|
And the facts...
"events in the country clearly point out
the fact that the President is moving on a collision
course with the LTTE and as a first step hurriedly
removed the Army Commander – Lieutenant General Santha
Kotegoda, who was involved in the then Government team
during the Peace negotiations and considered a peacenik,
with the hawkish Colonel Sarath Fonseka, who was
appointed as the new Army Commander and promoted to the
rank of a Lieutenant General .
The Commander has asked for three
months to reorganize the army and prepare the army for
hostilities against the LTTE.
The appointment of the hawkish Ratnasiri Wickramanayake
as the Deputy Minister of Defence, the appointment of
the President’s brother as the Secretary of Defense,
the appointment of Kotakadeniya, the dreaded former DIG
and treasurer of the JHU, as an advisor on Police
affairs suggests that the President is appointing
hardliners into the defense establishment..
As a sequel to Kotakadeniya’s appointment
search operations are underway and nearly 900 Tamils of both sexes have been
arrested and detained in Colombo .."
The Finale of Tamil Patience - Roger Ratnarajah, 19 January 2005 |
"... it is the security forces in general and the Special Task Force
(STF) in particular that came in for serious stick from President
Rajapakse no less when he met a Tamil National Alliance
parliamentary delegation the previous week as exclusively reported
in The Morning Leader of Wednesday, January 18. The TNA
delegation comprising R. Sampanthan, Gajan Ponnambalam, N. Raviraj
and Suresh Premachandran had at the meeting with the President
specifically raised four issues, namely the
murder of MP Joseph Pararajasingham,
five students murdered in Trincomalee, the threat to the life of
Mannar Bishop, Rev. Joseph Rayappu at the hands of the navy and the
harassment of Tamils in
Colombo.
Stating that they were convinced the security forces were involved
in the killings, the TNA delegation urged the President for urgent
action against the perpetrators. And the President's response was
stunning.
Rajapakse said he too is convinced the security forces
were involved in the murders and that it had been done to cause
him embarrassment.
The President had gone on to say Joseph was killed inside a
church to project the impression he was anti-Christian and bring him
into disrepute. Not stopping at that, Rajapakse pointed out there
was a heavy security presence in the area and the killers could not
have got away without the help of the security forces personnel.
"There is a systematic effort to discredit me and make me out to be
anti-Christian," he had also said.
Continuing, the President told the TNA MPs, he believed
the STF was responsible for the murder of the Trincomalee
students and was again done to discredit him. Rajapakse had also
drawn the attention of the TNA to the fact the STF was set up by
the UNP.
He went on to say the STF should not have been sent to
Trincomalee and that it was done without his knowledge. Having said
that, the President did not disclose what action was taken against
the person who had sent the STF to Trincomalee, a point not lost on
the TNA MPs who were to comment on it later.
The President further said the threat on the life of the Mannar
Bishop could also very well be aimed at bringing him into disrepute.
Rajapakse's response to the charge of Tamils being harassed in
Colombo was also the same - to bring him into disrepute.
This for all practical purposes was a very dangerous trend
considering the position taken by the President, Commander-in-Chief
and Defence Minister that murders were carried out to bring him into
disrepute, thereby expecting total exoneration and abdicating all
responsibility. |
