Former Sri Lankan President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga claimed that she has no blood on her hands and is better qualified than any other politician to contest in the upcoming elections, in an address made during a Buddhist ceremony.

Marking her 70th birthday with a religious Buddhist ceremony, the former president said “the number of murders, rapes and child abuse has increased as never before”. “Sri Lanka has become the heroin hub of south Asia,” she added.

Ms Kumaratunga went on to state "I have not done anything wrong… I don’t have blood on our hands”.

Earlier this year, she had boasted of having won “75%” of the war during her tenure by going to war with the LTTE.

Ms Kumaratatunga, who was president of Sri Lanka from 1994 till 2005, faced extensive criticism by international human rights group for impunity and injustice over numerous incidents killings of Tamils by state forces during her long term in office.

See more in our earlier post:

Sampanthan confident about Chandrika-led commission (31 Mar 2015) 

Since then she has been appointed to lead a special Presidential Task Force on Reconciliation (PTFR) to identify urgent reconciliatory needs of the Tamil community

Also see our earlier posts:

Former Sri Lanka president will lead task force to identify needs of Tamil community (27 Mar 2015)

Sri Lankans find international investigation into atrocities insulting – CBK (15 March 2015)

Kumaratunga claims ‘75%’ of way victory (16 Dec 2014)