Author: TELO Admin

A Right to Information (RTI) request has revealed that the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) funded the final departure of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, as President of Sri Lanka, to the Maldives via an Air Force aircraft on 13 July 2022.

The former President fled to the Maldives a few days after protesters occupied both the President’s House and the Presidential Secretariat in Fort on 9 July 2022, following a mass public protest in Colombo.

“The movement was carried out using an aircraft of the SLAF, maintained by funds allocated to the Air Force, via the Ministry of Defence, through the Treasury,” the SLAF stated. However, when asked in the RTI request, the SLAF did not disclose the cost of this trip.

The SLAF explained that they facilitated the movement due to the President’s role as the Head of State, Head of the Executive, Government, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, at that time (as per Article 30(1) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka).

The SLAF noted that the movement was approved by the Ministry of Defence, but stated they could not disclose the details of the approval document due to the confidential nature of this air transit.

“As per existing practice, we do not calculate the fuel consumption for the air transport of the President, as he is the Head of State and falls under the VVIP category,” the SLAF said.

According to an SLAF press release on 13 July 2022, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his wife and two bodyguards boarded an Air Force flight to the Maldives early that day.

Earlier in 2022, both the Information Officer and Designated Officer of the SLAF rejected the RTI application, stating the requested details could not be released under Section 5(1)(b)(i) of the Right to Information Act No. 12 of 2016.

Following the rejection, an appeal was filed with the RTI Commission. After three hearings, the Commission concluded that Section 5(1)(b)(i) did not apply to the information request and ordered the SLAF to release the information to the appellant by 4 July 2023.

However, the SLAF did not release the information and submitted 26 extension requests to the Commission. The RTI Act does not provide for extensions to implement the Commission’s order.

An affidavit was submitted to the Commission to initiate legal proceedings under Section 39 of the RTI Act. The Commission called both parties for a non-compliance inquiry on 16 May 2024 and ordered the SLAF to announce their decision on the matter at the next hearing on 7 August 2024. Finally, the SLAF released the information on 12 July 2024.

Several Tamil political parties and a group of civil society representatives have reached an agreement to nominate a common candidate for the forthcoming Presidential Election.

Accordingly, seven Tamil political parties including the Tamil People’s Alliance and seven civil society representatives have signed this agreement in Jaffna this morning (22).

The signatories include C. V. Vigneswaran of Tamil People’s Alliance, Selvam Adaikkalanathan of Tamil Eelam Liberation Organization (TELO), D. Siddharthan of People’s Liberation Organisation Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), Srikantha of Tamil National Party and Suresh Premachandran of Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).

Tamil civil society groups also signed the memorandum of understanding.

The Tamil parries and Tamil civil society noted that past Presidents had not met the expectations of the Tamils despite obtaining their support.

As a result it has been decided to put forward a candidate who will address the issues faced by the Tamils.

Chairman of the Elections Commission, R.M.A.L Ratnayake said the certified 2024 Electoral List is now published on the official website of the Elections Commission.

He added that if necessary, the Electoral List will be printed.

Meanwhile, the Elections Commission says the date of the Presidential Election will be announced before the end of this week.

A senior spokesperson said the Presidential Election date has been decided.

He further confirmed that the relevant date will be announced before the end of this week.

Meanwhile, the members of the National Elections Commission are scheduled to meet next Wednesday or Thursday for a special discussion on the Presidential Election.

Five days have passed since the Election Commission was vested with the power to proclaim the date for the Presidential Election.

China has come forward to grant 1,000 smart boards to Sri Lankan schools across the country, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said, two weeks after an Indian grant project distributed the digital equipment for establishing 200 smart classrooms with 2,200 smart tablets in the Southern Province.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government has fast tracked digitization of the education sector along with planned teacher training for the latest technology-based education system, amid opposition leader Sajith Premadasa’s move to grant smart classrooms for schools ahead of presidential polls later this year.

“Digitization of education sector is one of the reforms we have planned. We have already started it. Accordingly, there will be 1,250 clusters established. All the school systems will be included in these 1,250 clusters; one cluster will consist of 8-10 schools,” Minister Premajayantha told reporters at a news briefing in Colombo.

“We will be providing with 2,500 high-tech smart boards for all the key schools enabled with internet before September. We have taken initial steps for that. We are getting a grant for that from China.”

The Minister did not disclose the Chinese grant amount.

“The President through TRC (Telecommunication Regulatory Commission) from the Ministry of Technology will be providing 1,500 (smart boards) and 1,000 will be from the grant,” he said.

President Wickremesinghe is eyeing to contest in a grand independent coalition possibly with Premadasa as his main rival. The island nation’s Election Commission is expected to announce the date for the presidential poll before end-July.

President Wickremesinghe on July 8 distributed digital equipment under an Indian grant project worth 300 million Sri Lanka rupees ($1 million) for establishing 200 smart classrooms in Southern Province.

Premadasa, the leader of the main opposition center-right Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) has already distributed around 350 smart classrooms worth over 300 million rupees for schools across the country which his aides expect to win him more votes in the upcoming election.

President Wickremesinghe, the leader of center-right United National Party (UNP) which backs liberal policies, has yet to officially declare his candidature for the presidential poll which is likely to be scheduled between September 17 and October 16.

Minister Premajayantha said the government’s smart boards will be of high quality.

“The 1,250 schools will be connected to internet in the first phase. In the next phase, we will be connecting the rest of the schools. So within the next three years we will be completing the digitization. More than half (of the schools) are already given fiber optics. We have been planning with teacher training to prepare for this,” he said.

The establishment of Smart Classrooms in Southern Province is being implemented under the Indian bilateral High Impact Community Development Project framework which includes 18 grant projects cutting across sectors in all the 25 Districts of Sri Lanka with a total value of around 5.5 billion Sri Lankan rupees ($18.3 million).

Some informal and non-transparent surveys have suggested that Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, the leader of Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) and Premadasa are leading in terms of popularity followed by Wickremesinghe.

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) leadership is being put under pressure by a number of SLPP MPs to back Ranil Wickremsinghe at the Presidential elections.

Wickremsinghe has had talks with the SLPP leadership in an attempt to reach a consensus ahead of the elections.

However, some SLPP MPs want their own candidate to be put forward instead of Wickremesinghe.

A number of SLPP MPs holding Cabinet or State Minister portfolios and some SLPP MPs have told the leadership to back Wickremesinghe at the polls, Colombo Gazette learns.

Ministers Kanchana Wijesekera, Prasanna Ranatunga and Shehan Semasinghe have already indicated they will back Wickremesinghe despite their party, the SLPP, not taking a formal decision.

SLPP MP Mahindananda Aluthgamage has also spoken in support of Wickremesinghe and called for the unconditional backing of the SLPP.

Wickremesinghe himself has not yet announced if he will contest at the elections as he is still gathering support before making a formal announcement.

Considering their speeches on political stages about the Easter Sunday bomb attacks, all these political leaders should be in prison and have no moral right to preach or talk about the incident, Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera said today.

The truth of this great earth has been killed by all these political gangs operating in the country, including the people who are ruling this country and demanding the ruling power of this country.

Addressing the media, he said that as Buddhist monks, they revealed all the details related to the Easter Sunday attacks to the responsible persons and parties in the country, not only to safeguard Sri Lankan Buddhists but for the sake of all the people in the country, including those of all religions, he added.

“We informed the details about the attacks before we came to know these politicians,” he said.

He further said that all details related to the attacks were provided by a sheikh in Dikwella on June 20, 2014, following a request from the sheikh to meet him in that area. The sheikh requested him to inform about the deadly attacks because they were unable to tell the country themselves, fearing they might be arrested as extremists.

“Due to the influence of global terrorist groups, the Sheikh asked us to inform Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa that Sri Lanka has been chosen for the most powerful and most dangerous terrorist attack in Asia by extremists in the name of Islam in a way that insults the religion of Islam. The Sheikh also said that they could not inform the then government because they would be arrested claiming that they were extremists,” he said.

The sheikh claimed that a deadly attack was planned to kill about 2,000 people, targeting major religious events in the country, including Buddhist, Muslim and Christian festivals. He claimed that all funds and facilities for launching the attack were organized and that there was also a plan to carry out another massacre targeting 50 villages across the country.

“We had no choice but to inform the Defense Secretary, despite the potential backlash. Consequently, many politicians and people blamed us, suspecting us of being extremists. The Defense Secretary took action to prevent the attack. The truth was that no Easter Sunday attack was reported during the Rajapaksa government. After revealing this, some politicians in the Rajapaksa government began attacking us, claiming that we were extremists and accusing us of inciting racism. They also claimed it was a Norwegian conspiracy and prevented us from speaking the truth.

“After revealing the names of more than 15 terrorist and extremist organizations, it was found that they were hidden among political leaders, including those from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the groups that supported the Yahapalanaya government and the National People’s Power (NPP). While providing shelter to extremist groups, they placed the blame on us, claiming that we were the extremists and that was the truth,” Ven. Gnanasara Thera said.

“Later, the extremist forces were armed during the Yahapalanaya government and I was sentenced to prison. I was sentenced to 19 years in prison for requesting the judge not to take actions that would paralyse the intelligence services in the country. I was sentenced for contempt of court by the Homagama Magistrate. If the Rajapaksa government and the Yahapalanaya government had listened to us, there would be no need to discuss the Easter Sunday bomb attacks now.

“I met the Colombo Archbishop, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, at Bishop’s House and was informed about a deadly attack, and he said that all details were revealed in 2014. I was informed about a person named Saharan in Kattankudy who was planning the attack. I also claimed that he was engaging in attacks on people and traditional Muslims with swords. I warned the Cardinal about the attack on the Christian community,” Ven. Gnanasara Thera said.

“The Cardinal told me that he knew about this attack, and to prevent that, we started making plans. That was his answer to me. Now the Cardinal, along with other priests, is requesting justice for the Easter Sunday bomb victims. Now he has nothing to say. He put the blame on all Sinhala Buddhist people and tried to wash their hands,” the thera said.

Ven. Gnanasara Thera finally said that extremist terrorist groups are still operational in the country and have already acquired certain land areas. Some Muslim individuals have claimed that there are ongoing training sessions underway.

“We are not creating racism in the country. As Sinhala Buddhists, we are committed to protecting all the people in the country. We cannot allow anyone to attack people under the guise of any religious community,” the thera said.