'We managed to stop UN publishing names of perpetrators' – Sirisena

President Maithripala Sirisena says that his government was able to stop names of alleged war criminals in the Sri Lankan armed forces getting published in the report of the UN investigation on Sri Lanka.

Speaking to heads of media establishments and editors of newspapers and electronic media in Colombo Friday (18), President Sirisena said UN body had planned to identify key people as perpetrators of human rights violations and barred them from travelling abroad and impose other sanctions.

He said that 'international powers would have insisted on hard strictures and conditions on Sri Lanka in the Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, if not for the change of government in Presidential Election of January 8 this year.'

'Int'l community satisfied'

If the Rajapaksa regime was in power, 'names of perpetrators would have been made public', he said.

The international community is satisfied with the actions taken by the government towards restoration of rights, media freedom, good governance and other positive steps of the new government and it has positively reflected in the UNHRC Report, he further said.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera who accompanied President Sirisena during the meeting with media heads, told the UNHRC session earlier on Monday that the Sri Lankan process of accountability will ‘help restore the good name of the armed forces’.

“The reputation of the vast majority of the armed forces was tarnished because of the system and culture created by a few in positions of responsibility,” Minister Samaraweera said in Geneva.

© JDS