In a chilling and frank admission of the true mentality of this repugnant government, Defense Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa (not known for his tact) admits in an interview to Reuters that the eviction of Tamils last week was better than what, in his opinion, it could have been:
“So you can tell them, if you don’t have any legal business in Colombo … we don’t want to detain you, you go back to your homes. In fact this operation was much better. We could have put all of them in detention.”
Gothabaya bandies tired arguments against the US & UK in an interview that clearly exposes why this Government does not, as I noted in my last article, give a damn for human rights. Gothabaya’s chillingly frank statement and the incredibly misplaced largesse of his for those evicted, a day after the public apology by the PM for the evictions, is telling in that it is clear admission that this President and his coterie of brothers will clearly do & justify anything, with total impunity, in their self-styled war against terror.
Our days as civil society activists may well be numbered given this imbecilic, nay, brutal mindset. More importantly, Sri Lanka’s already rotting democracy stands no chance of recovery as long as this government will be in power – we are merely replacing non-state terrorism with state terrorism. And behind it all, the JHU’s Champika Ranawaka, the real mastermind of this government’s nefarious plans.
1,295 have read this this article so far. You may also find these articles interesting:
- (Rajapakse) & Co. A Tragi-Comedy in Three Parts Act I “& Co.” is a political satire on Swarnavahini that’s quite hilarious, until of course we realise we are essentially laughing at the tragedy that is Sri Lanka today. Comedy flourishes as a form of political commentary precisely when political repression is the greatest. For example, one SMS I received after... Sunanda Deshapriya, June 14, 2007
- On Lasantha Wickremetunge, media freedom and human rights in Sri Lanka: Interview with Dilrukshi Handunnetti “Governments usually don’t take notice of silent majorities” says well known investigative and environmental journalism Dilrukshi Handunnetti in this video interview with Groundviews. To commemorate Human Rights Day 2009 (falling on 10 December) Groundviews interviewed a number of leading activists in Sri Lanka to find out their perspectives on current challenges facing human rights in post-war... Groundviews, December 18, 2009
