I am sad – Gota

(Courtesy of Ceylon Today)

What are you doing these days?
A: I am constantly visiting the Financial Crimes Investigation Division (FCID), Bribery Commission, and the Presidential Commission probing allegations. I have time to read books. I am also talking to journalists often beside visiting temples on invitations.

How is to be out of politics after serving the country for almost 10 years?
A: That is a mistake. I did not do politics. That is not in me although I come from a family of politicians from the 1930s. My career started in the military almost 20 years ago. I was away, in the US, and then I came back and served as the Defence Secretary. My work as a secretary is different from politicians. It’s more a bureaucratic post.

So you did not do politics?
A: No, I didn’t.

 How is it to be a military person and then take a bureaucratic position? Is it more or less the same job theoretically?

A: There is no difference. As a military man you work as an official, and as a secretary to the defence it’s the same area and concentration of work.

What are your views on the Maithri government?

A: He promised a lot to the people. It is very unfortunate to see that they have put together a coalition. Taking Maithiripala Sirisena out from the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the United National Party (UNP) and various other groups run the country. It seems that there are no common policies among the groups. President Maithripala Sirisena was in a complete different environment for the past 40 odd years. The major component is the UNP and the powerful Jathika Hela Urumaya. All those elements don’t go well together.

I think there are no concrete policies and no clear leadership. I see a divided leadership. That is why nothing concretely happened during the last year. They all put things together to just ‘change the government.’ Whether some people like to accept it or not, there was a big foreign influence in changing the government. On one side there was India and the Western countries were on the other side. I knew how it was shaping up to be.

There was definitely influence from outside to change the Rajapaksa Government. There are many reasons for them to remove the Rajapaksas. One was the China factor which played a big role for India. Secondly, it was the Tamil Diaspora. Thirdly, the US was backed by the human rights lobby. Persons such as Susan Rice and Samantha Power are champions of this ‘right to protect’ ideals. If you read about Power, her whole life is about ‘rights.’ The policy of Obama Government had a different attitude compared to the earlier government. All the factors affected us. I think they played a bigger role than the Opposition. They succeeded in removing the Rajapaksas but after that, there was no policy, plan, vision or goal achieved by the new government. What they have been doing for the last one year was going behind the Rajapaksas and their supporters.

Don’t you think that the people denounce the Rajapaksa rule and defeated you?
A: What matters is that how they changed the thinking of the people. Analyze the Northern Province which voted against Rajapaksa. It was not surprising that the defeat of Tamil Tigers strongly impacted the people who were brainwashed by Prabhakaran. This is because he was their hero.

What makes you think they are still against you?
A: Even the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) never changed their policies. They preached and kept talking in a similar manner the LTTE spoke. That blocked the votes.

Unfortunately, even the Muslim community which supported the SLFP with nearly 30 per cent vote base moved from the regime because of the BBS. The matter was not addressed properly and effectively, and nearly 98 per cent votes went against us. A section of the floating votes, especially of the youth who were harping on continuous corruptions for a long time without any facts, also mattered. The government did not counter it very effectively.

People believed that we had Lamborghinis, owned hotels and there are billions of US Dollars stashed outside the country. But with all those factors, Mahinda Rajapaksa bagged 58 lakhs of votes and mere 400,000 votes less than President Sirisena at the Presidential election in 2015. That shows the majority of the community believed on policies and the results we produced through development including the ending of terrorism.? Does it mean that Rajapaksas did not have a proper foreign policy and that really mattered in the defeat? A: Yes, it did. In foreign policies, we couldn’t unfortunately satisfy India. India was very frightened of the Chinese investments and constant presence here. We assured them we will not harm the security of India and it was purely an economic development deal with China. But India did not believe that. They thought it was more than that.

India’s National Defence Advisor Ajit Doval who comes from an intelligence background, throughout his career focused on China. As his counterpart, I met him twice. On both occasions he mentioned the worry of the Chinese involvement. He wanted me to stop the Port City project and ‘more than the limit’ investment projects by China. But we explained that we cannot do that because after 30 years of war we need development. The only place that we can get investment is from China. Even the present government will have to be with China ultimately for investment and may start the Port City project. I am sure India will have the same issue. It’s not that we did not realize the issues with India. It conflicted with our interest.

We had a very sensitive time with India during that period. At the very last minute the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi went on a hunger strike asking us to stop the fighting. We managed to convince India that we are acting within the rule of the law on war without harming civilians. We told India that we are using only small arms and infantry. India accepted it and finally Karunanidhi too accepted it and called off the strike.

Did you anticipate defeat at the Presidential Election?
A: No. we knew there were some issues. But it was so difficult. We invited Doval for a keynote address at the Galle Dialogue. I told him that the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) is also working against the Rajapaksa Government. I asked him why it is doing so. He said PM Modi is very happy with President Rajapaksa. I said if that is the case, what is the role of RAW. I am sure RAW was responsible for changing especially the Indian origin Tamil votes against us.

Couldn’t you do anything about it?
A: No. it was so difficult.

You mean RAW was against Rajapaksa on the Tamil issue?
A: No. Their main issue was about China, and former National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan and Shivshankar Menon were all anti-LTTE at that stage. But I was not happy about the West mainly for acting in the manner they did. Diaspora hired law firms to lobby against us. Those were directly affecting the government.

Wasn’t the Rajapaksa Government corrupt?
A: There may have been corruption. For that matter, any government has corruptions. But the bottomline is the good things we did in those nine years. They are immense and far too big than the corruptions they are talking about. Even the previous governments faced allegations on corruption charges. The biggest issue for all governments was terrorism and we all went through it. But Rajapaksa was able to end it. Now see the benefits.

Even the little bad things they want to probe, they should go behind the correct people without doing a witch-hunt. One year has passed and where is the hidden wealth we are supposed to have amassed?

Isn’t the government probing it?
A: You mean it takes one year to trace my wealth like houses, properties, hospitals, companies, shares and bank accounts as they claim? If you know that might as well, prove it. If they want a letter from me to any bank asking to divulge all my accounts, I am ready to do so.

Why did they arrest Yoshitha in that case?
A: I don’t know the reason. They say he owns many companies and has made money.

Isn’t that true?
A: They cannot even prove that he was the director of that company. Compare the allegations before the elections and see what they are looking for now. The allegation on Yoshitha was something different and now they arrest him for something else. That is unfair. They are taking persons just to satisfy what they have said previously.

You have kept yourself less open to the media and also being branded as an arrogant and a fearsome man. Are you such a person?
A: During the first five years I did not have time to meet the media. Somebody else had to do it on my behalf. Also these allegations are levelled against me because I am connected to the Rajapaksa. The officials don’t get that much of time to address the media or go public. As a Defence Secretary I don’t have to interact with the people.

The charges against you by the public are not only about the Tamil issues such as allegation on the deaths during the last phase of the war. They also amount to Ekneligoda’s disappearance. How did the military intelligence get involved in killings, white van abductions and torture chambers found in many parts of the country. What is your explanation?
A: All those allegations are connected to terrorism. The intelligence agencies, police and military involvements mainly handled counter-terrorism and countering the underworld and drug trafficking. I don’t think their involvements were politically motivated. I was not involved in any of those and I don’t think nothing happened that way too.

What do you know of Ekneligoda’s disappearance that has now led to Giritale military camp?
A: I did not know who Eknligoda was till the media highlighted him. Nobody briefed me on him. During the conflict time and after that, I had meetings every Tuesday with the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and all the intelligence heads. When I came to know of him, I gave them orders to find what happened to him, who he is and why he was abducted. I don’t get the real picture now, but he was involved in terrorism is what I gathered. That is the whole issue. During my time, I can vouch for the fact that I asked the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to investigate.

Couldn’t it be that the intelligence agencies committed offence without your knowledge?
A: There were so many terrorists arrested and kept in the detention camps. All those individual cases don’t come to me. Only a general briefing we discussed.

We don’t take individual cases. When a bomb blast took place, I give instructions on the progress of the event, to go on the evidence, analyze the telephone conversation whether any arrests were made. In the Boossa Camp there were 5,000 detainees. I don’t know everyone who were there.
Only top terrorists like Morris and Giri I knew at one point who had close link with Pottu Amman. Those were briefed to me. They were in charge of bombing Colombo city. We arrested them. Morris is still in jail. That type of characters I come to know. We did not kill him. He is there.

 In that case what happened to Ekneligoda?
A: I still don’t know. In the Ekniligoda case, there must be some reason for taking him. He was unknown and not against Mahinda Rajapaksa. There is no base to level allegations against us. There were many propaganda against us not only from Ekneligoda.

A witness says he was taken to Giritale camp. Why would that take place if he is an unknown journalist?
A: That must be investigated. But we never gave any instructions to arrest him.

You are linked with the BBS and you cannot deny it as you opened their headquarters. Is BBS your creation?
A: That’s a misconception. One day, Milinda Moragoda came to my office with Ven. Kirama Nimalajothi Thera. He is a reputed bhikkhu who was not a hardliner or an extremist. He knows many other politicians.

He told me that there was a donation from a German national for the training centre they are opening for bhikkhus. So I went.

Were they known as BBS then?
A: No. There were other politicians too at the opening ceremony from that area. Even Chandima Weerakkodi was there. He was then our Deputy Speaker. Unfortunately, someone took a picture of me with Ven. Gnanasara Thera who took me around to show the place. That picture was highlighted in the front page of a newspaper. That is how they branded me as having contacts with the BBS. I did not do any propaganda for the BBS.

How do you categorize the activities carried out by the BBS?
A: Some moderate, respected, educated bhikkhus came to my office and told me that although Ven. Gnanasara Thera’s approach is wrong, what he is saying is true and that needs to be addressed. The government should address the issue. The truth is that it was an issue for the others.

Do you also believe in what Ven. Gnanasara Thera says?
A: Yes. I also believe in that. That was an issue for the people. The clashes in Aluthgama were at the lower level. We cannot blame the government, but the problem was it could have been handled differently.

Did you try to do that?
A: Yes, it went to a certain level, but it blamed us and it became political. The Opposition used that as a tool. I asked Minister Rauff Hakeem, why he was blaming me. Minister Champika Ranawaka wrote two books on this and held public lecture. Why not ask him? Politically it did not work.

There is an intelligence report that you have authorized funds for the BBS through an intelligence secret account. Is it true?
A: That is not true. I did not create a secret account, but it was existing during the times of President Jayewardene and President Premadasa. It’s not my account. The intelligence agencies have an account which is called a secret account. You cannot get Cabinet approval for intelligence work controlled by the intelligence. That is that account.

So did you fund the BBS using that account?
A: No. How can I? How do we know what purpose President Jayewardene used money for, from that account? How can I say what purpose the money was used by President Premadasa?

 Did you fund the BBS?
A: That’s what I am saying. No one can say for what purpose the money was used from a secret account.

Compared to your brothers, most of the serious accusations are levelled against you. They are white vans, Ekneligoda case, torture chamber, intelligence working for you. Any comments?
A: The listing of yours is very unfair. What do you mean by white vans?

Did you authorize abductions of people who went against your regime, be it Tamil or Sinhala? Sinhalese were also upset about all these activities that took place in the country.
A: Were there intelligence existing before I was the Defence Secretary? Do you remember the JVP time? Did anybody use some vehicles at that time? Have you heard about gonibillas? Who abducted them? Were they taken in bullock carts, Moris Minors?

They were called white vans because many saw them abducting people?
A: It was purely used for LTTE cardres who were in the South operating to plant bombs. It was not in Jaffna. You cannot go beyond Vavuniya. You know what happened throughout. It was a fact. There were safe houses, suicide cadres roaming in Colombo. LTTE members brought explosives and other devices to Colombo. Not only during our time, even before that. Intelligence agency must do these operations and all over the world they do it. They are known as covert operations. But in Sri Lanka they were known as white van operations.

Why were white vans used?
A: That concept was created by the media. We did not call them white vans. Do you know how many people were taken like these all over the world by the US and put in Guantamo Bay?

Let’s not generalize. Can’t we talk on Sri Lanka’s white vans?
A: No. You must understand the intelligence operations.

So you admit it happened in Sri Lanka too?

Intelligence agencies work like that, not only during my period. Otherwise what is the meaning of intelligence? How come so many were in the detention camps all these years? How can people be killed in all these years? They operated throughout.

But there are no white vans now. Do you think people fear them any more?
A: That is because there is no war. It’s easy to say that I stopped it.

Do you admit that there were white vans and people were abducted?
A: Not white vans. That is the wrong word used to tarnish the intelligence operation. That is my worry. If it had happened elsewhere, it has a name. For instance, they call it clandestine operations or covert operations. This is very unfair to call it white van abductions.

Do you know about the white van operation?
A: Obviously, because it is an intelligence operation in the country, but calling that operation as illegal, I don’t accept.

Is it true that you are going to form a new political party?
A: I am not a politician, but what I said was there is a necessity for a new party. If somebody or some group starts this party I will give my fullest support definitely because there is a need for it now.

If we call Sinha Le is the new party,
what would you say?
A: No. It must be a party for everybody.

What do you know about Sinha Le?
A: I don’t know. Ask Mangala Samaraweera. People are saying he is behind Sinha Le. Ask him if it’s true.

What happened to Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunga?
A: When he was killed we initiated the investigation. The CID said they cannot go beyond a certain level. Now there is a different government. Now they can investigate and I want them to do so. It will take a long time to find out. Actually if they have fresh information they should find out. I will be happy if they do it.

Do you admit that there were scores of civilian deaths in the ‘No fire zone’ during the last phase of the war? Do you take the blame?
A: We are very clear and there is no blame on us. There may be some offences committed by certain individuals and in that case we can take action. That was our position. We appointed a Court of Inquiry. It takes a long time. The disappearance commission is still going on. We fought terrorists, not civilians.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said recently people who disappeared are dead. Are they?
A: Some of them are living in Canada and in the European Union.

What about the rest?
A: Others are dead, I am sure.

Are we talking about persons arrested and never returned to the families or not found in the detention camps?
A: Every parent knows what happened to their children. LTTE knows the ones they took. The families say they are missing. They know they were LTTE fighters. So they died in action.

But Paranagama Report also says there are military abductions and arrests that need to be probed?
A: No, that is a different category. Army was not capable of abducting people in the LTTE area. We needed a division to go through that area. Sometime it took six months to enter a village. Many did not know what was existing in that area. Some people think we just surrounded the area. We also lost 5,000 military men. Then how much would be on the LTTE side? Around 3,000 soldiers went missing. They perished in the war and bodies were not recovered.

So didn’t the PM talk about the persons who disappeared after surrendering to the military or abducted by the military?
A: No, he talks about overall disappearances. Only about nine persons say that their sons or daughters were being arrested by the military.

 Former peace envoy Erik Solheim says in a new book written by Mark Salter that the US wanted to evacuate the civilians and wanted to bring a US vessel and inquired you if that would be possible. Is that true?
A: There was a proposal by the former US Ambassador Robert Blake who came to me and suggested to evacuate the people in a ship. He said he would not touch the LTTE, but only the civilians to take on board. I said it was not practical because the LTTE will not leave the civilians in the no-fire zone. So that is not practical. We were not ready to let Prabhakaran go scot free. The death and sacrifices we did should not go in vain.

So you refused to let the civilians go on board the ship?
A: I explained the problems and that was impossible.

Your family was highly praised for eradicating terrorism, despite that people despised the nepotism rule and said the Rajapaksas played havoc in the country. Are you hurt?
A: I am sad. Majority don’t believe that claim. That is why with all that allegations we did not lose the election badly. I regret at the same time, some did not realize and purposely forgot about it.

That credit should be given to the person who deserves it. It’s a huge service. Five Presidents could not do it. We eradicated terrorism. It’s hypocrisy if you deny it.

 Where did you fail then?
A: The BBS and the Muslim factor.

 What about the Tamils?
A: That is a separate chapter to talk about.

 Why didn’t you resettle them soon? Why didn’t you release the lands that were taken by the military like how the present President did? Did you win their hearts?
A: By 2015 we settled everybody and not a single person was in the camp.

Still there are welfare camps. People are living on other people’s land yet. Don’t you think that angered them more?
A: For this year how many people were resettled? Very few, right? You are absolutely wrong.

Could you have done more then?
A: That is misinterpreted. By end of 2009, the whole Peninsula was a camp. All land and houses were occupied by the military. Almost 90 per cent of the land we returned. The lands that were released now were already decided to release by me. That is what was released now.

Aren’t there welfare camps still?
A: That is a different issue. We have a High Security Zone in Palaly . There were certain families displaced 25 years ago and I had planned to offer them land too. Even this government cannot release that land for them.

Then why are the Tamils angry with the Rajapaksa Government?
A: Because we wiped out the LTTE and Prabhakran is no more.

There are many who are happy that there is no war. So why will they hate you? Isn’t it the harassment and not addressing the missing persons and resettling them that failed?
A: Can you offer all those at once even today? There are people without houses in the South too.

But development wise it’s as only the roads, railway and electricity. That was good but not good enough?
A: Those were not there for nearly 30 years. We provided them all that.

You put up hotels and restaurants and vegetable shops run by the Army. Isn’t that unfair depriving the people of that area to do business?
A: Who will run hotels then? It takes time. It was a war torn area. There were no persons to do that.

So do you justify all what you did were absolutely necessary and accurate?
A: Definitely.

Then why did you lose the Tamil votes?
A. We could have won. I could have won the Northern Provincial Council election. There were groups like the EPRLF, TELO, PLOTE and EPDP. They did not want to disarm themselves after the war. I told them we want the weapons back. EPDP’s Douglas Devananda and Karuna Amman and others refused to do so. TNA is actually a political arm of the LTTE. They said it was too early to take the arms and pleaded to keep them. They told me if they return all the weapons, TNA will win and my brother Mahinda Rajapaksa will lose. Yet I said I want peace in the area so return all weapons.

Douglas said at least wait till the NPC elections are over. I said no, and that I want to conduct the election without weapons. Then he agreed. He warned that TNA will win. I said it does not matter and let there be democracy. I told that to the ambassadors too that I recognize these measures. If I did not withdraw those weapons from the para military groups, today Douglas Devananda would be the Chief Minister of the Northern Province and Mahinda Rajapaksa would be the President.

Do you feel you should have done that ?
A: Yes. I feel I should have done that. Politically that would have been the right thing. I failed taking the democratic line.

But in the beginning you said you never did politics?
A: That is what I said. I did the correct thing but politically it was incorrect.

If you want to revert and bring your brother to rule the country, what will you do?
A: You have to do politics. I am not happy the way it is now.

 Mahinda Rajapaksa cried recently. Are you also having a heavy heart now?
A: His son was arrested. As a father he wept. He is just 24 years old. Look at his career. Is this a 100 per cent perfect world? Is everyone perfect in the world? If you want to find something I also can point out at anybody. It is a petty thing to be punished for.

 So how would you challenge them?
A: A new political party must be formed. This is the first time this country we are without an Opposition.

What about TNA?
A: (laughs)

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