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Friday, 8 May 2015 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Uditha Jayasinghe Sri Lanka’s quest for good governance will continue, the Government assured yesterday, insisting it would continue to push through reforms and work to find assets allegedly stashed away by the previous Government that could reach $ 18 billion. Recapping the Government’s views on the meeting between President Maithripala Sirisena and his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera insisted that they were unfazed over demands to rescind the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID). “The very fact that they want it removed shows they are guilty and scared of being found out,” he told reporters in a rare interaction. Samaraweera also insisted the Government has confidence in Sirisena’s pledges to wipe out corruption in the country and would not be deterred by the members of the former Government. He also stressed any indication of strengthened Rajapaksa involvement in the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) would be beneficial to the United National Party (UNP) as moderate voters would align themselves with the Prime Minister. Only “daydreamers” want to see the former President return to power, the Foreign Minister said, pointing out “counter-revolutions” were part and parcel of transition. He urged Rajapaksa to retire, but pledged to continue investigations into alleged stolen assets currently underway with the assistance of four countries. Samaraweera declined to name the countries. “According to some of the people we’ve been working with, they feel that the assets that have been siphoned off from this country by the Rajapaksa family at large may amount to 18 billion dollars. In fact, we have done a little better than the Libyans and the others because at least we know where two billion is, but it is not an easy task and we are getting help and support to negotiate and get access to these funds,” he said, referring to the long investigations underway to recover assets from former Libyan President Mohammad Gaddafi. However, Rajapaksa has consistently denied any wrongdoing and has termed the investigations a political “witch-hunt”. Samaraweera joined the UNP call to dissolve Parliament at the earliest possible opportunity and inferred the holdup could be because President Sirisena had pledged to pass the 20th Amendment to his party. He went on to say it would be the best way to exorcise “ghosts” from the previous Government trying to derail reforms. The Minister reiterated an internationally-credible war crimes probe would be initiated before September and insisted the Government would cooperate with the United Nations to investigate allegations of civilian deaths. “I personally feel that 40,000 is an inflated figure,” Samaraweera told reporters referring to the UN report released in 2012, “but even if it is a 1,000, they are still citizens of this country and deserve justice.” The UNHRC in March postponed release of a preliminary report on their investigation to September on the request of the Government but Samaraweera insisted the Government would stick to its own timeline and appoint a domestic panel within the next few months.
