Sri Lankan Army General Sarath Fonseka, who presided over the offensive on the LTTE, has been asked by US authorities to testify before them against Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa over allegations of widespread human rights abuse during the war.

The Chief of Defence Staff told the government that he has been asked to give evidence against Gotabhaya, brother of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, a media report said on Sunday.

The US Department of State had recently submitted to the Congress a report on the incidents during the recent conflict, prepared by its war crimes office.

“Fonseka has written to Sri Lankan Mission in Washington saying he has been asked by US officials to give evidence against Gotabhaya over alleged human rights abuses,” the Daily Mirror online said quoting a diplomatic source.

It said Fonseka, currently in the US in connection with renewal of his Green Card, was reportedly contacted by two US officials on his son-in-law’s telephone, “prompting fears in Colombo that Washington is asserting its legal authority over the war crimes report released last week”.

Official sources here told PTI that “this matter is being discussed at a higher level. We have no comments at this point in time”

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, reported that Fonseka has been told to face a “voluntary meeting” with the Department of Homeland Security and that officials want to interview him on Wednesday. “Reports reaching the highest levels of the Government say US Department of Homeland Security officials want to interview him on Wednesday (November 4) in Tulsa, Oklahoma,” it said.