Sri Lanka to end accountability for war crimes and disappearances, keep military in North-East

<p>Sri Lanka’s purported new government will end accountability for war crimes and enforced disappearances by the security forces, newly appointed Foreign Minister Sarath Amunugama said.</p> <p>“Our idea would be to put this all behind us, now 10 years have gone [since the war’s end]. We can’t go on and on and on,” Amunugama said in a wide-ranging interview to <a href="https://www.thenational.ae/world/asia/sri-lanka-s-new-foreign-minister-…">The National newspaper</a>, based in the UAE.</p> <p>“In a war, there are war situations,” he said, regarding massacres of tens of thousands of Tamils by Sri Lanka’s security forces during their offensive against the LTTE.</p> <p>Amunugama also said most of those believed ‘disappeared’ by the security forces were “LTTE cadres who were killed in battle”.</p> <p>He blamed the Tamil diaspora for the international pressure on Sri Lanka on justice for wartime atrocities.</p> <p>Amunugama also dismissed fears about the increasing militarisation of the Tamil-majority North and East.</p> <p>The presence of the military gives the Tamils better security, he said- which, The National’s report noted, is in stark contrast to expressions of fear coming out of those areas.</p> <p>“The local population wants peace and quiet,” Amunugama said, “like in the south [of the island].”</p> <p>“Sri Lanka is one, indivisible. This is not a discriminatory military act,” he further said, referring to the deployment of the majority of the armed forces in the Tamil majority areas.</p>