Sri Lanka to recall peacekeeping commander on UN request

Sri Lanka’s military says that it will recall its commander leading a UN peacekeeping contingent in Mali a day after the world body asked him to be repatriated over his human rights background.

Military spokesman Sumith Atapattu said Saturday that it will comply with the UN request even though it doesn’t believe Col. Kalana Amunupure is guilty of any human rights abuses in the last stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war.

He said that Amunupure will be sent back Mali after an appeal process.

A report in The Guardian newspaper in July quoted a confidential report that claimed the Sri Lanka commander in Mali, who was not named, is alleged to have committed war crimes during the civil war which ended in 2009.