Source: PTI

Sri Lankan troops did not commit war crimes but the individuals within the forces may have done the atrocities during the three-decade-long war against the LTTE, former minister Basil Rajapaksa said.

Rajapaksa’s remarks came while addressing reporters in Jaffna to launch Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), the new party formed by Rajapaksa loyalists and a breakaway faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.

He also accused the current Maithripala Sirisena government of duping the Tamil community after getting their help to win elections in 2015.

Our troops did not do war crimes. There may have been individuals who did the crime,” Basil said in Jaffna, the first visit since January 2015 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was voted out of power in the presidential election.

He said the issue of disappearances of individuals needed to be resolved and accused the main Tamil party Tamil National Alliance (TNA) of not having cooperated with the Rajapaksa government to help the Tamils.

Now they have leader of the opposition’s position and all they do with it is to support the government in everything this government does without addressing the Tamils’ problems”, Basil said.