A group of former Sri Lankan commanders denied that the military committed war crimes and slammed the government for reportedly arresting soldiers, whenever the island is discussed at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Whenever there is an UNHRC event coming up, incidents of arresting and punishing military personnel come up out of nowhere,” claimed former army commander Daya Ratnayake. “When such incidents occur, the image of entire tri-forces are being damaged. That’s why we request the President to look at this sensitive issue.”

Speaking at a press conference alongside other military personnel, Ratnayake also attacked TNA parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran for calling for accountability for war crimes.

“We do have a clear understanding about the speeches made by Sumanthiran and others like him,” he said. “They continue to level various allegations against armed forces to get their narrow objectives fulfilled.”

“As soldiers engaged in the war, we believe no war crime was committed in this country,” he added. He went on to claim that “a war crime is not a crime committed by one single soldier... It is an organised crime”. Ratnayake then dismissed the notion of such crimes having taken place, despite several reports from the United Nations, NGOs and other governments confirming that violations of international law occurred.

“We don’t see such things had happened,” he said, instead claiming soldiers may have committed “wrongdoings, mistakes and anti social acts”. “They were given punishments. No war crimes, which were organised and systematic crimes that were committed by the military,” he added.

The former commander then further claimed that “as a community, I think Sinhalese have done our [fair] share of contribution to the reconciliation, to make it a success”.

“Most of my friends are Tamils,” he added. “If we can forgive them as those who engaged in the war, much needed to be done from the other side as well.”

See more of the press conference from the Daily Mirror here.

His comments come as Tamils across the North-East and abroad have called for Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court and leaders tried for violating international law.

Last week the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council, the Sri Lankan government’s failure to establish an accountability mechanism for violations of international law means that referral to the International Criminal Court or the creation of another international mechanism “would be fully warranted”.