UN orders recall of Sri Lankan peacekeeper in Mali 

The commander of the Sri Lankan contingent in the UN peacekeeping operations in Mali has been ordered back home after a review of his human rights record, according to Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. 

The decision to send Lt. Col. Kalana Priyankara Lankamithra Amunupure back was made after new information about him was received by the UN, Dujarric said on Friday, Besides the usual vetting for all peacekeepers, “there were some extra procedures done with the Sri Lankan contingents”, he said.

Amunupure was reportedly involved in atrocities against Tamils during the civil war in Sri Lanka when tens of thousands of civilians perished and the UN has said that war crimes were committed. A human rights group, International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), said in an April press release from London that it had sent the UN a list of 56 paramilitary Special Task Force (STF) personnel who should be barred from serving as peacekeepers because of their human rights record.

It said they “are either alleged perpetrators or were involved in frontline combat in the final stages of the war when the UN says system(ic) crimes were committed by security force units”. 

Of Sri Lanka’s 682 peacekeepers, about 200 are deployed in the West African nation with the operation known as UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali.

Col. Amunupure is not guilty of any HR violations: SL Army
Director of Media and Military Spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu/Army.lk

Meanwhile, Military spokesman Brigadier Sumith Atapattu said today that the Sri Lanka Army would disprove the allegations leveled against Lt. Col. Kalana Amunupure as he was not guilty of any Human Rights abuses in the last stages of the war. 

Atapattu said however that it would comply with the UN request and take steps to recall Lt. Col. Amunupure, when an official request was received.

"It was only a verbal request. We will recall the Commander according to the formalities following an official request. If the UN does not want him there, we have to recall him.

“However, we do not agree with the allegation. He has not done anything wrong. He has not committed any war crime. We will appeal and send him back,” Brigadier Atapattu said.

UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric announced that the request for Lt. Col. Amunupure to leave Mali was made “based on recently received information".

A total of 19,000 members of the Sri Lanka Army have to-date served in UN peacekeeping missions either as Combat Troops, Military Observers (156), Staff Officers or as Assistants to Staff Officers in several parts of the worl.