow down to these conspiracies, we will fight and defend our nation and sovereignty,” Rambukwella added.

According to media reports, individual witnesses, as well as legal and human rights groups from Sri Lanka, India, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations have been invited to testify before the Dublin tribunal which will convene on January 14 and 15, 2010. Its provisional findings will be announced on January 16.

Meanwhile, Rambukwella’s comments came soon after the US Department of State announced that the UN is currently investigating allegations of human right violations by the Government of Sri Lanka.