Three Current and Former Presidents of Sri Lanka have Pledged No Accountability

“It is like Cassius Clay fighting a school boy…they [the international community] can’t knock us down.”

On 12 March 2015, the new President of Sri Lanka, Mathripala Sirisena, said to the BBC, “We are ready to get advice and their opinions for the inquiry, but I don’t think we need any outsiders because we have all the sources for this.”

This sentiment was echoed most recently this week by another former president, Chandrika Kumaratunga (1994-2005), who said that calls for an international investigation were “insulting” in its implication that the country was unable to do this independently.

The letter, cited the 2015 Human Rights Watch World Report, which stated inter alia

(T)he government continued its longtime practice of refusing to investigate or prosecute credible allegations of torture, including sexual violence, against suspected LTTE members or supporters in custody.”

The letter further stated that there is no tangible evidence to suggest that the government of Sri Lanka will do anything other than remain intransient in its grant of impunity to perpetrators and its efforts to circumvent the will of international community.

In conclusion, the letter commended the High Commissioner’s Office diligence in its work.

The TGTE has also launched a Million Signature Campaign in fifteen languages, calling the UN to refer Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The TGTE calls upon the international civil society to participate in the Campaign