HF/MP: It was incidents of this nature that had led to the UNHRC adopting the US Resolution on Accountability & Reconciliation in Sri Lanka..!!!

Govt. involved in ‘Gunaratnam’s abduction’ – Harin
April 9, 2012, 10:12 pm

by Zacki Jabbar


The UNP yesterday alleged that Premakumar Gunaratnam, the leader designate of the newly formed Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), had been abducted in Colombo last week and the trouble a public official such as the Defence Secretary, Gothabaya Rajapaksa had taken to deny it, indicated that there was government involvement.


Parliamentarian Harin Fernando, addressing a news conference in Colombo, said that Gothabaya was a public official and it was not his duty to be denying charges levelled against the government.


The Defence Secretary by violating protocol has only succeeded in getting the finger pointed at the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, he said.


Gunaratnam, who has dual citizenship in Sri Lanka and Australia, had returned to Colombo recently and was preparing for the first convention of the FSP, a breakaway faction of the JVP, which was to be held yesterday, Fernando said adding that Dimithu Attygalle, the designate women’s wing leader of the FSP, had also been abducted last Friday.


He said that if Gunaratnam had used a false passport to return to Sri Lanka, he should have been arrested under the laws of the country and not picked up by a group of around 25 armed persons, who had stormed his house in Kiribathgoda, last Friday.


It was incidents of this nature that had led to the UNHRC adopting the US Resolution on Accountability and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka, he said while observing that murderers who should be in prison, were roaming the streets freely, which has resulted in the deteriorating law and order situation.


Recently President Rajapaksa pardoned five persons who were convicted and imprisoned for twenty years for killing nine people and injuring 13 others who were returning after a pirith ceremony in 1996. Minister C. B. Ratnayake, who was a suspect in the case and Minister S. B. Dissanayake who was then in the SLFP, had pressured the President to release the convicts, he alleged.


"Businessman Sagala Senaratne said that when his abductors had demanded Rs.50 million for his release, it was Minister Jeevan Kunmaratunga who had obtained the assistance of Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa to secure his freedom," Fernando said.


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