Lanka marks 5th Victory Day
COLOMBO ROPES IN PAK LAWYER FOR U. N. PROBE
Matara ( Sri Lanka), May 18: President Mahinda Rajapakse led celebrations at a major victory parade Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist war, as commemorations for its victims were blocked.
As most top envoys of Western nations stayed away from the parade, a defiant Rajapakse insisted he would not bow to pressure from foreign critics who are pushing him to investigate claims that tens of thousands of people died in the final stages of the conflict.
“Some governments are blind, deaf and dumb. They are opposed to our celebrating this victory,” Mr Rajapakse said in Matara, his birthplace in the Sinhalese heartland of the island’s south.
“We are not celebrating victory in a war, we are celebrating peace. Irrespective of who opposes this, or who stays away, we will always commemorate this day,” he added. Colombo, May 18: Faced with an impending UN inquiry, the Sri Lankan government has hired a prominent Pakistani lawyer to defend itself over its human rights record and alleged war crimes, a media report said here on Sunday.
Aitzaz Ahsan, a 70- yearold Pakistani legal expert, was in Colombo last week for consultations on the matter, a Sunday Times report said. His visit came after President Mahinda Rajapaksa made an appeal to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
Mr Ahsan had defended Mr Sharif when he faced various charges.