Sri Lanka rejects international investigation of war crimes

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 June 2011, 22:31 GMT]
Sri Lanka Wednesday again categorically rejected an international inquiry into war crimes carried out by its forces, footage of some of which was aired in a hard-hitting Channel 4 documentary broadcast Tuesday night. Asked by Al-Jazeera (English) if Sri Lanka would accept an international inquiry, government spokesman Prof. Rajiva Wijesinghe replied “Absolutely not!” and added such calls were part of a “separatist, terrorist agenda” which, he said, “was extremely sad to find others falling in [with].” He went on to say: “I don’t think we’re going to play to the agendas of other countries.”

Earlier in the interview, Prof Wijesinghe, whilst admitting he hadn’t seen the documentary, nonetheless claimed the footage shown by Channel 4 had “been manipulated”.

“A lot of lies are being told, and this is very, very unfair,” he added.

He also suggested the Channel 4 film was part of an international effort to “divert attention” from the deaths of civilians in Libya.

Referring to comments by UN experts declaring the footage as authentic, an increasingly agitated Mr. Wijesinghe retorted “these so-called experts work as a team together [against Sri Lanka]. It’s a disgrace.”

“It is very upsetting that no one in the so-called international community looks at our analysis of these videos; they simply dismiss any analysis done by Sri Lankans as being Sri Lankan,” he said.



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