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Sri Lankan Major General exposed government's abductions to US - Wikileaks

Prasad Samarasinghe, a Major General in Sri Lanka's army and former military spokesperson to the Sri Lanka High Commission in London informed the US about the Rajapaksa adminstration's use of abductions as "political retribution against those though to be disloyal to the Rajapaksa administration", and the prosecution of scapegoats to "appease the international community", according to a US embassy cable, dated 6th June 2007.

Major General Samarasinghe is also the chief signal officer of the army and chief controller at the centre for research and development at Ministry of Defence. He was also the commander for three separate brigades in Jaffna, vanni and Trincomalee, Colonel General Staff, 22 Division Headquarters, Trincomalee, Colonel General Staff, Directorate of Operations, Army Headquarters, Assistant Military Secretary, Army Headquarters and the Centre Commandant, Sri Lanka Signal Corps.

Extracts of the US embassy cable, leaked by whistleblowing website Wikileaks, are reproduced below:

¶2.  (SBU)  During his weekly press briefing on July 4,
Defense Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella stated: "One ex-Air
Force officer (Gajanayake), a serving airman and four police
officers have already been arrested and another 10 suspects
comprising four Muslims and six Sinhalese have been arrested
in connection with ransom cases."  Rambukwella further
alleged that police have identified the suspects involved in
killing two Red Cross employees on June 1 (ref C), but that
they had escaped into territory controlled by the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).  He also stated that the police
were working with Interpol to arrest a suspected abductions
ring-leader who fled to Italy.  Noting that those arrested
comprised both Muslim and Sinhalese, Rambukwella dismissed
critics' allegations that abductions were targeting Muslims
based on their ethnicity.  Rambukwella also dismissed
allegations that United National Party (UNP) Parliamentarian
Lakshman Seneviratne made in Parliament on June 6 alleging
that Rambukwella's security detail was involved in abducting
a Muslim businessman (ref D).  Rambukwella stated that there
have been no abductions in Colombo since June 18 and cited
this as evidence that the GSL's efforts to bring abductors to
justice is working.

¶3.  (S)  Despite the GSL's efforts to tout arrests of alleged
abductors, critics and some government insiders claim that
there is little genuine connection between the abductions and
those that the Government has arrested.  Military Spokesman
Prasad Samarasinghe (strictly protect), a political insider

COLOMBO 00000959  002 OF 003

 


MOORE

within the Rajapaksa administration, told us that the arrest
on June 26 of the five alleged abductors working with
Gajanayake was political retribution against those thought to
be disloyal to the Rajapaksa administration.  Samarasinghe
further alleged that the GSL felt compelled to demonstrate
concrete examples of progress on abductions to appease the
international community.

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