WikiLeaks: Mangala Samaraweera Is Openly Homosexual – US Embassy Colombo Informed State Department
January 23, 2014
“Mangala Saraweera, 47, is a PA/SLFP MP from Matara District in the south. First elected to Parliament in 1989, he was previously the main SLFP organizer for Matara, where his father also served as MP. He was Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in the previous PA government. Samaraweera is another PA hard-liner, who is said to advise the President to hit out at Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and the UNP government whenever possible. He is also one of the major proponents of an alliance between the PA and JVP. A former academic, Samaraweera attended the University of London and is openly homosexual. He is Sinhalese Buddhist.” the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.
Mangala and the Cabinet Minister of State Management Reforms, Navin Dissanayake / File photo
On November 18, 2003, sending brief biographical sketches of key advisers to then Sri Lankan PresidentChandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, in a confidential cable to US state department the US Ambassador to Colombo Jeffrey J. Lunstead described Mangala Samaraweera as a none family member advisor. According to the US ambassador there were only four none family party advisors to the President including Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sarath Amunugama and Kingsley Wickramaratne.
On April 15, 2004, Ambassador Jeffrey J. Lunstead wrote; As reported Reftel, Sri Lanka’s new cabinet was sworn in on April 10. (FYI. President Kumaratunga retained control of the defense and internal security portfolios — see Reftels. Due to a dispute with President Kumaratunga, the radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, ‘JVP,’ has not yet assumed the handful of ministerial positions it was promised before the election.”
Under the subheading ‘Biographic data on key ministers’ the ambassador wrote; ”Mangala Saraweera, 47, is a PA/SLFP MP from Matara District in the south. First elected to Parliament in 1989, he was previously the main SLFP organizer for Matara, where his father also served as MP. He was Minister of Posts and Telecommunications in the previous PA government. Samaraweera is another PA hard-liner, who is said to advise the President to hit out at Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and the UNP government whenever possible. He is also one of the major proponents of an alliance between the PA and JVP. A former academic, Samaraweera attended the University of London and is openly homosexual. He is Sinhalese Buddhist.”
The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cables from the WikiLeaks database and the “Confidential” cables are signed by the US Ambassador to Colombo Jeffrey J. Lunstead.
