{"id":101845,"date":"2013-08-23T06:37:17","date_gmt":"2013-08-23T01:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=101845"},"modified":"2013-08-31T11:51:57","modified_gmt":"2013-08-31T06:21:57","slug":"us-wants-lankan-troops-investigated-former-army-commander-says-53-57-divisions-seem-blackliste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-wants-lankan-troops-investigated-former-army-commander-says-53-57-divisions-seem-blackliste\/","title":{"rendered":"US Wants Lankan Troops Investigated; Former Army Commander Says 53, 57 Divisions Seem Blackliste"},"content":{"rendered":"

Criteria for US sponsored military training is directly linked to accountability the US Government has said, urging President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s Government to pursue a mechanism to investigate allegations of gross human rights violations by its soldiers in a credible way, according to a Colombo based newspaper report.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Chief of Defence Staff<\/p><\/div>\n

The renewed call for credible investigations follows a decision by the US Government to reject two senior military officers for a training programme in New Zealand on the basis of accountability concerns against the two Majors General. Major General Jagath Dias who was recently put in charge of the military board of inquiry into the Weliweriya<\/a><\/span> violence that claimed three lives when the army was sent in to disperse a demonstration and Major General Sudantha Ranasinghe<\/a><\/span> who was recently appointed Commanding Officer of the 53 Division were rejected for training by a US foreign troop vetting system.<\/p>\n

Quoting a US Embassy official in Colombo the Daily FT said the Washington believed there was a cloud over certain sections of the Sri Lankan security forces because of \u201ccredible allegations\u201d against them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a limit of work the US Government can do with a particular regiment if there are credible allegations of human rights violations against them and we can\u2019t move forward until there is a credible investigation into the allegations,\u201d the newspaper quoted a US Embassy official as saying.<\/p>\n

The selection of military candidates is performed through a rigorous vetting process, under the 1998 US Leahy Laws, that specifically disqualify personnel against whom \u201ccredible information\u201d exists regarding human rights violations, the Daily FT reported.<\/p>\n

The newspaper quotes the Embassy official as saying that there was a cloud over certain military divisions due to the allegations. The ineligibility for US facilitated training was no way permanent and could be reversed with a genuine inquiry, the newspaper reports the official said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe important thing is the way forward and that path is clear – a credible investigation to clear the officials and units that may be implicated,\u201d the Embassy official explained.<\/p>\n

The sentiments had been echoed by the former Army Commander and current Chief of Defence Staff, General Jagath Jayasuriya, who told a media conference on Wednesday (21) that there were issues with the army\u2019s 53 and 57 Divisions, the newspaper report said.<\/p>\n

Chief of Defence Staff General Jagath Jayasuriya<\/a><\/span> who addressed a media conference yesterday said that Ranasinghe had initially been cleared<\/a><\/span> for a US training after he was rejected on a previous occasion. \u201cIt is not clear why he was rejected again,\u201d Gen. Jayasuriya said adding that in the case of Dias, he had been refused a training at the National Defence College as well because of his involvement in the 57 Division. \u201cI think until that issue is cleared, that problem for him will keep resurfacing,\u201d the former Army Commander admitted. \u201cWith regard to Maj. Gen. Dias a decision has to come from the top,\u201d Jayasuriya added.<\/p>\n

Gen. Jayasuriya said that in the case of Maj. Gen. Ranasinghe, he had raised the issue with the US Defence Attache during his tenure as Commander. \u201cThere is a problem with his Division \u2013 the 53 Division. But he was appointed to head that division very recently, not during the war, but in the case of certain divisions the whole unit is affected\u201d he explained. He admitted that both the 53 and 57 Divisions of the Army appeared to be on a blacklist because of the allegations of rights abuses.<\/p>\n

The Daily FT report quoted US Embassy officials as saying they hoped the government of Sri Lanka would make use of High Commissioner Navi Pillay<\/a><\/span>\u2019s visit to obtain her assistance to set up a credible investigative mechanism to inquire into alleged rights abuses by its troops.<\/p>\n

The US believes a credible investigation would need to be transparent and its results made public, the report said.<\/p>\n

According to Daily FT, the US Embassy vouches for the US Government vetting process for foreign troops and explains that the US cannot provide training to military personnel from Sri Lanka or anywhere in the world against whom there are \u201ccredible allegations\u201d of rights abuses, under US law.<\/p>\n

The vetting process for US sponsored military training is exhaustive and information regarding allegations against individual officers and units are based on the US State Department report, the UN Panel of Experts findings, multiple\u00a0 sourcing and research, the newspaper quotes the US official as saying. the official said.<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. Dias who served as Sri Lanka\u2019s deputy ambassador to Germany, accredited to Switzerland and the Vatican was hastily recalled to Colombo in 2011 after the Swiss Attorney General nearly opened a criminal investigation following a complaint filed by two Swiss human rights advocacy groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal judicial authority considers that \u201cthe existing suspicions against him are enough to justify the opening of a criminal investigation\u201d in the event that Mr Dias comes back to Switzerland,\u201d the Swiss Federal Attorney General said in 2011. The complaint did not proceed to investigation stage on the grounds that Maj Gen. Dias was no longer present in Swiss territory.<\/p>\n

Maj. Gen. Jagath Dias who commanded the 57th Division of the Sri Lankan Army, which is accused of intensive shelling of civilians, hospitals and religious sites, the Swiss criminal complaint against him said, calling him a war criminal. Having served under Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> in Matale during the JVP insurrection, Dias is a defence establishment favourite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":101857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2187,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-most-popular","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nUS Wants Lankan Troops Investigated; Former Army Commander Says 53, 57 Divisions Seem Blackliste - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/us-wants-lankan-troops-investigated-former-army-commander-says-53-57-divisions-seem-blackliste\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"US Wants Lankan Troops Investigated; 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