“Yes, We Took Pictures With Solheim, Do We Need Anybody’s Permission?” Gnanasara Asks Rajitha
July 5, 2014
Further exposing links between the government and the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) inadvertently; its General Secretary Galagoda Atte Gnanasara has acknowledged the allegations levelled at him by Government Minister Rajitha Senaratne, stating he only met the ‘patriotic factions of the Tamil diaspora’.
Gnanasara
While threatening to take legal action against Rajitha for statements he has made alleging links between Gnanasara and the LTTE, the monk has acknowledged his meetings with the Tamil diaspora during his foreign trips but had added none of them involved pro-LTTE factions.
Furthermore, he had questioned, “It is true we visited Norway; it is a well-known fact. Yes we took pictures with Solheim! We would even pose for a picture with Obama if we got the opportunity to do so. Do we need anybody’s permission to do that?”
Few days ago Colombo Telegraph revealed the picture that is being circulated alongside Rajitha’s allegations of Gnanasara maintaining links with the Tamil diaspora and LTTE members, is in fact an image taken last year during the monk’s visit to France and that those posing on his either side are in fact strong supporters of the government.
Meanwhile, it was also reported in Sri Lankan media that Gnanasara, while being questioned by the CID earlier this week over the speech he made in Aluthgama on June 15 – that has been widely held at the instigating point for the anti-Muslim violence that erupted in Southern Sri Lanka – had ‘instructed’ the CID to grill Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem instead.
In his four-hour long statement, Gnanasara had rejected allegations of instigating the anti-Muslim violence and had informed the CID that those who should be held responsible are the ‘muslim extremists’ and ‘Muslim leaders who have shed crocodile tears and made deceitful claims’.
The Disappearance Of Ananda Sunil – 27th July 1983
By Rajan Hoole -July 5, 2014
Rajan Hoole
Political Murders, the Commissions and the Unfinished Task – 5
Ananda (Kochikade) Sunil, a Sinhalese, was chief organiser for the SLFP in Premadasa’s pocket borough in Colombo North and held this post through the presidential election and referendum of 1982 and the local council elections of May 1983. He was a strong supporter of Vijaya Kumaratunge, then a prominent leader in the SLFP. He is said to have earlier been a UNP supporter. It is also generally known that Premadasa had been making overtures to draw Vijaya Kumaratunge into the UNP as other sections of the UNP had been making overtures to Anura Bandaranaike and Maithripala Senanayake in the context of divisions engineered within the SLFP.
The following account of Ananda Sunil’s disappearance is taken from a Civil Rights Movement document of October 1991 titled Presentation on the Climate of Impunity and from press reports in October-November 1983.
Sunil lived in a flat in Newham Square, Kochikade. On 27th July 1983 at the height of communal violence, there was curfew on during the night. At 10.00 PM while Sunil’s wife Kodippili Seetha and Sunil were in bed, three armed police officers walked into the flat and dragged Sunil out into a vehicle, assaulting him on the way.
A woman of the area told Sunil’s father, Jananayake, that Sunil had been abducted by the Police. Jananayake went to his son’s home with his wife Mary Catherine and his sister. On the way, he met two eyewitnesses Hemasiri and Pitche who identified two of the police officers concerned as Inspector Sharvanandan of Kotahena Police and Sergeant Ekanayake of Jampettah Police. At Sunil’s home he found Seetha carrying her daughter and crying. By then, a crowd had gathered on the road. Later, on the road, Jananayake and a companion met Inspector Shanthikumar who lived in that area coming in a vehicle. He later took them to Kotahena Guardroom and had the father fetch Seetha. Shanthikumar told Seetha that he had told told Sunil that evening of the impending incident.
