Sagala’s portfolio is in danger

Nov 14, 2016

Information has come to light that the siege of the Presidential Secretariat by a group of disabled soldiers and Buddhist monks was a conspiracy planned to inconvenience the president, say Presidential Secretariat sources.

When the incident occurred on November 07, IGP Pujith Jayasundara was not in the country, and acting in his capacity was senior DIG C.D. Wickremaratne, who is a close friend of law and order minister Sagala Ratnayake. Also, he is the most senior officer with qualifications to succeed Jayasundara as the police chief.

Therefore, both Wickremaratne and Ratnayake should take responsibility for the attack on disabled soldiers, and the latter is under pressure to resign from his ministerial position, reports say.

Presently, investigations are underway to determine as to who had given the order to attack the protestors. Sources close to Ratnayake says, the minister was unaware of the order. There is suspicion that an official of the Presidential Secretariat is behind that.

However, sources at the Prime Minister’s office say they believe a former major general had led the attempt to storm the Presidential Secretariat. PM Ranil Wickremesinghe has ordered a full investigation report into the incident.

The suspect major general is a very close friend of ex-defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. He has been connected to activities relating to disabled soldiers, and also stands accused over various irregularities committed during the previous regime.

It is questionable as to how the protesters managed to reach the Presidential Secretariat, despite the police having obtained a court order to use power to disperse the protestors if there was a breach of peace.

After the ‘Yahapaalana’ government came to power, there have been many major student protests, but none were allowed by the police to come near the Presidential Secretariat. In such a scenario and furthermore, this incident happening at a time when both the president and the prime minister were not in the country, give rise to suspicion that it could well have been a test for a major conspiracy, say sources at the Presidential Secretariat. State intelligence services had in advance informed the authorities concerned that a group near Hotel Taj Samudra was planning to storm the Presidential Secretariat.Other sources say this incident could be related to the power struggle brewing in the Sri Lanka police.

Commenting on the incident later, president Maithripala Sirisena said an invisible political hand was using the disabled soldiers, who have already been promised a pension. Four months ago, they had submitted their demand for eight years, and a decision was taken to discuss the matter with the defence ministry and take a decision in consultation with the cabinet, he went onto say. “We decided four months ago to grant the demands. The relevant institutions and organizers were informed. When they went on a protest rally and staged a sit-down protest, we informed them too,” said the president.

However, the subject minister dealing with disabled soldiers is defence state minister Ruwan Wijayawardena. Also, the Ranaviru Seva Authority has a responsibility, but its chairperson, Anoma Fonseka, wife of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, is accused of not having paid proper attention to the matter.

(D. Manjula Kumara)