Shavendra Siva held a meeting with several defence advisors from foreign embassies in which he spoke of the readiness of the Army to "provide security and protection to the state as necessary" as anti-government protests ignite across the island.

“The armed forces of Sri Lanka would always comply with the Constitution and the Army is no exception. The Army as a professional outfit is always prepared to provide security and protection to the State as necessary”, Silva explained to the visiting representatives.

The meeting which was held at the office of the Chief of Defence staff was attended by Captain Ian Keith Cain, Defence Adviser (Australia), Commander, M Shafil Bari, Defence Adviser, Bangladesh, Senior Colonel Wan Dong, Military, Naval and Air Attaché (China), Lieutenant Colonel Chang Qianjin, Assistant Military Naval and Air Attache, (China), Captain Vikas Sood, Defence Adviser (India), Lieutenant Colonel Punnet Sushill, Assistant Defence Adviser, (India), Colonel Homayou Ali Yari, Military Attaché, (Iran), Captain Gaku Fukaura, Defence / Security Attaché, (Japan), Colonel Ismail Naseer, Defence Adviser, (Maldives), Colonel Muhammad Safdar Khan, Defence Adviser, (Pakistan), Colonel Aleksey A Bondarev, Military, Naval & Air Attaché, (Russia), Colonel P.J Clayton, Defence Adviser, (United Kingdom) and Lieutenant Commander Richard Lister, Naval Attaché (United States of America).

Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades, which has led to island-wide protests calling for members of the Rajapaksa government to resign. Silva, who is banned from travelling to the US, is closely allied with the Rajapaksa regime having served as head of the Notorious 58th Division whilst Gotabaya Rajapaksa was defence secretary during the final stages of the armed conflict. As protests rage across the island hundreds have been arrested and dozens injured as clashes with state forces are found across the south. As reports of armed convoys being deployed in the Colombo, anti-government protests have continued across the island.

Head of a notorious military unit

Whilst current Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was serving as defence secretary and oversaw a military offensive that killed tens of thousands of Tamils, Silva was the head of Sri Lanka’s notorious 58 Division, an army unit that committed grave violations of international law. Shavendra Silva also belongs to the Gajaba Regiment of the Sri Lankan Army and served with Gotabaya Rajapaksa in this regiment in 1989 when the Army was violently crushing the JVP.

Silva was named as the army’s new Chief of Staff under the previous Sri Lankan government. An ardent Sinhala nationalist who once penned a book to mark the anniversary of Buddha’s enlightenment, he was reportedly bestowed the most “prestigious awards that a lay-person can receive by all three sects of the Sri Lankan Buddhist order for true devotion to preserve the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the motherland” and praised by then president Maithripala Sirisena who commended the commander’s “experience and leadership” for the new role.

Silva’s “experience” includes leading the 58 Division as the government launched a massive military assault that saw hospitals repeatedly bombed, widespread sexual violence, torture and the execution of surrendering Tamils.

The 58 Division in particular stands accused of the most egregious of crimes.

In 2011, Channel 4 News interviewed an army officer on the front lines of the offensive, who told of the crimes committed by troops from the unit. He stated,

“They shot people at random, stabbed people, raped them, cut out their tongues, cut women’s breasts off. I have witnessed this with my own eyes. I saw the naked dead bodies of women without heads and other parts of their bodies. I saw a lot of small innocent children getting killed in large numbers. I saw people soaked in blood. 

They could do whatever they wanted there. It was their empire.”

One of the most disturbing crimes that Silva is accused of directing is the mass murder of surrendering Tamil civilians and LTTE cadres, since dubbed the “White Flag” incident. The officer quoted Silva as telling troops on the frontline;

“This is a very decisive day for us because last night I got a call from the defence secretary. He told me that we only have a small chunk of land left to capture. Do whatever it takes, however it is done… finish it off the way it has to be done.”

Dozens of LTTE leaders, injured cadres and Tamil civilians were massacred by the military as they attempted to surrender. Photographs taken by Sri Lankan troops show Silva standing before the bodies of killed Tamils.

An officer from Silva's 58 Division went on to tell Channel 4 News, 

“I can confidently state that those who ordered the killing of people who surrendered were defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Brigadier Shavendra Silva”.

In 2019, the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) released a dossier documenting evidence of Silva's war crimes, in subsequent years he and his family have been barred from travelling to the US and calls for sanctions on him have grown from other European countries. 

Read more at Army.lk