Colombo Telegraph
IN JOURNALISM TRUTH IS A PROCESS
FEBRUARY 9, 2012
Major General Prasad Samarasinghe the former Military Spokesman and Director, Directorate of Media in the Army has provided valuable information to the US and contradicted government’s official versions, according to a cable sent by the US Embassy Colombo. Major General Samarasinghe who is also the Chief Signal Officer (CSO) of the Army and Chief Controller, Centre for Research and Development at Ministry of Defence. He has also been the Commander for three separate Brigades in Jaffna, Wanni 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. He previously served as the military spokesman to the Sri Lanka High Commission in London on a diplomatic posting.
Samarasinghe - a political insider within the Rajapaksa administration,
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeaks database. The cable is classified as “SECRET” and discuses Sri Lanka’s problem of political abductions and abductions-for-ransom. The cable was written by the Charge d’Affaires, James R. Moore.
The cable, dated July 6,2007, updated the Secretary of State on Sri Lanka’s issue of abductions and asked strictly protect Military Spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe as their source. Samarasinghe was described as a political insider within the Rajapaksa administration.
The Charge d’Affaires wrote “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 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.”
Below we give the relevant part of the cable; Continue reading
