(AFP) / 24 January 2013
COLOMBO — The US has refused training for a Sri Lankan general in a move that undermined military cooperation and prompted Colombo to turn to China and other nations for help, a top defence official said on Thursday.
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said US
authorities had refused to enrol Major-General Sudantha Ranasinghe and Colombo
was concerned that the decision was based on “wrong information”.
He did not give details of the course the officer had
been nominated to follow, but said he would take up the issue with a senior US
delegation visiting the country at the weekend.
“I want to tell them that they are wrong... every time
they (US diplomats and officials) meet me, they say they want to strengthen the
cooperation with our military,” Rajapakse said.
“If the US stops military training (completely), then
Sri Lankan officers will only go to China, India and Pakistan.”
Rajapakse did not specify why Ranasinghe had been
rejected. The US refuses entry to any foreign military personnel suspected of
human rights violations.
The US and other nations have been highly critical of
Sri Lanka’s military for its final onslaught on Tamil rebel areas in 2009,
which left an estimated 40,000 civilians dead.
Ranasinghe had been the commissioner-general of
rehabilitation responsible for reintegrating into society some 12,000 Tamil
rebels who surrendered in the final stages of the war, Rajapakse said.
He said the officer had not been involved in direct
combat operations.
The US stopped selling military hardware to Sri Lanka
throughout much of its 37-year ethnic war against the Tamil rebels, pushing
Colombo to make purchases from China, Pakistan and several East European
nations.
Military officials said 200 junior Sri Lankan officers
continued to receive opportunities for short-term training in the US, but the
issue was with senior officers who had held command positions during the height
of the fighting.
US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Vikram Singh
and two senior state department officials are due in Colombo Saturday for
talks.
