Scotland Yard announced Monday, November 30, the opening of an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by British mercenaries in the 1980s during the civil war in Sri Lanka.
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This investigation follows a report received last March, said the London police, competent in matters of war crimes and human rights violations.
According to the BBC, the investigation is targeting a former private security company, Keenie Meenie Services (KMS), founded by former members of the British Army's Special Forces (SAS) and which ceased operations in the 1990s. .
In the 1980s, this formed an elite unit of the Sri Lankan Police (STF) engaged in fighting against separatists from the Tamil minority.
This police unit has been accused of summarily executing Tamil Tiger rebels and killing Tamil civilians.
One of the founders of KMS, David Walker, 78, currently runs another London-based security firm, Saladin Security, according to the BBC.
"
We categorically deny the accusations that David Walker and employees of KMS Limited were complicit in war crimes in Sri Lanka in the mid-1980s,
" responded a representative for Walker.
Saladin Security has no connection with KMS, "of
which Walker was neither a shareholder nor a director
", and is not engaged in Sri Lanka, he added, specifying however that they would be "
happy
" to cooperate with investigators if they were approached in connection with the investigation.
The latter follows the publication in January of a book by British investigative journalist Phil Miller devoted to KMS activities in Sri Lanka.
For 37 years, Sri Lanka has been torn apart by fierce fighting between government forces and Tamil separatists which has left more than 100,000 dead.
The conflict ended in May 2009 with the crushing of the Tamil rebellion, during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa, at the cost of a gigantic bloodbath.
