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Govt. saved Rajapksas from war crime allegations: Rajitha

25 Oct 2019

The present Government denied the ‘Darusman Report' that accused the Rajapaksa government of war crimes, UNP Minister of Health, Nutrition & Indigenous Medicine, Rajitha Senaratne said. Senaratne was speaking at a press conference in Colombo today. “We have denied the ‘Darusman Report' highlighting that no one was killed intentionally besides the causalities that took place during a war,” he said. The 2011 Darusman Report was produced by a panel of experts appointed by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to advise him on the issue of accountability with regard to any alleged violations of international human rights during the final stages of the Sri Lankan War. "The Rajapaksas thought we would persecute them for alleged human rights violations leveled against them by the international community, however it looks like Mahinda Rajapaksa's brother will be the one to take him to the 'electric chair', by his statement to the US court in case filed against him." Senaratne claimed the former Defense Secretary had put forth an argument that he was merely a representative of the 'Sri Lankan government' when the alleged incident took place. Senaratne claimed Gotabaya Rajapaksa had betrayed the country to rid him self of the case filed against him in U.S. court. “This is not the first time he has betrayed the country. In 1992 he withdrew from the army claiming he and his wife were diagnosed with depression during a critical time in the war,” Senaratne claimed. On 15 July Ahimsa Wickrematunge filed a case against Rajapaksa alleging him  of the extrajudicial killing of her father late Editor-in-Chief of the Sunday Leader newspaper ,Lasantha Wickrematunge, crimes against humanity and torture. The Court held that it lacks the jurisdiction to consider Wickrematunge’s claims, because, in the Court’s view, Rajapaksa is entitled to common law foreign official immunity for the acts that are alleged—acts of torture, extrajudicial killing, and crimes against humanity. The Court found that these acts were committed in his official capacity as Sri Lanka’s Secretary of Defense. The Court made no finding on the actual merits of the allegations against Rajapaksa, which include his alleged responsibility for the extrajudicial killing of Lasantha Wickrematunge and for the Sri Lankan government’s campaign of violence against journalists during Sri Lanka’s civil war.          


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