By Saman Indrajith-December 2, 2015
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera brought in some photographs of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Chamber yesterday as evidence to prove his allegation that the previous regime had secret deals with the LTTE and Tamil Diaspora.
Holding up the photographs during his speech at the second reading debate on budget proposals the Minister said: "I would like to give these photographs to my friend in the opposition, MEP leader Dinesh Gunawardena. I have heard that Dinesh Gunawardena has a Rajapaksa shrine at his home and he is worshipping the Rajapaksa’s pictures. So, Dinesh can take these, too, and put them up there in that shrine."
Minister Samaraweera showed a picture of former president with a group of expatriates and said that others in the photograph were senior leaders of Tamil diaspora organisations. "Look at this photograph taken on Dec. 17, 2014. The one next to President Rajapaksa is Dharmalingam Yogeswaran. Then I have another picture of Rajapaksa hugging KP," the minister said.
Minister Samaraweera tabled printouts of online news stories alleging that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa had met the members of the Tamil Diaspora. "They met all the members of Tamil Diaspora in secret now finding fault with us when we try to usher in peace. We are accused of being sympathetic to the LTTE."
He said that the foreign policy under the present government could be taken to the correct path. "Now, we take care to be equally friendly with both China and the US; Russia and the EU and India and Pakistan. The country’s foreign policy is moving forward in the right track," the Minister said.
