Former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa says that former President Mahinda Rajapaksa took a ‘politically unfavourable’ decision to disarm the various paramilitary groups, who supported the Sri Lankan government, after the end of the war against the LTTE.
He made these comments during the launch of the book ‘Conflict and Stability’ by former Governor of the Eastern Province Rear Admiral (Rtd) Mohan Wijewickrama and former Governor of the Northern Province Major General (Rtd) G.A. Chandrasiri. “We know that over several years during the war, other groups who were against the LTTE organisation gradually started to support the government.”
“They were armed by the various governments in power at the time,” he said, addressing the gathering at the Mahinda Silva Auditorium of the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training institute on yesterday (15/11).
The former Defence Secretary said that these various armed groups, “who were armed to protect themselves,” already existed when the Mahinda Rajapaksa government came to power in 2005.
“After the war ended I think the president took a very politically unfavorable decision to disarm these groups,” he said. Rajapaksa said that Douglas Devananda, who was a minister in the former government, told him that the President would lose the next election if this is done.
He claimed that even PLOTE leader Dharmalingam Siddharthan, who is now a TNA MP, had told him that the TNA would become “powerful” if these groups are disarmed and therefore asked not to do it.
However, the president said that he wants to hold provincial council elections in the North and that they should be disarmed due to this, he said. “But opponents and sections of the international community did not appreciate such decision taken on behalf of democracy,” he said.
