Canada has imposed sanctions on four top Sri Lankan officials, including former presidents Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, over “gross and systematic violations of human rights” during armed conflict in the island nation from 1983 to 2009, the Canadian foreign ministry has said.

The Sri Lankan government has taken “limited meaningful and concrete action” to uphold its human rights obligations, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday in a press release.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the 26-year civil war between the government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Both sides were accused of war crimes, particularly in the final months of the war. The then President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the then defence secretary, oversaw the forces that were accused of targeting Tamil civilians.

Two military officials – Staff Sergeant Sunil Ratnayake and Lieutenant Commander Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi – are also on the sanctions list. Both of them were earlier sanctioned by the United States for committing serious crimes. Ratnayake, who was sentenced to death in 2015 for the killing of eight civilians, was pardoned by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2020.

The lack of accountability undermines prospects for peace and reconciliation sought by victims of the conflict, the foreign ministry said, adding that the sanctions send a “clear message that Canada will not accept continued impunity for those that have committed gross human rights violations in Sri Lanka”.

Sri Lanka under the Rajapaksas has resisted United Nations efforts for justice and reconciliation.

Last October, the UN Human Rights Council renewed a mandate to collect and preserve evidence of atrocities during the decades-long civil war despite protests from Sri Lanka.

Sagara Kariyawasam, general secretary and member of parliament of the Rajapaksa-dominated Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), said that all Sri Lankans must condemn the Canadian move.