{"id":35334,"date":"2014-11-26T23:15:04","date_gmt":"2014-11-27T04:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=35334"},"modified":"2014-11-26T23:23:59","modified_gmt":"2014-11-27T04:23:59","slug":"was-maithripala-sirisena-made-common-candidate-according-to-a-game-plan-devised-by-the-usa-after-maithripala-wnt-to-harvard-in-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=35334","title":{"rendered":"Was Sirisena made Common Candidate According to a Game Plan Devised by the USA After Maithripala Went to Harvard in 2013?"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/p>\n

Upul Joseph Fernando<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"MS<\/a><\/p>\n

Maithri changed after he went to Harvard, says Mahinda, to everyone these days. So Mahinda is trying to indicate that the United States is behind Maithri’s pole vault. In June 2013, the Harvard School of Public Health recognized Maithtri as ‘2013 Harvard Health Leader’ and gave him an award. But now only Mahinda says that Maithri changed after that visit.<\/p>\n

However, somewhere in 2011, Maithri met a diplomat in charge of political affairs when Patricia Butenis was the US Ambassador in Colombo. What that diplomat told Maithri about Sri Lanka was conveyed to Mahinda by Maithri and Mahinda viewed that as an interference in internal affairs. That was reported in The Island in the following manner; “The UPFA alleges the US Embassy is increasingly interfering in domestic political issues, thereby undermining the government.
\n\"USSL91712\"<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

The SLFP-led coalition believes the US is trying to cause a rift in the government over the imprisonment of defeated presidential candidate, former Army Chief, Gen. Sarath Fonseka. The party was responding to US Ambassador Patricia Butenis taking up the issue with SLFP General Secretary, Minister Maithripala Sirisena in the wake of the conclusion of the ‘White Flag’ case.<\/p>\n

Government sources said that a diplomat handling political affairs had met Minister Sirisena on behalf of Ambassador Butenis, who originally sought one-on-one with the Healthcare Minister.<\/p>\n

Minister Sirisena was told that the Geneva-based Human Rights Council would be moved against the country unless a presidential pardon was given to Gen. Fonseka, whom the US categorized a political prisoner.
\nDuring the discussion, the US representative said his country couldn’t financially back post-war development here due to financial difficulties experienced by the current administration.
\nSources said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa had discussed the issue with the minister.<\/p>\n

Responding to a query by ‘The Sunday newspaper’, sources said the government was concerned about the US Ambassador’s action. “But, what we really like to know is whether Ambassador Butenis had obtained prior approval from Washington to press Lanka on this issue,” sources said.<\/p>\n

Sources recalled a previous attempt also by the US to lure a serving senior military official to back an international war crimes inquiry targeting Sri Lanka. The government raised the issue with the US Embassy though it did not pursue the matter. Sources said the abortive bid had exposed a clandestine US operation.<\/p>\n

Sources said a section of the international community was going out of its way to make a case against Sri Lanka to appease the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which did nothing to save the Tamil speaking people from the LTTE. In fact, the TNA gave the LTTE a licence to kill by declaring terrorists as the sole representatives of the Tamil speaking people.”<\/p>\n


\nFonseka factor<\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2009, former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka, visited the United States before being selected the common candidate at the 2010 Presidential Election. Following is the report published in the Time Magazine on that controversial visit to the US; “To many Sri Lankans, Lieut. General Sarath Fonseka is a bit of a hero. Now the equivalent of the US Military’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Fonseka was the former Army Commander who helped strategize and lead the campaign that put a decisive end of the quarter-century-long separatist war of the Tamil Tigers. <\/p>\n

The intensity of the onslaught raised criticism around the world, including a 68-page State Department report to the US Congress that took to task the conduct of both government forces and the Tigers. Now, what appears to be an attempt by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to interview Fonseka about the war has raised angry protests from the highest official ranks in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

According to Fonseka and other Sri Lankan officials, the DHS contacted the general on 28 October during his trip to the US to visit his daughters, who live in Oklahoma. Fonseka, who holds a US green card permanent-residency certificate, was asked to show up for an interview on 4 November. According to Sri Lankan Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama, Fonseka had been told by the DHS official that the objective of the interview was to “use him as source against Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.” Apart from being a co-author of the successful campaign against the Tigers, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is also the brother of Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

Responding to previous international criticism, the Sri Lanka Government declared that it would not subject any of its military commanders or civilian officials who led the war to any kind of international investigation or war-crimes tribunal. The apparent request from American officials led to a similar dismissal. In the US, the DHS’s office of Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE), which reportedly made the Fonseka request, refused to confirm or deny the allegation. ICE Spokesman, Brandon Alvarez-Montgomery said: “If there was an investigation, there’s nothing we can provide. Especially in cases that are very sensitive under human-rights violations, until that person or groups were fully investigated (we) would never comment.”<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister, Bogollagama said, he had made his government’s concerns clear to the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Patricia Butenis. “The US authorities should not exert procedures on (Fonseka),” Bogollagama said. “The interview should not take place. “The Sri Lankan Government believes that despite Fonseka’s status as a green-card holder, the US does not have any jurisdiction over him at this point because he entered the country on a Sri Lankan passport. “General Fonseka is a citizen of Sri Lanka and he holds a diplomatic passport from Sri Lanka,” said Bogollagama. The minister said that Fonseka could not divulge privileged information he knew of the war and its conduct without approval from his superiors and the Sri Lankan Government.<\/p>\n

Defence Secretary Rajapaksa \u2013 who also happens to be a US citizen \u2013 was interviewed for about an hour on arrival by immigration officials when he was in New York City as part of Sri Lanka’s delegation to the UN General Assembly sessions in October. “It happened and I was there,” said Bogollagama. “We took all the necessary actions that were required.”<\/p>\n

The report of the DHS interview request comes at a curious time in Sri Lankan politics. Fonseka has been the subject of speculation that he may run against President Rajapaksa in the next election. Some political observers claim that the Rajapaksa brothers are trying to sideline the general, an allegation that the Defence Secretary has denied. “This is nothing but a despicable plot being hatched at the expense of the entire country,” Defence Secretary Rajapaksa told a weekend newspaper amid reports of a growing gulf between Fonseka and the government.<\/p>\n

But on 26 October, Fonseka seemed to have veered away from a hard-line stance he shared with the Rajapaksa’s. At a Buddhist temple in Washington, he spoke of the “need to resettle persons who are in camps and provide security to them.” That appears to be a softening of his previous position that the peace-and-order climate in the areas re-conquered by the military should not be undermined by speedy resettlement. Sri Lanka has an estimated 186,000 internally displaced people, refugees from the war with the Tigers. He warned that there might still be thousands of Tigers among them and that they needed to be weeded out. He said nothing about his alleged presidential ambitions, only that “the people who really know the victory are those who went to battle.”<\/p>\n


\nGame plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fact that Sarath Fonseka would be the common candidate at that presidential election was only disclosed after that visit. It was rumoured that the game plan was hatched in the United States to put Fonseka against Mahinda. However, no such evidence of a game plan could be discovered in the WikiLeaks cables sent to Washington from the US Embassy in Colombo. The following WikiLeaks cable on a discussion between the US Ambassador and Mangala Samaraweera during the 2010 Presidential Poll endorses that fact; “We assume that at least some of Samaraweera’s claims about Fonseka’s ‘liberalism’ are exaggerated and meant to impress us.” The US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/p>\n

The Colombo Telegraph found the leaked cable from the WikiLeak database. The cable classified as ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ recounts details of a meeting Ambassador Patricia A. Butenis has had with General Sarath Fonseka’s chief campaign strategist, Mangala Samaraweera on 6 January 2010.<\/p>\n

Ambassador Butenis wrote, \u201cMangala Samaraweera\u2019s defection to the Opposition is a old news, but it is only now that it is probably causing the greatest heartburn for the Rajapaksas. With his intimate knowledge of Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s thinking and methods, Samaraweera is as much of a danger to them in the presidential campaign as \u2018traitor\u2019 General Fonseka. <\/p>\n

The key to this appears to be Rajapaksa\u2019s rigidly and fear of alienating his base. While known as a masterful campaigner and the king of divide and conquer, Rajapaksa has offered no new significant initiatives during the campaign and has done little to reach out to Tamils other than to kiss their babies. Fonseka, on the other hand \u2013 presumably under the guidance of Samaraweera and Ranil Wickremesinghe \u2013 has re-invented himself, dramatically reached out to the minorities, and promised great reforms for Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assume that at least some of Samaraweera\u2019s claims about Fonseka\u2019s \u2018liberalism\u2019 are exaggerated and meant to impress us. Nevertheless, the General and his agents are making promises that it would be hard for them to walk back. The 10-point programme signed with TNA Leader Sampanthan would radically alter the government\u2019s relationship with Tamils and would represent a major step toward national reconciliation. <\/p>\n

Similarly, their telling us about their plans for a truth and reconciliation commission \u2013 though not announced publicly \u2013 put them on the hook with the international community. The next few weeks will tell whether this strategy is a winner, but in the meantime it has breathed new life into Sri Lankan politics and brought issues to the fore that had been all but buried,\u201d the ambassador further wrote.<\/p>\n

These communications prove that there was no game plan by the United States to have promoted Sarath Fonseka as the common candidate. However, there is evidence to prove that the United States used Fonseka to gather evidence on the war crimes charges against the island nation. During the current polls campaign we could see whether there is a game plan by the United States to make Maithri the common candidate. If the US is behind that game plan, there could be several incidents in the coming days, which would lead us to establish that fact.<\/p>\n

Courtesy: Ceylon Today<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Upul Joseph Fernando Maithri changed after he went to Harvard, says Mahinda, to everyone these days. So Mahinda is trying to indicate that the United States is behind Maithri’s pole vault. In June 2013, the Harvard School of Public Health recognized Maithtri as ‘2013 Harvard Health Leader’ and gave him an award. But now …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Was Sirisena made Common Candidate According to a Game Plan Devised by the USA After Maithripala Went to Harvard in 2013?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35334"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35334"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35367,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35334\/revisions\/35367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}