Sri Lanka appoints war crimes denier Maj. Gen Madawala as military adviser to SL mission to UN

War Crimes Denier Major General Ubaya Medawela has been appointed as the Military Adviser at the Office of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York.

Major General Medawela is to assume duties in his new post at month’s end.

Accordingly, Major General Medawela has relinquished duties as Security Forces Commander-West and Colonel Commandant of the Sri Lanka Army Women’s Corps and been attached to the Army Headquarters from October 17.

Criticising the appointment of Medawela, Inner City Press said “ while Sri Lanka at the UN and elsewhere says it is putting the slaughter of 2008-09 behind it, the government is sending as its Military Adviser to the UN none other than Major General Ubaya Medawela, who in classic ‘Lies Agrees To’ fashion not only denied the authenticity of footage of summary executions, but asserted that the killers spoke Tamil”.

When Channel 4 broadcast the video footage of summary executions of surrendered LTTE carders, Medawela said the ‘unaltered’ video suggests that what the documentary had presented as soldiers executing Tamil rebel prisoners actually showed rebels dressed in army fatigues. He also said the video the military has analysed had a Tamil soundtrack, suggesting the killers were rebels.

Major General Medawela, who was also the military spokesmen, was a member of the delegation that attended the 17th UNHRC session in Geneva.