By

Upul Joseph Fernando

Mangala Samaraweera had written a letter to Mahinda Rajapaksa last weekend. In this open letter he had mentioned that war crimes had taken place during the war. While Mangala was accusing Mahinda of war crimes, Mahinda completed his visit to Uganda and returned. Mahinda went to Uganda to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni. There was an element of excitement at this function when President of Sudan Omar al Bashir who has been accused at the International Criminal Court arrived at Museveni’s swearing-in ceremony.

It is reported that at that juncture, Ambassadors from Western Countries who were participating in the ceremony, got up and left the venue. The reason was that the President of Sudan was ridiculing the warrant issued by the International Criminal Court and visiting countries friendly towards him.

When the President of Sudan arrived, the President of Uganda introduced him while severely criticizing the International Criminal Court. At that moment, former President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa was among the foreign leaders present. The problem is that, Mangala provided air tickets to Mahinda to go and attend the Ugandan President’s swearing-in ceremony and to salute the President of Sudan.

The other thing is why is Mangala silent on the decision taken by Uganda to invite Mahinda and not the present Head of State of Sri Lanka to this function?

What is contradictory here is, Mangala’s policies regarding the war crimes mentioned in the letter sent to Mahinda by Mangala. On one hand he talks against the war crimes mentioned in this letter and on the other hand he has arranged facilities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Mahinda who is accused of war crimes to visit Uganda where war criminals are being protected.

It is a question as to why Mahinda requested facilities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to visit Uganda. It is possible that what Mahinda wanted was to show that he was representing the Government of Sri Lanka. If Mahinda was representing the Government of Sri Lanka, the invitation to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Ugandan Government should have been sent to the Government of Sri Lanka. Then the Government of Sri Lanka should have named Mahinda as the representative. However, such a thing has not taken place here. The invitation has been received privately by Mahinda. On the other hand, when Mahinda told Mangala to make arrangements for his visit to Uganda, what Mangala should have said was that in order to do so, such an invitation had not been received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A mistake of the Ministry

However, sources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs say that, Mahinda received an invitation to the swearing-in ceremony of the Ugandan President due to a mistake of the Ministry. Similar to other countries, when the President of Uganda was appointed, as the Head of State of Sri Lanka, Maithri should have extended his good wishes to him. Whether the President is a Dictator is not is irrelevant then. It is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which should coordinate this matter with the President’s Office.

However, the Foreign Ministry had not informed the President’s Office of this matter. The tradition is that the Foreign Ministry sends the message of good wishes. The President of Uganda, who was angered because he did not receive good wishes from the Head of State of Sri Lanka, did not recognize the Government of Sri Lanka and sent an invitation to Mahinda instead.

Under Mahinda’s Government Mangala was deprived of the External Affairs Ministry because of the decision he took to support the proposal made by the United Nations Organization to appoint Chandrika as an adviser of the Education Section of UNESCO. While, as the President Mahinda had launched a campaign against appointing Chandrika thus to this post, Mangala going against it, set up a party campaign at the External Affairs Ministry to enable Chandrika to be appointed which angered Mahinda considerably. That was one of the reasons Mahinda took away the post of Minister from Mangala.

It is a question as to why Mangala who lost his Ministerial post due to attempting to get Chandrika appointed to a post of Adviser at UNESCO, thought of making arrangements and providing facilities for Mahinda to visit Uganda. Mangala once, mentioned about Mahinda’s foreign bank accounts. He also mentioned the weapons deals of Former Ambassador to Russia Udayanga, who is a relative of Mahinda.

Now, Mangala who said that Mahinda has foreign bank accounts has provided air tickets to him to go to Uganda. Mangala’s Ministry has provided Udayanga with a passport as well. Is Mangala mocking Mahinda or is Mahinda mocking Mangala? This is not clear to us.

Courtesy: Ceylon Today