The Deputy Secretary General of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party, a member of the current ruling United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), labelling war crimes allegations as ‘baseless’ and ‘fabricated’, demanded the removal of a US embassy tweet deeming the Sri Lankan army accountable for the killing of Tamil civilians.
Speaking to Sri Lankan media, the Deputy Secretary General, Udaya Gammanpila, disrepute the US Envoy, Stephen J Rapp’s visit to the island, stating,
"Frankly, Rapp is preparing the ground for human rights violations allegations against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions in March. That was the ulterior motive of his visit to Sri Lanka. We are not surprised at this tweet, as we know that he came to make this kind of statements here, but we urge the members of the UNHRC not to be misled by this kind of imprudent diplomatic mission.”
Denying state responsibility for war crimes and challenging the US to produce evidence, Gammanpila said,
“All of us are fully aware that Sri Lanka never committed war crimes. However in order to investigate and punish our military officers, there should be substantial evidence against them. So we repeatedly demand from the US to produce whatever the evidence possessed by them to prove their claims. However, they have failed to do so proving the fact that those are baseless and fabricated allegations.”
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