Former Sri Lankan presidents, brothers Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, have been expelled from Canada for “gross and systematic human rights abuses” in their country during the civil war, local authorities said on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said it summoned Canada’s acting envoy on Wednesday to “express our deepest displeasure” the day after Ottawa’s decision.
“Today (Tuesday) Canada took decisive action to end international impunity for those violating international law,” Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement announcing “targeted sanctions.”
If Sri Lanka’s key military commanders had already been banned from residence by Western countries, Canada is the first country to directly target the two main leaders of the powerful Rajapaksa clan.
The charismatic leader of the family clan, Mahinda Rajapaksa, served as President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015. Revered by the majority of ethnic Sinhalese for his victory over the Tamil Tigers guerrillas in 2009, he ended a civil war that lasted 37 years and claimed around 100,000 lives.
However, according to UN estimates, around 40,000 civilians died in the final weeks of the civil war. Mahinda Rajapaksa has always disputed this assessment and has rejected any international investigation into the atrocities attributed to the army led by his brother Gotabaya, his chief lieutenant.
As Secretary of Defense at the time, Gotabaya controlled the armed forces and police. An army chief accused him of leading death squads at the time. Gotabaya denied this accusation, which nevertheless earned him the persistent nickname “Terminator”.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa became president in 2019 and was then accused of ruining the country. He fled the anger of his people in the Maldives on July 9 before finding sanctuary in Singapore, where he tendered his resignation.
Having returned to the island in the meantime, he lives in a government complex under the official protection of the police and army.
Two other Sri Lanka Army officers who were also in Canadian crosshairs were relegated there on Tuesday. Any trade with them is forbidden to Canadians.
This is Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake, who was sentenced to death for slaughtering eight Tamil civilians, including children, whom Gotabaya Rajapaksa pardoned shortly after he came to power.
The other is Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, the principal suspect in the murder of 11 young men between 2008 and 2009 as part of the extortion of the victims’ families.