US sanctions two Sri Lankan service personnel

COLOMBO (News 1st); The United States has taken steps to impose sanctions on Sri Lankan naval intelligence officer Chandana Hettiarachchi and former Staff Sergeant in the Sri Lanka Army, Sunil Rathnayake for gross violation of human rights.

According to the State Department of the United States, these steps were taken in recognition of Human Rights Day 2021.

Hettiarachchi has been sanctioned for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, which the State Department names as  the denial of the right to liberty of at least eight “Trincomalee 11” victims, from 2008 to 2009.

Meanwhile, Ratnayake, has been sanctioned for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the extrajudicial killings of at least eight Tamil villagers in December 2000.

Moreover, the US State Department further states that the designation of these two Sri Lankan individuals is not the only action that the country is taking in support of accountability for gross violations of human rights in Sri Lanka.

Furthermore, Abel Kandiho, Major General and head of the Chieftancy of Military Intelligence within the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces, Shohrat Zakir, Erken Tuniyaz, Hu Lianhe, and Chen Mingguo, current and former senior PRC officials in Xinjiang, China for their involvement in gross violations of human rights and arbitrary detention of Uyghur Muslims, Ihar Kenyukh and Yauheni Shapetska, heads of the notorious Akrestsina Detention Center in Minsk, Belarus, for their involvement in gross violations of human rights, Benazir Ahmed, current Inspector General of the Bangladesh Police and former Director General of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and Miftah Uddin Ahmed, Lieutenant Colonel and former commanding officer of RAB Unit 7 and Mario Plutarco Marin Torres, a former governor of Puebla, Mexico, for his involvement in a gross violation of human rights in Mexico are some others who have been sanctioned alongside the two Lankan individuals.