 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. |
