“I’m not a war criminal, I’m a patriot”: Shavendra Silva’s amnesia tour meets the receipts
THERE is something almost majestic about the confidence of a retired general sitting beneath the medals of a victorious war and asking, “Tell me what I have done wrong.” Not to prove it in court. Not that the reports are mistaken. Just a full theatri...
General Shavendra Silva, a former commander of Sri Lanka's Army and former Chief of Defence Staff, has recently defended himself against US and UK sanctions by claiming he is not a war criminal, but rather a patriot. His defense, however, doesn't hold up under scrutiny. The US and UK have accused Silva of involvement in extrajudicial killings by his command during the final phase of the Sri Lankan civil war, and they have sanctioned him and his family as a result.
Silva's defense centers on patriotism, but this is not an invisibility cloak under international law. While he has not been convicted of war crimes by an international court, there is ample evidence of wrongdoing. In 2020, the US designated Silva for his alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings by the Army's 58th Division, which he commanded. The UK followed suit in 2025, imposing sanctions for illegal killings and torture or cruel treatment by his division.
Silva's argument that civilian deaths were unintentional and not significant is contradicted by the facts. During the final months of the war, hundreds of thousands of civilians were trapped in "No Fire Zones" where the government continuously shelled them using various weapons, including aerial bombardment, long-range artillery, and rockets.
An estimated 300,000 to 330,000 civilians were killed in this area alone. Human Rights Watch documented repeated strikes on medical facilities, causing the death of patients and nurses, and forcing the evacuation of hospitals.
Silva also tries to downplay the accusations by suggesting that the dead might have been "Tigers in Casual Clothes." While the LTTE was a brutal organization, merely pointing to a few combatants in civilian clothing does not erase the massive civilian casualties. The laws of war still apply, and the government army still has the duty to distinguish between combatants and civilians, to act proportionately, and to take all feasible precautions to minimize civilian harm.
The fact that some LTTE members were captured does not justify Silva's actions or absolve him of responsibility.
Silva claims that surrendering LTTE members were taken prisoner and later rehabilitated. This is true, but it does not address the allegations of executions of unarmed surrendering LTTE leaders, such as Balasingham Nadesan and Seevaratnam Puleedevan. The UN found reasonable grounds to believe that these men may have been executed after attempting to surrender, and Britain's 2025 statement directly alleges this.
Silva's attempts to gloss over these facts in a theatrical reboot of his past do not hold water under the scrutiny of international law.
Written by urgent.news from The Vibes's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
