Sri Lanka signals arrests over high-profile killings

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said on Wednesday he would not protect anyone guilty of murder during the civil war, flagging arrests for a spate of high-profile crimes allegedly perpetrated by security forces.

Sirisena, who has been criticised for failing to establish credible investigations into war-era abuses, said he would not stand by murderers but would defend "war heroes" who helped crush the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

"Those who killed journalists, sportsmen and others will not be protected," he said.

"Whether they are in the military or the police is immaterial."

His remarks will likely be seen by senior police investigators as a green light to arrest several prominent establishment figures over the 2009 assassination of respected newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunga.

His murder heightened global condemnation of former president Mahinda Rajapakse’s regime, which had already been accused of abuses against journalists, activists and the Tamil minority population in the dying days of the war.

Police have already arrested six military intelligence officers in connection with a 2008 attack on another editor, and say the same death squad was also responsible for killing Wickrematunga in January 2009. Rajapakse’s defence secretary brother, Gotabhaya, has been implicated by his then army chief Sarath Fonseka of leading the group. Gotabhaya and Fonseka have been at loggerheads since the end of the war and have often accused each other of wrongdoing.