Gotabhaya denies links to BBS

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa

has denied any links to the Bodu Bala Sena, but questioned why the people calling for the police to take action against the group, were not calling for the arrest of Tamil Bishop Rayappu Joseph.

Rajapaksa, the brother of president Mahinda Rajapksa, told the Daily Mirror that he would resign if his involvement with the group was proven.

“I have nothing to do with the BBS. I have not at all been involved in any of this. All this is because of baseless accusations, and I will always say that some Muslim politicians and opposition politicians have put the blame on me. At the end the media has also done that. What facts do they have to say that? It’s very unfortunate that people write such baseless factless articles, that is very wrong. Because of these the international media believes they are true,” he said.

Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Gnanasara, the leader of the BBS, at the opening of one of their religious centres (Photo courtesy of Colombo Telegraph)

“I will give up this post if they can prove this. I will leave this post if they can prove that I have any connection with any of these things or organisations” he said.

In the interview with the paper, Gotabhaya said he was “saddened” by the recent anti-Muslim violence , ehich came after a rally by the BBS.

“I am very sad to have witnessed these incidents. They gave a very bad image to our country and it affected many people who had an image of Sri Lanka being a peaceful and stable country,” he said.

“We saw the international media projecting Sri Lanka in bad light and that is very sad. Even the timings of the incident have affected all of us because we have a great challenge from within certain sections of the international community after the end of the war, a team to inquire has now been appointed by the Human Rights Council and we were working very hard with like minded countries to work with us and also to win their support."

Gotabhaya accused rival politicians for the “baseless accusations” of the BBS links.

“I know who put the blame on me. It is some of the Muslim politicians and some of the opposition members. They did this to appease the international community in order to discredit me and the government. Some other people used this to get the advantage of the Muslims. Its purely political. These people have to be more responsible. The only fact they use to blame me is a photograph of me visiting an opening ceremony of a centre,” he said about his attendance at the opening of a Buddhist centre by the BBS.

“I don’t see anything wrong in attending this ceremony. From that day onwards they have been linking me,” he added.

The defence secretary rebuffed claims that the police failed in its duty to protect Muslims during the violence.

“The Police has taken action at all times. The problem is that some people expect the Police to take action in different ways to different people. Take the example of the Bishop of Mannar Rayappu Joseph. Look at his actions and speeches. No one has called for his arrest have they? Why is the approach different? His speeches are detrimental to the country, detrimental to harmony. In his speeches he refers to the Army as a Sinhalese Army. So why aren’t the people calling for action against him? Then look at some of the Muslim leaders and the way they talk. Why don’t you ask the same question about them? When you take legal action, or action by the Police its very unfair to target one group or persons.”

Rajapaksa called on society to “rise up” to stop social media “attacks” on President Rajapaksa, denying that he instructed the security forces to take action against those expressing “hate” on social media.

“ It is very difficult to identify and locate these people on Facebook or Twitter because the servers are not in Sri Lanka. […] Not only on this issue, look at the way they attack the President on social media. [O]ur power is limited because we don’t have the technological capability to stop it. However, the people should rise up from this, the whole country has to come together to stop this. You must not leave this only to the Government or the forces. Society should stand up.”