Mahinda Rajapaksa will be tried at international courts for war crimes if he loses his position as head of state, said the Global Tamil Forum spokesman in an interview with Aljazeera news last week.
Commenting on Rajapaksa’s decision to hold snap elections in January 2015, Suren Surendiran said,
“It is Rajapaksa, as the head of state and commander in chief of the military, who stands accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. Some people even accuse him of committing genocidal crimes against the Tamil community. As head of state he has immunity against international law. The day he is beaten in an election and is not head of state. Just has what happened to Charles Taylor or Milosevic who committed genocidal crimes and breached international law, Rajapaksa will be taken by the International Criminal Court and will be charged with committing war crimes.”
Responding to claims by a Sri Lankan MP, Rajiva Wijesinha, that the Sri Lankan army fought a “clean war” against the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Surendiran, added,
“140,000 people dead, white flag surrenders dead, pictures and videos showing handcuffed men and women that have been sexually abused and killed and evidence of 11 year old children being killed. Are these the kind of things that you would call a clean war?”
Retorting the news anchor's indication that the international community believed such crimes were committed in Sri Lanka, Wijesinha said,
“I am not concerned with the prejudices of the international community. The majority of Sir Lankans think these arguments are complete nonsense.”
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