Sri Lanka’s former Foreign Minister GL Peiris slammed the present Sri Lankan government for failing to manage the “rapidly developing situation influenced by Western powers, Diaspora and their agents” and endangering “national security”.

The Island reports Mr Peiris as stating the country” was facing a major security crisis” under the present government, accusing it of “dismantling post-war counter terrorism structure built by the then Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa”.

The claims have been rebuffed in recent days by Sri Lanka’s defence minister and prime minister, both of whom have denied that any military camps in the Tamil North-East have been dismantled.

Mr Peiris also criticised the government’s plans to launch a domestic inquiry into reports of mass atrocities that occurred during the final phases of the armed conflict, stating that it could not be used to “rubber stamp [an] external investigation launched last year without Sri Lanka’s consent”.

The former minister, who remains a Member of Parliament, went on to reject plans to compensate wounded former LTTE cadres, adding that this “revealed the UNP line of thinking”. The proposal was swiftly scrapped soon after being announced. “Those who had fought for the division of the country couldn’t be appeased under any circumstances,” reiterated Mr Peiris.

See our earlier posts:

‘National security’ not under threat reiterates defence minister (25 Jun 2015)

‘Military camps in North-East have not been withdrawn’ confirms Sri Lankan PM (24 Jun 2015)

UNP capable of ‘stopping terrorists’ declares minister (22 Jun 2015)