An international human rights group has filed a criminal complaint with Singapore’s chief legal officer demanding the arrest of former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapakse.
The South African-based human rights group ‘The International Truth and Justice Project’ (ITJP) has complained that Mr. Rajapakse committed major human rights violations in Sri Lanka’s 2009 civil war in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
Reuters reported that it had seen a copy of the complaint.
The ITJP panel also noted that Mr Rajapakse should be prosecuted in Singapore under international law.
Attempts to reach Mr Rajapaksa through the Sri Lankan Embassy in Singapore were unsuccessful. However, Mr. Rajapakse had denied the human rights violations charged against him during the Sri Lankan war.
He fled Sri Lanka to the Maldives and then arrived in Singapore on July 14 via a Saudi Arabian flight.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier announced that Mr Rajapaksa had not sought asylum in Singapore and that the Singapore government had not granted him asylum. It said that Singapore does not generally grant asylum. The ministry also mentioned that he had come here personally.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan government launched a war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which had been fighting for independence for nearly 25 years, and completely destroyed the LTTE forces. Sri Lanka’s civil war ended with the killing of LTTE leader Mr. Velupillai Prabhakaran by the Sri Lankan army.