Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka won’t allow its army chief, Sarath Fonseka, to be questioned in the U.S. over alleged human rights violations committed during the island nation’s war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the government said.

The president and the government “stand firmly” behind the office of the chief of defense staff and “we will not allow that high post to be denigrated or made vulnerable,” Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said, according to a statement on the government’s Web site today.

Fonseka was called for an interview tomorrow by the Department of Homeland Security in Oklahoma City, with the objective of using him “as a source against human rights violations” by the Secretary of Defense Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Bogollagama said. The U.S. embassy in Colombo said it is looking into the matter and didn’t confirm whether Fonseka was called for questioning.

Sri Lanka’s army defeated the LTTE in May, ending their 26- year fight for a separate Tamil homeland in the north and east. Tens of thousands of civilians were caught between the rebels and army units and more than 280,000 people, mostly Tamils, have been held in transit camps since the war ended.

Bogollagama said he met with Patricia Butenis, the U.S. ambassador in Colombo, “to convey the message that the Department of Homeland Security should forthwith desist from any endeavor to interview General Fonseka,” according to the government’s statement.

Government Consent

Fonseka, who is visiting the U.S. and who holds a permanent residency Green Card, has no “authority to divulge or share information with third parties without the prior approval and consent of the Sri Lankan authorities,” Bogollagama said. Allegations against the defense secretary affect the vital interests of the government, he said.

“We are looking into the matter,” Jeff Anderson, spokesman for the U.S. embassy said today in a telephone interview from Colombo without elaborating. He didn’t confirm whether a request was made to Fonseka to appear for questioning.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington yesterday he wasn’t familiar with the case and “we’ll see if we can get more information on it.”

The action taken by the U.S. authorities isn’t needed as issues of concern between the two nations are already being addressed at the “highest levels,” Bogollagama said.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa last month appointed an independent committee to investigate a U.S. State Department report that civilians were shelled by the army in the last weeks of the war. The report, issued last month, listed killings and other abuses carried out by the army and the LTTE.

Responsible Action

While the government described the report as “unsubstantiated,” Mahinda Samarasinghe, the minister for disaster management and human rights, said it was the responsibility of a democratic state to investigate such charges.

The State Department said the incidents of abuses listed in the report are based mostly on reporting by the U.S. embassy in Sri Lanka, international organizations and the media and are “credible.”

A domestic probe by Sri Lanka is an attempt to evade an international inquiry into violations during the war, Human Rights Watch said in an e-mailed statement on Oct. 28.

The political climate in Sri Lanka, where the government brands critics as LTTE supporters, means a credible domestic inquiry is unlikely, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Shankar in Bangalore at jshankar1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 3, 2009 01:12 EST