“We deported him this evening without pressing charges. But, we deleted all the pictures he had taken in the north.”

In an interview with Al Jazeera, the Commander of the Security Forces in Jaffna Major General Mahinda Hathurusinghe laughed off reports of abductions, torture and rape committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces, dismissing them as ‘lies’.

Speaking on the documentary ‘Scars of Sri Lanka’, which aired on Thursday, Hathurusinghe dismissed claims of abductions, stating,

“I flatly deny... None we do not. We don’t have anyone and we don’t abduct. Because there is no reason, why should we abduct? We have no terrorism.”

When questioned about individual reports of abductions by reporter Evan Williams, Hathurusinghe laughed before responding,

“You know... I really can smile. There is nothing else I can do. Because this is politics. This is the problem…”

Further questioning on rapes and abductions from a Human Rights Watch report released earlier this year (see here), lead to more smiles from the Commander, who went on to add,

“I suppose my smile tells the story. They are all fabricated, no base at all, all stories. Because they just want to stay in UK. They want to continue in other countries. These are all lies. These are all lies.”

Last month an Australian Senator and New Zealand MP visitng the North-East had seen text messages sent Hathutusinghe himself to 'comfort women' he personally abuses.

Tamil Nadu political parties and media associations have appealed to the Indian government to secure the release of a Tamil Nadu journalist that was arrested in Kilinochchi on Wednesday.

MDMK leader Vaiko, rallying along with PMK and VCK wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying:

"Prabhakaran was a journalist and had every right to visit any country on a tourist visa and the freedom to meet people,"

"the threatening and the international pressure are not the path for us to go forward. The international community should give us a vote of trust, because the Sri Lankan government has the greatest will to do things right and is dedicating great resources to reconciliation and reconstruction. We have the institutions to solve our problems,"

"It is a mistake to apply selective and subjective standards to Sri Lanka. The UNHRC must consider the facts, by their own merits,"

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called for the immediate release of Indian journalist Tamil Prabhakaran, who was detained by Sri Lankan security forces on Wednesday.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) said today that the current war census being carried out by the Sri Lankan government to consolidate the number of dead and disappeared over the 20 year civil war was improper.