|
Sri Lanka protests US move to question general
LAST UPDATE: Tuesday, 3 Nov 2009 - 3:44:16 AM
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka: Sri Lanka demanded Monday that U.S. officials cease efforts to question the country's top general on alleged human rights abuses committed by the government during the final months of the civil war here.
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told reporters that Gen. Sarath Fonseka, a U.S. green card holder, had been scheduled for a Nov. 4 interview with the Department of Homeland Security. The meeting was to take place in Oklahoma, where he is visiting his two daughters, who study there.
The purpose of the meeting was not clear. The Sunday Times newspaper reported that he was trying to get his green card renewed.
But Fonseka was called by a government lawyer ahead of the meeting and asked to provide information on Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, Bogollagama said.
Bogollagama said he had summoned U.S. Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis to lodge a protest Monday and demanded the U.S. "desist from any endeavor to interview Gen. Fonseka."
"Whatever information Gen. Fonseka may have acquired in the exercise of his office is privileged by nature. Therefore it can't legally be shared with a third party without the prior approval or the consent of the Sri Lankan authorities," Bogollagama said.
A U.S embassy official said there would be no comment on the issue.
A Homeland Security official said he was not familiar with the Sri Lanka case but said it's not unusual for any renewal application to be checked against relevant law enforcement databases. If something were to pop up during that renewal process, the government would look to do inverviews with the person, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the record.
Fonseka, as army commander, led the battle to crush the Tamil Tiger rebels in their 25-year for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils that ended in May.
A U.S. State Department report last month alleged that government forces carried out attacks on civilians and hospitals, while the rebels forcibly recruited children killed fleeing civilians. The report said the actions could amount to war crimes.
U.N. reports say more than 7,000 civilians were killed in the last five months of the fighting.
|
|
|
