Opinion by Mathew Carr
The world didn’t yet punish Sri Lanka for brutality against the Tamil people in its recent civil war.
That failure arguably gave Israel cover …to repeat Sri Lanka’s brutal tactics.
Round up your victims into a small geographical area, then kill them. Use “fair retaliation” as your excuse.
Like in Gaza, the Sri Lanka violence at the end of its brutal war was overseen in part by the USA.
Now, a former leader of SriLanka has been arrested. But not for war crimes or his part in them. For a much lesser financial crime.
It’s a bit pathetic…yet still progress I guess.
The world needs to arrest more national leaders …and former ones … AND punish them for their worst alleged crimes…to deter bad behavior while in office.
International / multilateral / UN legal structures need to be made more strong to prevent state violence.
Leaders who fail to pursue previous criminal leaders are bad guys, too. Come on.
Arrest comes after mass graves discovered.
https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/mass-grave-88-uncovered-colombo-port
Arrested politician Ranil Wickremesinghe became quite animated when accused of helping to set up a template for Israel’s violence and murder in Gaza….herding 100s and 1000s of people into no-fly zones “and then slaughtering them and bombing them”.
Instagram post from 9 March:
At the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009, Wickremesinghe was the Leader of the Opposition, with no direct role in the military campaign that ended the conflict. (See CV below from ChatGPT unchecked, Grok helped too)
His influence was limited to political opposition, where he pushed for reconciliation and a political solution, building on his earlier efforts as Prime Minister to negotiate peace with the LTTE. His post-war stance focused on accountability and ethnic reconciliation, though his later actions as President were criticized by some for failing to adequately address war crimes allegations.
This latest development has reignited public scrutiny of Wickremesinghe’s political history, including his alleged involvement in the Batalanda torture complex during the 1980s and 1990s.
A Presidential Commission of Inquiry appointed in 1995 accused Wickremesinghe, then a senior minister, of having knowledge of and alleged administrative responsibility over the Batalanda housing scheme, which was used as a covert detention and torture site targeting members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP).
Though no criminal charges were ultimately brought against him, the Commission recommended that he be stripped of his civic rights – a recommendation that was never implemented.
Also interesting, Wickremesinghe sharply criticised Mr Trump’s tariffs in an interview a few hours before his arrest.
