The Tamil National Party People’s Front (TNPF) leader Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam condemned the Presidential pardon issued to Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake and said that “nothing can be achieved through the Sri Lanka’s judiciary or its internal mechanisms.”

Rathnayake, was sentenced to death for killing eight Tamil Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Mirusuvil, Jaffna on December 2000, after being convicted in June 2015 and had his sentence upheld in April 2019 at Sri Lanka’s supreme court.

Lawyer, human rights advocate and former Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, Ambika Satkunanathan, questioned the basis for the presidential pardon of Sunil Rathnayake and the legitimacy of the process, and used the case to underline the challenges Tamil families’ face in holding perpetrators accountable and obtain justice.

A Sinhala Buddhist monk has praised Sri Lanka’s pardon of a soldier who was convicted over the massacre of Tamil civilians, calling it “delightful news”.

Buddhist monk Medille Pannaloka stated that Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Kamal Gunaratne, who is also accused of overseeing war crimes, called him personally to inform him of Staff Sergeant Sunil Rathnayake’s pardon.

The US Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia has condemned Sri Lanka’s pardon of a soldier who was convicted over the massacre of Tamils, calling it “deeply troubling”.

Former Chief Minister of Northern Province in Sri Lanka, C.V. Wigneswaran, slammed the Presidential pardon and release of convicted criminal Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake, referring to it as a “political act” rather than made in response in the best interests of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The British government has responded to a letter by Tamil diaspora groups calling on the Foreign Office to investigate alleged war crimes committed against Tamils by British mercenaries in Sri Lanka. The government has recommended referring the allegations to a special war crimes unit within the Metropolitan Police.

Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth Lord Ahmad responded to the letter which was sent shortly following the publication of Keenie Meenie: The British Mercenaries Who Got Away with War Crimes by Phil Miller.

The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) has vehemently condemned the pardoning of a Sri Lankan soldier convicted for massacre of 8 Tamil civilians including a 5-year-old.

The Global Tamil Forum (GTF) has released a statement, in response to Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa’s decision to pardon Sunil Ratnayake, an army officer convicted of killing 8 Tamil civilians including children, calling for the international community to consider alternative avenues to justice including the invocation of universal jurisdiction.

The Committee for Protecting Rights of Prisoners (CPRP) announced it plans to file a legal challenge of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa's presidential pardon of Sunil Ratnayake, at Sri Lanka's Supreme Court.

Ratnayake, a soldier who was convicted for the massacre of eight Tamil civilians in 2000 and sentenced to death in 2015, was pardoned by the Sri Lankan president this week.

As reported by FT.lk, CPRP Chairman Attorney-at-Law Senaka Perera said:

A wide cross-section of civil society in Sri Lanka and the North-East has called for the reduction of numbers of prisoners through releases and called on the authorities to implement better hygiene standards in prisons on the island in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Human Rights Watch has released a statement condemning the presidential pardon of former Sgt. Sunil Ratnayake, who was convicted for massacring 8 Tamil civilians including children.

(Photo Credit: World Bank)