UN watchdog to quiz Lankan team over Fonseka's LTTE remarks..!!!

UN watchdog to quiz Lankan team over Fonseka's LTTE remarks
PTI Monday, February 8, 2010 19:10 IST

COLOMBO: The chief of the UN human rights watchdog will quiz a Sri Lankan delegation over the controversial allegation by the former army chief that instructions were given by a senior government official to kill the top Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leaders and not allow them to surrender during the final stages of the ethnic conflict.

Expecting queries over issues raised by the defeated presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka on the last phase of ethnic conflict, a team of Sri Lankan experts led by human rights minister Mahinda Samarasinghe is slated to meet UN Human Rights Council chief Navaneethan Pillai in Geneva tomorrow.

"Though this is routine meeting held in Geneva every three months, we expect the issues raised by former Army Chief Sarath Fonseka to come up for discussions," a top human rights ministry official told PTI.

In a Sri Lankan newspaper interview last year, Fonseka had alleged that the defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse had instructed a key military commander that the surrendering top LTTE leadership must be killed during the final stages of war.

Fonseka later clarified that the newspaper had quoted him out of context.

The top Sri Lankan human rights ministry official said the government team is slated to meet Pillai, with possible clarifications sought by the international body on the allegations raised by Fonseka.

"We are sending our expert team led by the minister to discuss various issues, including the one raised by Fonseka that could come for discussions," he said. The top Lankan official said the team will also do the "ground work" for its participation in the next Human Rights Council sessions.

"Samarasinghe and the team during the three day visit will also do the ground work for the Sri Lankan delegation taking part in the next Human Rights Council sessions," he said.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror Online reported that Samarasingha along with attorney general Mohan Peiris left for Geneva today. They will also meet United Nations high commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres to discuss the allegations by the General, it said.

General Fonseka, who lost the January 26 presidential election as the combined opposition candidate against incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse, had said in December that as the army commander he had no information communicated to him in the final days of the war and that three key LTTE leaders had opted to surrender to the armed forces as the battle drew to a finish.

Later, however, he said the newspaper had quoted him out of context.

dnaindia.com