A former senior Sri Lankan front line commando has been announced as the new Commandant of the Special Task Force (STF), a police unit accused of widespread atrocities.
Waruna Jayasundera, an STF officer with frontline combat experience during the armed conflict, was appointed the new Commandant in a reshuffle this week.
Jayasundera was named in a report by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) as STF officers involved in frontline command positions who should be barred from peacekeeping roles after reports emerged that he had been sent to South Sudan as United Nations peacekeeper.
According to ITJP witnesses, Jayasundera was in charge of intelligence in the East in 2006-7, as the Sri Lankan military ramped up an offensive that would kill tens of thousands of Tamil civilians.
Read more: Sri Lankan officers involved in human rights abuses identified in new ITJP report
