Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has categorically denied the UK government’s allegations of widespread human rights violations during Sri Lanka’s military operations against the LTTE and urged the incumbent government to stand by former armed forces personnel facing foreign sanctions.

Issuing a statement on the UK’s recent decision to impose travel bans and asset freezes on former Chief of Defence Staff Shavendra Silva, former Navy Commander Wasantha Karannagoda, and former Army Commander Jagath Jayasuriya, Rajapaksa condemned the move, calling it unjustified and based on ‘unproven allegations.’

He further criticised the sanctions on Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan, also known as ‘Karuna Amman,’ who defected from the LTTE in 2004 and later entered politics, describing it as an attempt to appease the dominant Tamil diaspora in the UK.

“Three decades of LTTE terrorism claimed the lives of 27,965 armed forces and police personnel, not to mention thousands of civilians, including politicians. What Sri Lanka defeated in 2009 was an organisation that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation had designated as the world’s deadliest terrorist group,” Rajapaksa stated.

He also noted that the UK had introduced special legislation in 2021 and 2023 to protect its own military personnel from prosecution, questioning the double standards applied to Sri Lanka.

“I categorically reject the UK government’s allegations of widespread human rights violations during military operations,” he reiterated, calling on the present government to defend former military personnel from what he described as foreign persecution.