The former Sri Lanka army commander Sarath Fonseka, said he was 100% sure the army as a whole did not commit any war crimes in the final stages of the armed conflict, as he "was monitoring each and every progress day and night".
Adding that there were allegations such as the white flag case, Mr Fonseka, who recently joined the ruling UNP led coalition government as a minister, said there should be an inquiry into the case.
"The Army as a whole did not commit any offense like that. I am 100% sure since I was monitoring each and every progress day and night. But there were allegations, such as the White Flag case. There were people who were trying to link me to this episode and put me to jail. I think that there should be a proper inquiry on the White Flag issue," he told Nation.lk in an interview published on Saturday.
"I can give the assurance for 99.9% for the Army that nothing like that would have happened. But if one odd man somewhere has committed anything without the knowledge of the others or the authorities, he should be punished."
Asked about the new government's pledge to probe the allegations, Mr Fonseka replied,
"There are allegations, and there are people who want to point the finger at the military. I was responsible for conducting the operations. I don’t like unwarranted allegations leveled against the military. So I would prefer to clear and restore the name of the military by clearing all these allegations."
"Therefore I prefer a transparent investigation. Most of these allegations have been leveled by the foreign countries and organizations. Therefore there should be some international representations by way of advisors and supervisors. The mechanism should be local, and the judges also should be local. So in order for the world to understand that the investigations are done in a transparent manner, we should allow room for foreign advisors and supervisors."
"Thereby we can justify the manner in which the investigations were done. In addition, I personally want to clear my name as well."
See full interview here.
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