COLOMBO – The United Nations has suspended Sri Lankan troops frompeacekeeping duties after Colombo ignored repeated warnings and appointed ageneral accused of war crimes to head its army.
The UN and several Western nations expressed concern over the promotion ofMaj Gen Shavendra Silva last month despite the allegations against him.
“In light of this appointment, the UN Department of Peace Operations istherefore suspending future Sri Lankan Army deployments…,” Deputy UNspokesman Farhan Haq told *AFP* in New York.
“A Sri Lankan Army unit and individual officers currently serving with UNPeacekeeping will thus be repatriated, beginning next month, in accordancewith their rotation dates and will not be replaced by Sri Lankanpersonnel,” Haq said.
In Sri Lanka, the foreign ministry said its secretary, Ravinatha Aryasinha,will meet with the Department of Peace Operations on Friday.
Aryasinha is scheduled to “discuss this matter with the Under SecretaryGeneral of the UN Department of Peace Operations”, the ministry said in astatement.
Some 490 Sri Lankan troops are currently deployed for peacekeepingoperations in Mali, Lebanon and Sudan. Two Sri Lankan soldiers were killedin a mine attack in Mali this year.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the UN decision, saying it “sends a strongsignal to governments that sweeping suspected war crimes under the carpetwill not go unnoticed by the world body”.
President Maithripala Sirisena promoted Silva as the new army chiefbrushing aside international outrage over his appointment.
Silva has been accused by the UN of committing war crimes during the finalstages of Sri Lanka’s separatist conflict, which ended in May 2009.
The 55-year-old general has dismissed the allegations against him whilepraising Sirisena’s “courageous decision” to give him the top job despiteintense foreign pressure.
The government has also rejected as “unwarranted and unacceptable” theavalanche of international criticism over Silva’s ascension to the top job.
UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said at the time she was “deeplytroubled” by Silva’s appointment.The US embassy in Colombo describedallegations of gross human rights violations against Silva as “serious andcredible”.
Sri Lanka’s successive governments have resisted calls for an independentinvestigation into the conduct of troops during the final months of the37-year conflict, in which an estimated 100,000 people were killed. -APP/AFP