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MR urges protests against UN report
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President Mahinda Rajapaksa has called for mass protests against a UN report which urged a probe into alleged war crimes committed during the fight against Tamil Tiger rebels, his office said today.
President Mahinda Rajapakse in an address to his Sri Lanka Freedom Party officials said this year's May Day rally should be turned into a "show of our strength" against international calls for war crimes investigations.
"All these days we did not demonstrate our strength, but now on May Day we will show our strength," the president said on Saturday. An audio tape of the speech was released by his office.
His remarks came as a leaked UN report called for an independent inquiry into "credible" allegations that Sri Lanka committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in its final 2009 offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.
Rajapakse said a section of the international community was leading a campaign against Sri Lanka and harboring a "grudge" because he did not allow the country to be divided as demanded by the Tamil Tigers.
He said the world had also benefited from the crushing of the rebels who had mastered the use of "suicide jackets" in their trade-mark bombings.
Rajapakse said allegations of war crimes, contained in a UN expert panel report, were not new but there were increasing suggestions that those who led the military campaign should be taken before a war crimes tribunal.
"On behalf of the country, if they ask me to sit on the electric chair, I will happily do it," the president said.
The leaked report detailed "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicate a wide range of violations by both the government and the rebels, "some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity".
It said "tens of thousands" of people died between January and May 2009 in the final government offensive that resulted in the defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, ending a decades-old ethnic conflict.
It also listed alleged violations by the rebel forces, saying they had intentionally used civilians as human shields. (Agence France-Presse)
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