New Delhi: The US on Wednesday, April 27, sanctioned Sri Lanka’s former Naval chief for his role and serving as provincial governor for alleged war crimes during the country's civil war. Meanwhile, in an unusual move, US ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung voiced her dismay regarding a book written by a Sri Lankan lawmaker that describes an alleged US-supported plot to overthrow the government.

On Wednesday, the US State Department in a press statement attributed to secretary of state Antony Blinken said Washington was designating Wasantha Karannagoda, governor of Sri Lanka's North Western Province, for “a gross violation of human rights during his tenure as a Naval Commander”. As per the statement, Karannagoda and his wife Srimathi Ashoka Karannagoda will be barred from entering the US.

The United States has become increasingly interested in Sri Lanka since the war, especially given China's growing influence in the region. The US is among the core group of nations at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that have drafted and passed resolutions critical of Sri Lanka, advocating for accountability for alleged human rights violations during the last phase of the Sri Lankan civil war.

“The allegation that Wasantha Karannagoda committed a gross human rights violation, documented by NGOs and independent investigations, is serious and credible.  By designating Wasantha Karannagoda, the United States reaffirms its commitment to upholding human rights, ending impunity for human rights violators, acknowledging the suffering of victims and survivors, and promoting accountability for perpetrators in Sri Lanka,” the State Department said.

After overseeing the Sri Lankan government's military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE), he also held the position of secretary to the Ministry of Transport. Known to be close to the Rajapaksa family, Karannagoda was appointed by then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa in December 2021.

Two months before he was appointed governor, the attorney general told the Court of Appeal that the Sri Lankan government was dropping charges against Karannagoda. He had been indicted in a case linked to the killing of 11 young boys in naval custody, who were allegedly abducted in 2008 and 2009 in order to extort money from their well-to-do families.

In 2020, the Trump administration put a similar entry bar on the Sri Lankan army chief, Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, for “his involvement in extrajudicial killings during Sri Lanka’s civil war”. It had been the first sanction imposed against a Sri Lankan military official over war crime allegations related to the civil war. The Sri Lankan government had protested the designation and Silva is now Sri Lanka’s chief of defence staff.

Envoy calls regime change allegations 'fiction'

In another development, the US envoy in Colombo Julie Chung tweeted on Wednesday evening that she was “disappointed that an MP has made baseless allegations and spread outright lies in a book that should be labeled ‘fiction’.”

Her tweet was a rebuttal to the launch of a book by member of parliament Wimal Weerawansa on Wednesday, during which the author spoke of an alleged plot to assassinate then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and top military officials during the Aragalaya anti-government protests and have the speaker take over as head of an interim government.

As per EconomyNext, he claimed that Army chief General Shavendra Silva was not present in the country was suspicious. Additionally, he claimed that the accusations of human rights abuses against Silva were actually an attempt to control him.

The Sri Lankan defence ministry issued a statement on Weerawansa’s remarks on General Silva’s movements around the time of the alleged plot. “The ministry said the general had flown to India to take part in a Deputy National Security Advisor Level Meeting of the Colombo Security Conclave, a security conference organised between friendly countries in the South Indian Ocean region, held on July 07,” it said, as quoted by EconomyNext.

Stating that the comments by the MP were “baseless”, the Sri Lankan defence ministry asserted that the Chief of Defence Staff General Shavendra Silva had participated in the meeting “under the directions and approval of the then president of Sri Lanka and the defence ministry”.

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