Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa today denied that the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL) report has been watered down due to the change in the government in January.

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Releasing a statement, Rajapaksa called upon the government to reject the OISL report released on September 16 in Geneva by UNHRC Chief Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussain. He said that many of the recommendations of the report give causes for concern.

"In my view, establishing a hybrid special court to try war crimes integrating foreign judges, lawyers and investigators, and prosecutors is not feasible," he said, adding that any allegation should be tried in "under the existing Sri Lankan law, under our present courts system and by our judges and our Attorney-General’s department."

He also commented on the claims that the OISL report has been watered down. "Some speculate that this report may have been watered down because a new government has been elected to power. If that is true, then the Pakistani Ambassador HE Akram would have been right in telling the UNHRC on 27 March 2014, that this resolution is “All about politics and not about human rights” " Rajapaksa said.

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa lashed out at former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga's recent comments to 'The Hindu', categorically rejecting the allegation that his government was a police state. Furthermore, Rajapaksa said that the statements were damaging to her own party, the SLFP.

In a statement titled 'For the Special Attention of all SLFP and UPFA Voters' on his official website, Rajapaksa expressed his regret over Kumaratunga's statements.

"Throughout the interview with The Hindu, Mrs Kumaratunga expressed her elation and glee at being able to defeat the SLFP led UPFA government of which I was the president and she dwelt garrulously on her own role in the conspiracy" Rajapaksa said. He added that no Indian would see a former leader of the Congress Party or the BJP expressing joy at his or her own party, Rajapaksa added.

He also expressed shock at Kumaratunga's comments on senior SLFP stalwarts. "She had told The Hindu that she had difficulties in looking around for an SLFP front ranker to contest against me because “it was difficult to find anyone in the SLFP who wasn’t known to be corrupt or a murderer”. When the co-Patron and a sitting Central Committee member of the SLFP tells the foreign media that members of her own party are virtually all rogues or murderers, that reflects very badly on our party," Rajapaksa said.

Commenting on Kumaratunga's claims that she used Viber to prevent calls from being monitored, Rajapaksa claimed that his government never monitored any phone calls.

Rajapaksa maintained that, unlike Kumaratunga, he never left the SLFP.

The full statement:

It is with much regret that I read certain comments made by former president Chandrika Kumaratunga to The Hindu newspaper in India a few days ago. All I can do in the present circumstances is to tell Mrs. Kumaratunga not to allow her personal hatred for me to blind her and that she owes it to our members not to go around the world insulting and running down her own party.

It is with much regret that I read certain comments made by former president Chandrika Kumaratunga to The Hindu newspaper in India a few days ago. Mrs Kumaratunga is a former leader of the SLFP and a current member of the Central Committee and co-Patron of our party and whatever she tells the foreign media while on overseas trips, reflects on our party and our country. Throughout the interview with The Hindu, Mrs Kumaratunga expressed her elation and glee at being able to defeat the SLFP led UPFA government of which I was the president and she dwelt garrulously on her own role in the conspiracy. No Indian would ever see a former leader (or a Central Committee member or Patron) of the Congress Party or The BJP expressing joy at the defeat of his or her own political party in that manner.

While that alone would be cause for much shame and embarrassment for all members of the SLFP and the UPFA, some of the things that she said about our party are positively insulting. She had told The Hindu that she had difficulties in looking around for an SLFP front ranker to contest against me because “it was difficult to find anyone in the SLFP who wasn’t known to be corrupt or a murderer”. When the co-Patron and a sitting Central Committee member of the SLFP tells the foreign media that members of her own party are virtually all rogues or murderers, that reflects very badly on our party. There are ministers in the present government who still consider themselves to be members of the SLFP. How can these SLFP ministers face their UNP colleagues in the cabinet when their own party Patron and CC member goes around the world referring to them as rogues and murderers?

Besides, almost all the SLFP stalwarts Mrs Kumaratunga refers to were MPs and ministers in her government as well. I took over the party that she left behind. So her statement to The Hindu amounts to an admission that she too presided over a party full of murderers and rogues. The irony is that though no charge of wrongdoing has been proven against the SLFP members Mrs Kumaratunga hurls accusations at, she herself has been found guilty of an irregular land deal by the Supreme Court. There are many serious allegations of similar nature against Mrs Kumaratunga. There were times she had to reverse certain actions due to public outrage. Whether such a person has the moral standing to go around the world, accusing prominent members of the SLFP of being corrupt is a matter for the people to decide.

In this interview with The Hindu, Mrs Kumaratunga has also said that the SLFP led UPFA government of 2005-2015 was ‘a police state’ and that the conspiracy to overthrow the SLFP led government was hatched using a special software called Viber to prevent their calls from being monitored. My government never monitored any phone calls. If we did, the same equipment would now be available to the present government. Such equipment cannot be bought or operated privately. Once again, it is incongruous for Mrs Kumaratunga to be talking of a police state because she ran one of the most repressive governments in living memory. Members of her presidential security division were convicted by the courts for harassing and terrorising artistes Rookantha Gunatilleke and Chandralekha Perera in the presence of their own children. The doings of underworld figures like Beddagane Sanjiva who were prominent members of her security unit have been extensively reported on by the press. Mrs Kumaratunga’s transgressions in this regard are too numerous to recount here.

When I took over from Mrs Kumaratunga in 2005, there was a separate state in this country in all but name. Terrorists were ruling about a third of the country. For more than a decade, the country had seen very little development. During my tenure, I am proud to say that I concentrated on solving the country’s problems. I saw to it that terrorism was eliminated and that the country was developed. I did not spend my time persecuting my political opponents or go around the world maligning my own party and bringing disgrace upon my country. All members of the SLFP should be mindful that Mrs Kumaratunga’s statements about our party only goes to strengthen our opponents at our expense. We should be working to strengthen our party not to weaken it further.

Mrs Kumaratunga broke away from the SLFP in the 1980s and went against the party and her own mother but I stood by Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike and protected the party. Mrs Kumaratunga also worked against the SLFP and the UPFA at the presidential elections of 2005, 2010 and 2015. At the last parliamentary election, even though many people wanted me to contest from another party, I thought of the party and did not abandon the SLFP, but Mrs Kumaratunga publicly asked voters to vote against the SLFP/UPFA and for the elephant. All I can do in the present circumstances is to tell Mrs Kumaratunga not to allow her personal hatred for me to blind her to the fact that she is a former leader of the party and co-Patron and sitting Central Committee of the SLFP and that she owes it to our members not to go around the world insulting and running down her own party.

Mahinda Rajapaksa

Former President and Kurunegala District MP Mahinda Rajapaksa will attend the Sri Lanka Freedom Party 64th anniversary celebrations at Polonnaruwa, Rajapaksa's Media Coordinator Rohan Welivita told Asian Mirror.

The anniversary celebrations are held this afternoon at the Rajarata Navodya Grounds in Kaduruwela, Polonnaruwa, under the patronage of SLFP Chairman President Maithripala Sirisena.

Former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaranatunga and other senior SLFP members are expected to take part in the event.

Rajapaksa, who is a Senior Adviser of the SLFP, did not take part in the SLFP May Day rally this year.

Sri Lanka's former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's allies are planning to form a new opposition alliance, breaking away from President Maithripala Sirisena's United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, senior leftist leaders said on Saturday.

"We are looking to form a new political front. We are having talks with different groups," Tissa Vitharana of the Trotskyist Lanka Samasamaja Party (LSSP) said. Vitharana was a senior minister under Rajapaksa in his near decade old regime which ended in January.

"We have to form a new front, we are against this national government arrangement," Vasudeva Nanayakkara of another left party said. With the August 17 parliamentary election results and Sirisena's decision to form a coalition government of national unity between the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP) and Sirisena's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the old left have felt overlooked and ignored by Sirisena.

The old left parties have been part of the UPFA since its formation in 2004 as an anti UNP political front. The coalition ruled the country between 2004 and early this year. Vitharana and Dinesh Gunawardena, the leaders of the nationalist Mahajana Eksath Permauna (MEP) have accused Sirisena of breaking the UPFA coalition. 

(PTI)

Seven months after he was made de jure Chairman of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the main constituent of the opposition United Peoples’ Freedom Alliance (UPFA), Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena  became its de facto head on Friday.

The group headed by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was reduced to a rump when the SLFP Central Committee unanimously decided to give Sirisena full authority to decide on the nature of the party’s participation in the National Government; who all will take ministerial portfolios and who will be the Leader of the Opposition.

In deference to Sirisena‘s wish, the Central Committee warned SLFP MPs that anyone defying its diktat will be liable to disciplinary action.

It is expected that at least 70 of the 80 SLFP MPs in the 95 member UPFA group in parliament will fall in line. But what Rajapaksa, who is an SLFP man and MP from Kurunegala District, will do, is yet to be seen. Since his die hard supporters, many of whom  represent small parties in the UPFA, have decided to sit in the opposition, Rajapaksa might cast his lot with them.  

Meanwhile, to smoothen ruffled feathers and get former Rajapaksa loyalists on board, the Sirisena group withdrew court cases against the two sacked General Secretaries of the SLFP and the UPFA, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and Susil Premajayantha respectively.

Their places had already been given to Sirisena loyalists, Duminda Dissanayake ( SLFP) and Dr.Vishwa Warnapala (UPFA), but both Yapa and Premajayantha are to be made cabinet ministers in the National Government to be formed  with the United National Front for Good governance (UNFG) led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

(The New Indian Express)

Colombo Chief Magistrate Gihan Pilapitiya dismissed petitions filed against several individuals today, considering the requests made by the petitioners.

Central Bank Governor Arjuna Mahendran and his son-in-law was recently summoned by courts on a petition filed by former Provincial Councilor Renuka Perera. Meanwhile, Two Private petitions were filed by Attorney-at-Law Kalum Kumarasinghe against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal.