Jagath Jayasuriya faces charges of war crimes over his role in the civil war

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has vowed to protect a former Army chief who faces allegations of war crimes from his time as a top Army officer during the island’s civil war. “I will never allow anyone, including international elements, to harass not only former Army commander Lt. Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya but any war hero,” he told a huge gathering of cadre of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Cases in South America

Last week, the International Truth and Justice Project, a human rights group, filed two cases in Colombia and Brazil against Gen. Jayasuriya, who was Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to several South American countries until recently. The group alleged that he oversaw torture camps and was responsible for disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the final stages of the civil war.

Speaking at the SLFP’s 66th anniversary convention in Colombo on Sunday, Mr. Sirisena emphasised that no one would be allowed to discredit the country’s war heroes, “who were actively involved in defending and safeguarding the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty”.

An SLFP veteran, Mr. Sirisena currently faces pressure from a faction of the party that supports his political rival and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who retains considerable public support despite his election loss in 2015.

In an apparent bid to consolidate support within his divided party, Mr. Sirisena said that he was able to protect democracy in the SLFP “unlike in the past”. “Everyone is free to air their views in the SLFP today,” he said.

Despite the government’s evidently slow-paced efforts towards post-war reconciliation, people in the Tamil-majority north and east have pinned their hopes on Mr. Sirisena, who is a frequent visitor to war-affected areas, where he has promised to address their long-pending concerns. At the same time, he faces a major political challenge from within the party that appears to threaten the stability of the government.

The Rajapaksa camp enjoys support from the armed forces and the Sinhala Buddhist hard-liners who will oppose any domestic or international investigation into war crimes, said senior journalist V. Thanabalasingham. “President Sirisena cannot say anything against their position on accountability. It is naïve to expect him or the government or the establishment to say or do anything against those they consider war heroes,” he told The Hindu.

The Tamil society too has for long relied on the international community to intervene and solve their problems, but the international actors are now lauding the government for its reconciliation efforts, he said, referring to a recent statement from Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells from the U.S. who visited Colombo recently. “The Tamil people’s dependence on these actors has come down, but they do not have an alternative either,” he said.