The United States has also banned another Sri Lankan senior military official, Maj. Gen. Udaya Perera as a war crimes suspect.
Maj. Gen. Udaya Perera, who was the Deputy High Commissioner to Malaysia from 2009 to 2011, has been denied permission to visit the United States with his family.
On December 5, Udaya Perera was informed of the US denial of permission to travel with his family to the US on a flight from Colombo to Singapore and Singapore Airlines employees said they had received information from the United States. Udaya Perera cancelled his trip.
From Singapore, they were to fly to Los Angeles. Sources said that Maj. Perera stayed back while his wife and son went ahead with the planned visit. The General and his wife were to see their first granddaughter born in California.
Perera served as the former Commander of the Security Force Headquarters in Killinochchi and as Director of Operations during the final phase of the armed conflict and afterwards. This phase saw the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians as hospitals and civilian no-fire zones were shelled by the Sri Lankan military.
This came about a week after blocking Maj. Gen. Perera, the US included two Sri Lankan military personnel in a list of officials prohibited to enter the US under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programmes Appropriation Act, 2021.
