UK sanctions on war-winning military: NJC slams govt. over its lukewarm response

The National Joint Committee (NJC) has strongly condemned what it called the NPP government's weak response to the sanctions imposed on retired senior military officers and former LTTE Ampara-Batticaloa leader.

- 

The following is the text of statement issued by Lt Col. (retd.) Anil Amarasekera, on behalf of the NJC:

“On 24th of March 2025 UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office in a press release titled "UK sanctions for Human Rights Violations and Abuses during the Sri Lanka Civil War" stated that the UK Government has imposed sanctions on four individuals, three of them are former military commanders of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces. The National Joint Committee cannot understand how the government of the United Kingdom came to the conclusion that there was a civil war in Sri Lanka when the security forces in Sri Lanka only conducted a humanitarian confrontation against the LTTE that was considered by the American FBI as the most ruthless terrorist organisation in the world. The Sinhalese were not at war with the Tamils; in fact a majority of the Tamils lived and continue to live peacefully with the Sinhalese in the south of Sri Lanka.

In a mild and weak response the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka says that such unilateral actions by countries do not assist but serve to complicate the national reconciliation process underway in Sri Lanka. The Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka should have informed the UK Government that there was no civil war in Sri Lanka and that Sri Lanka had a non-international armed conflict for over three decades in which the armed forces of the government had a confrontation with the LTTE, an armed terrorist organisation. The Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka should have also informed the United Kingdom government that the aim of the LTTE, for three decades, was to divide the country and establish a separate state of Eelam by overthrowing governments that the people elected democratically to rule the country and that the LTTE was finally defeated by the government armed forces of Sri Lanka in 2009.