Mangala a political prisoner, so CHOGM is a joke: Ranil
Wednesday, 16 October 2013 00:20
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Govt. on a political witch hunt against opposition activists to weaken UNP
Charges that police are acting on political orders
No photographic evidence linking Mangala to violence, says Party Leader
UNP to rethink stance on Commonwealth Summit
By Dharisha Bastians
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said his party would reconsider its position on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Colombo next month, since the Government was engaged in a witch hunt against opposition activists and taking prisoners one month ahead of the summit.
“It’s a joke to have the CHOGM in Sri Lanka when the opposition politicians are being hunted,” Wickremesinghe said, addressing a rare press briefing at the UNP’s Sirikotha Headquarters at noon yesterday.The Commonwealth purports to promote values of democracy, free expression and human rights in its member states. The UNP has not opposed the Commonwealth Summit being held in Colombo thus far.
The UNP Leader who refused to take questions at the outset of the news conference, said Mangala Samaraweera and 10 other UNP activists and organisers had been arrested by the Matara Police based on instructions from above.
Samaraweera had been cooperating with police investigations and appeared in court last Monday (7) but charges against him had suddenly come up two days ago, even though there was no photographic evidence of his involvement in the intra-party violence on 5 October. Arousing suspicion, suddenly statements have emerged implicating the UNP Parliamentarian, he said.
“Mangala Samaraweera is therefore a political prisoner,” the UNP Leader charged.
He said the ongoing saga in Matara was a politically orchestrated operation to arrest UNP activists and organisers and Working Committee members in order to weaken the party’s organisation in the area.
“The Government is exacting political revenge with these arrests,” Wickremesinghe told reporters.Mangala Samaraweera was being hunted, the UNP Leader said, because he was raising a voice against the ruling regime.
Samaraweera’s supporters clashed with protestors from the anti-Ranil faction of the UNP led by rebels Maithri Guneratne and Shiral Lakthilake, two provincial councillors who were recently expelled from the party.
Wickremesinghe said that other than for Guneratne’s father Herman, who shot at least five people with a personal weapon during the clashes, no other persons from “that side” had been arrested.
