Gotabhaya pleased Sirisena has ‘finally understood the truth’

by Thusiyan
Oct 18, 2016

Sri Lanka’s former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has praised the current Sri Lankan president for speaking out against corrupt investigations into former military personnel.

“I am happy that the truth has finally dawned on the President about these things,” said Mr Rajapaksa in an interview to BBC Sinhala last week.

Mr Sirisena slammed government commissions investigating former military figures on charges of corruption as political stating "military commanders who led the successful campaign to crush separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009 should not be humiliated in such a way".

“Now President Sirisena is giving the same explanation of these investigations,” said Mr Rajapaksa, who is amongst the several figures under investigation. “I believe that as he says, he will now take direct action, without being influenced by people with various political agendas.”

The former defence secretary went on to praise Mr Sirisena’s defence of military figures and criticised ongoing investigations against them.

“President Sirisena himself said that military personnel were being held in custody for 16 months. Does it take 16 months to conduct an investigation? Is that justice? Why aren’t the NGOs talking about that? Now everyone is opposing his speech. So are they saying he must do what they say? Doesn’t the President have the right to express how he feels?”

See more from the Daily FT here and his original comments in Sinhala here.

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