COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka’s president on Sunday vowed to protect his former ambassador to six South American nations, an ex-army chief accused of crimes in the bloody final phase of the country’s civil war. The suits are based on Jayasuriya’s role as a commander in the final phase of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009. More than 100,000 people are believed to have been killed in Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, including 40,000 to 70,000 in the final phase alone. Sri Lanka had agreed to allow foreign judges but backtracked later, insisting that only local courts could investigate the allegations. The civil war in Sri Lanka, an island off the southern tip of India, raged intermittently between 1983 and 2009.

Source: National Post September 03, 2017 15:13 UTC