Tamil parliamentarian Selvam Adaikalanathan has condemned Sri Lanka’s Deputy Defence Minister Aruna Jayasekara, after the retired Major General claimed that no war crimes had been committed against Tamils and described atrocities as merely “unfortunate incidents” of war.
Adaikalanathan accused Jayasekara of attempting to whitewash decades of massacres and mass atrocities. “Even the Chemmani mass graves, regarded internationally as evidence of atrocities, should not be considered human rights violations, according to him,” the MP said, pointing out that the United Nations had already expressed concern over the site where more than 240 skeletons have been unearthed in recent weeks.
The Deputy Minister’s remarks to the Sunday Mawbima, come even as Colombo pledged to initiate a new domestic mechanism to account for human rights violations at the UN Human Rights Council.
Adaikalanathan demanded Jayasekara’s immediate suspension. The MP further recalled that a no-confidence motion against Jayasekara had previously been blocked in parliament, despite suspicions of his involvement in the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks due to his senior role in the military at the time. “Further doubts have now arisen as to whether the minister himself was implicated in human rights violations,” Adaikalanathan warned.
Jayasekara’s military record has long been marred by allegations of serious abuse. As a commander, he oversaw troops accused of mass killings and sexual violence against Tamils. He also served as second-in-command of Sri Lanka’s third peacekeeping contingent to Haiti, where UN investigations later revealed that 134 Sri Lankan soldiers were implicated in running a child sex trafficking ring that exploited children as young as nine between 2004 and 2007. A confidential inquiry by the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services concluded that sexual abuse by Sri Lankan troops was “frequent, occurred usually at night, and at virtually every location where Sri Lankan military were deployed.”
Despite this record, Jayasekara has been rewarded with a senior political post under Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s administration. Adaikalanathan denounced the Deputy Minister’s remarks as a blatant attempt to conceal war crimes and atrocities, and questioned whether Dissanayake truly believed that no violations had occurred.
“Tamil men, women, children and the elderly alike were brutally tortured and massacred,” he said. “The Chemmani mass graves stand as undeniable proof.”
Adaikalanathan concluded by rejecting any reliance on internal inquiries and called for Jayasekara’s resignation.
