Sri Lanka’s former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign the presidency in July 2022 following mass protests, has announced that he will publish a book entitled, “The Conspiracy to oust me from the Presidency”.
The former President, who stands accused of genocide, alledges that there was a global conspiracy to force him to resign. Speaking at a press release he claimed:
“From the time I was elected President in November 2019, certain foreign and local parties were intent on removing me from power”.
He added:
“Today, foreign intervention and the manipulation of internal politics has become a fact of life in Sri Lanka in a manner never experienced in the first sixty years of independence of this country”.
Extracts from the book detail his belief that the Sinhalese are under attack.
"My departure from office has left unaddressed the three main issues that got me elected to power - the fact that the Sinhalese and particularly the Sinhala Buddhists are being taken for granted, ignored, sidelined, downtrodden and humilitared by various foreign and local parties" one section read.
The book further notes;
"The Sinhalese and especially the Sinhala Buddhists are now once again on the back foot. Buddhist culture, history and traditions are once again a subject of derision [...] Politicans are more interested in looking after the minorities in order to get their votes at elections than in ensuring the rights of Sinhalese and the Sinhala Buddhists".
Commenting on Muslims, Rajapaksa writes;
"When it comes to Muslims, there was nobody I could appoint to the cabinet so Ali Sabry was brought in through the national list to become a minister".
During the election campaign, Sabry was caught on camera warning Muslim voters of the potential reprisals they would face if they did not support Rajapaksa.
Rajapaksa’s account further maintains that the conspiracy started at the end of March 2022 and claims that he had brought the COVID-19 pandemic under control. His regime has come under serious criticism for its response to the pandemic. Boram Jang, Legal Advisor at the International Commission of Jurists Asia & the Pacific Programme, noted at the time that the response normalised “military occupation, exacerbates the existing ethnic divides and further deteriorates human rights” on the island.
Rajapaksa was forced to flee the country following the country’s spiral into economic collapse. The island’s Supreme Court has blamed the Rajapaksa brothers for economic mismanagement. Despite the mass protests against the Rajapaksa clan, Mahinda Rajapaksa is leading the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party and has vowed to return to power.
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