AFP
Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said the country was withdrawing from a 2015 United Nations resolution investigating alleged war crimes. Rajapaksa was president when Sri Lankan troops defeated Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009, but rights groups accused the army of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the conflict. His brother Gotabaya, who is now president, was defence secretary at the time. Rajapaksa said Washington's recent decision to ban current Sri Lanka army chief Shavendra Silva from visiting the US was because Colombo had signed up to the resolution. Before winning the presidency, Gotabaya had pledged he would not honour the previous government's commitments to the UN.
Sri Lanka Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday said the country was withdrawing from a 2015 United Nations resolution investigating alleged war crimes. Rajapaksa was president when Sri Lankan troops defeated Tamil Tiger guerrillas in 2009, but rights groups accused the army of killing at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the final months of the conflict. His brother Gotabaya, who is now president, was defence secretary at the time. Rajapaksa said Washington's recent decision to ban current Sri Lanka army chief Shavendra Silva from visiting the US was because Colombo had signed up to the resolution. Before winning the presidency, Gotabaya had pledged he would not honour the previous government's commitments to the UN.