Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 11: Canada has imposed sanctions against former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former President and Prime minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake and Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi on Tuesday for human rights violation.
A government statement said that the four had “committed gross and systematic violations of human rights during Sri Lanka’s civil conflict, which occurred from 1983 to 2009.”
“The Special Economic Measures (Sri Lanka) Regulations impose on listed persons a prohibition on any transaction (effectively, an asset freeze) by prohibiting persons in Canada and Canadians outside Canada from engaging in any activity related to any property of these listed persons or providing financial or related services to them. The individuals listed in the Schedule to the Regulations are also rendered inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” the government announcement said.
“The individuals listed in the schedule to the regulations are also rendered inadmissible to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection act,” it added.
The sanctions target former Sri Lanka President Gotabaya, who resigned in July after a massive protest against his government, and his elder brother and former President and Prime Minister Mahinda.
Gotabaya temporarily fled his country last summer after mass protests over the country’s economic crisis, while Mahinda resigned from his post last spring.
Chandana Hettiarachchi, a Sri Lankan naval intelligence officer, has been sanctioned for the “flagrant denial of the right to liberty of at least eight Trincomalee 11 victims, from 2008 to 2009.”
Notably, he was part of a 14-member gang of navy men who had abducted kids of wealthy Colombo families for ransom. This case related to the forced disappearance of 11 persons between the ages of 17 and 50.
On the other side, Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake of the Sri Lanka Army, was involved in the extrajudicial killing of at least eight Tamil villagers including a five-year-old child on December 20, 2000.
