By

Rasika Jayakody

UPFA Parliamentarian Wimal Weerawansa ran into a trouble when he met the chief prelate of the Malwatte chapter, Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddartha Sumangala Thera, last week to discuss about the government’s plans for a new constitution.

Weerawansa, speaking to the Mahanayake Thera, said the new constitution was being drafted to fulfill the needs of separatist elements, including the Tamil National Alliance.

He also said, through the new constitution, the government was trying to allow foreign judges and prosecutors to examine into war crimes during the final phase of war.

He urged the Mahanayake Thera to intervene the government’s efforts to formulate a new constitution, dubbing it as a great threat to the country’s sovereignty.

It looked as if the Mahanayake Thera did not even take Weerawansa’s arguments seriously. “The new constitution has not been even drafted yet,” the Mahanayake Thera said, responding to Weerawansa’s allegations.

“The President and the Prime Minister have reassured, multiple times, that they would not cause any harm to the country by introducing a new constitution. So, what’s the point in panicking unnecessarily at this stage?” the Mahanayake Thera asked. His question, without doubt, put Weerawansa on the ‘back foot’.

“Apey Hamuduruwane, please look at this matter with an open mind. We are not trying to create an unnecessary fear over the new constitution,” Weerawansa told the Mahanayake Thera, in a desperate attempt to save face.

Mass grave

In his efforts to convince the prelate of the necessity to stop the current government from changing the Constitution to allow an enquiry into the final phase of the war, former MP Wimal Weerawansa inadvertently let slip the location of a mass grave his former bosses – former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa – used to bury bodies from the end of the war.

“For example,” the former MP told the devoutly attentive prelate, “a camp was moved out of Kilinochchi recently…Now that ground was what was used, during the end of the war, to bury the LTTE. Now there is the possibility they will dig up this area. The minute they dig it up they will find thousands of bodies. Who can prove if these are the bodies of LTTE cadres, or others?”

The former MP said that by moving people out of camps there was the danger that these mass graves would be unearthed and proof be gathered to support the accusation that war crimes were committed by the Rajapaksas at the final stages of the battle with the LTTE.

Weerawansa went on to add hype to the situation by telling the prelate, Ven. Thibbatuwawe Sri Siddhartha Sumangala Thera, that should evidence be gathered from this grave to support the accusation that the Rajapaksas committed war crimes, it would be enough to have the North separated from the rest of the island – “Much like Serbia and Kosovo.”

“Under the current constitution there is provision for war crimes,” he said.

“But it is not applicable to the past. What they are doing is changing the Constitution to allow war crimes to be tried on events from the past,” before telling the prelate that he was presenting ‘true facts’ and would in no way ‘even dream of lying.”

However, the Mahanayake Thera did not seem convinced and the entire exercise bounced back on Weerawansa and his supporters.

Undeterred by the incident, Weearawansa’s party is now preparing to hold seminars across the country to make the public aware of the government’s new constitution.

Courtesy:Sunday Observer