{"id":96884,"date":"2019-12-25T16:13:01","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T23:13:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=96884"},"modified":"2019-12-25T16:13:01","modified_gmt":"2019-12-25T23:13:01","slug":"swiss-hoax-exposed-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/25\/swiss-hoax-exposed-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Swiss Hoax exposed \u2013 Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong data-rich-text-format-boundary=\"true\">By : A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>The Sunday Island in its editorial said that\nit is now abundantly clear that neither\nSwitzerland nor Sri Lanka want to escalate what followed the alleged abduction\nof a local employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo. President Gotabaya\nRajapaksa went on public record saying that Switzerland did its duty by\nstanding up for its employee while Sri Lanka did its duty by thoroughly\ninvestigating the complaint. But he was clear that there was no abduction\naccording to the physical and technical evidence examined. In effect he was\nsaying that the alleged victim\u2019s story is untrue and she has been arrested and\nremanded and due process in the court will now follow. The embassy employee, on\na court order, has been produced before a panel of specialist psychiatrists.\nIts finding has not yet been made public. This would, no doubt, be conveyed to\nthe court which directed the examination possibly in the course of this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\nDevelopments both in Bern and in Colombo and public statements from their\nrespective capitals indicates that neither party wishes to endanger hitherto\ncordial relations between the two countries. The editorial said that\nSwitzerland has beefed up its diplomatic presence in Colombo by sending an\nexperienced ambassador who was previously posted here to explore the\npossibilities of &#8220;clarifying&#8221; the incident. This can be interpreted\nas a perception by Bern that the matter, from their end, may not have been\nproperly handled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extracts from the said editorial are given below in point\nform:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Clearly\nthe embassy totally believed the version of the alleged \u2018victim\u2019 and acted\naccordingly with complaints lodged with the Prime Minister and elsewhere. That\nwas why the woman concerned and her family were given refuge in the\nambassador\u2019s residence.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Other\nactions on the Swiss side included broaching the possibility of using an air\nambulance to take her out of the country and skyped consultations with Swiss\ndoctors. These are understandable in terms of the severity of the complaint\nwhich includes poking a barrel of a firearm into her mouth, opening her mobile\nphone and sexual molestation. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The\nquestion in everybody\u2019s mind is that if a false complaint had been lodged, what\nwas the motive of the person making such a complaint? Most people believe that\npossible asylum in Switzerland may be the intent. Given that Switzerland had\nrecently granted asylum (or is looking at the possibility of doing so) to Chief\nInspector Nishantha Silva, Head of the Organized Crime Division of the CID, who\nrecently left the country ballasts this view. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The\nvarious Independent Commissions were appointed under the constitution to ensure\nproper merit based appointments, promotions etc. and obviously prevent\nvictimisation. But there had been criticism that the Constitutional Council,\nheaded by the Speaker, is skewed in favour of politicians. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Hopefully\nwhatever differences there may be over the alleged abduction of the Swiss\nEmbassy employee will be quickly sorted out in an absolutely transparent\nmanner. President Rajapaksa says he\u2019s the &#8220;victim&#8221; in this case due\nto the reference to a white van (actually a white car). But he has not\ncompromised his independent stance on this matter with wild rhetoric.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The shameless prat fallen JVP (spoken\nin defense of the Swiss the Janatha Viparyasa Peramuna) has spoken in support\nof the Swiss allegations and Lal Kantha the booser who has been secluded by the\npeople has justified the Swiss allegations.&nbsp;\nPerhaps it may bner the story of a crab in a boiling water! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the course of all these matters it has come to light that\na son of notorious Nimalka Fernando functions as the political advisor to the\nSwiss Embassy in Colombo.&nbsp; Nimalka is one\nof the pseudo Sri Lankan who is a staunch western, tiger terrorist and UNP\nservile foreign sustained NGO activist who had participated in several UNHRC\nsessions to promote and defend the LTTE terrorists.&nbsp; She also made a concerted effort during the\nMahinda Rajapaksa era, in association with the infamous Channel 4 to get Sri\nLanka declared as a Failed State\u201d by the Tyrant Western Nations (TWNs).&nbsp; The UNP\/TNA government of Ranil\nWickrermasinghe rewarded her appointing her as a member of the Committee\nappointed to investigate the alleged grievances of the so-called missing\npersons, most of whom are in fact living in foreign countries.&nbsp; With the son working as the political advisor\nto the Swiss Embassy it is obviously understandable that these anti-Sri Lankans\nfrustrated and annoyed by the GR victory would obviously have been behind and\nsteered the Swiss Hoax drama to defame and vilify the image of Sri Lanka.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many patriot minded Sri Lankans living\nin the country have urged the President through social media and media\nconferences not to take this Swiss Hoax lightly as it is the tip of an\nimpending western, terrorist and reactionary plot to obstruct the government to\nimplement its populist programmes, create religious and ethnic disharmony in\nthe country and ultimately to topple the government and implant one of their\nstooges.&nbsp; They have urged President\nGotabhaya to familiarise with what had happened to Mohammed Mossadeg of Iran,\nSalvador Allende of Chile in the past and to Saddam Hussain of Iraq and Muammar\nGaddafi of Libya recently and several other leaders.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\n<strong><em>Sri Lankan Critics Fear a\nCrackdown Is Underway, and Some Flee<\/em><\/strong><strong><em><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\nabove referenced New York Times article written by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/maria-abi-habib\">Maria\nAbi-Habib<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/by\/sameer-yasir\">Sameer\nYasir<\/a> and\npublished&nbsp;on Nov. 27,\n2019 and updated&nbsp;on Nov. 29, 2019 is purely based on hearsay accounts and\ndevoid of true facts.&nbsp; It says a Swiss Embassy employee was abducted and asked\nabout asylum applications and investigators were banned from leaving just days\nafter Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected. Extracts from the lengthy article and\ncomments appropriately <strong>in bold letters<\/strong>\nare presented below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka&#8217;s\nnewly elected president, center, greeting supporters after his swearing-in\nceremony in Anuradhapura<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fears of a potential crackdown on critics of the newly\nreturned Rajapaksa political dynasty in Sri Lanka are rising just days after\nthe election, as officials and journalists who investigated the Rajapaksas for\nhuman rights abuses and corruption began trying to flee the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a case that raised particular alarm, a Sri Lankan\nemployee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo was<strong> reportedly <\/strong>abducted on Monday by unidentified men and forced to\nhand over sensitive embassy information. Officials in Colombo said the men\nforced her to unlock her cellphone data, which contained information about Sri\nLankans who have recently sought asylum in Switzerland, and the names of Sri\nLankans who aided them as they fled the country because they feared for their\nsafety after&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/11\/17\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-Gotabaya-Rajapaksa-election.html\">Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the\npresidency<\/a>&nbsp;in\nelections this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the same day, Mr. Rajapaksa imposed a blanket travel ban\non more than 700 members of the Sri Lankan police unit that had been\ninvestigating the family. And other police officers raided a news outlet\ncritical of the Rajapaksas and forced several journalists to hand their\ncomputers over for analysis, in what the police said was an investigation into\naccusations of hate speech. <strong>The news\noutlet referred was News Hub\u201d a New Zealand website which seldom news about\nSri Lanka.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the abduction case, the diplomatic officials, who spoke\non condition of anonymity because of security concerns,&nbsp;said the men held\nthe embassy employee for several hours and then, before releasing her,\nthreatened to kill her if she told anyone. The <strong>political columnists of the Island\u201d and Sunday Times\u201d have given\ndetailed accounts of this hoax and these accounts are mentioned above.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was not clear whether the men were connected to Mr.\nRajapaksa or were acting of their own accord as supporters of the popular\nleader and his political dynasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry, Pierre-Alain\nEltschinger, told The New York Times, We can confirm that a local employee of\nthe embassy was detained against her will on the street and threatened at\nlength by unidentified men in order to force her to disclose embassy-related\ninformation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Switzerland regards this incident as a very serious and\nunacceptable attack,\u201d he said, adding that the Swiss government was demanding\nan immediate and complete investigation into the circumstances surrounding the\nincident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Rajapaksa family had held power for a decade until 2015,\nwhen they were voted out of office. Their last few years in government were\nmarked by frequent abductions of opponents, who were often bundled away into\nvans by men in civilian clothing, never to be seen again. <strong>This was a concocted allegation invented by the former Minister and\nLTTE megalomaniac leader Prabhakaran\u2019s close ally Mano Ganeshan and this\nallegation was refuted as a false allegation by the government\u2019s Minister of\nParliamentary Affairs Gayantha Karunatilleke in the Parliament.<\/strong>&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Sandhya Eknaligoda, the wife of\nPrageeth Eknaligoda, a missing Sri Lankan journalist, outside the United\nNations offices in Colombo in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>There is a complaint filed with the CID by a retired General named\nAjith Prasanna saying that the journalist was abducted and killed by the former\nMinister Patali Champika Ranawake for divulging in an article written by him to\nLanka E News website detailing the horrendous sex tortures the former Minister\nhad been carrying out against his wife Nirmala. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/04\/21\/world\/asia\/sri-lanka-bombings.html\">a devastating terrorist attack\nby Islamist extremists killed hundreds of people<\/a>&nbsp;in April, security concerns were thrust to the\nforefront of public consciousness, creating an opening for Mr. Rajapaksa and\nhis family to gain in the elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Gotabaya Rajapaksa was defense secretary and his brother\nMahinda was president during the crucial final phase of Sri Lanka\u2019s long and\ndeadly civil war. The Rajapaksas received wide credit within Sri Lanka for\nbringing the war to close..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Shortly after his election victory, President Rajapaksa\nappointed Mahinda as prime minister, keeping the country\u2019s two most powerful\npolitical posts within the family. <strong>This\nis a calculated attempt to misguide the readers.&nbsp; The election campaign of the Sri Lanka\nPodujana Peramuna (SLPP \u2013 an alliance of 17 political groups) was carried out\npromising that Gotabhaya will be President and Mahinda will be the Prime Minister\nand the voters fully mandated a rule by this combination.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many diplomats had thought that Mr. Rajapaksa,\nwho had handily won at the polls, would try to reconcile with his opponents. In\na statement shortly after his victory, Mr. Rajapaksa had urged peace and unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We thought there would be a period of\ndemonstrating benign intent,\u201d said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, the executive\ndirector of the Colombo-based advocacy group, the Centre for Policy\nAlternatives. But this is a situation in which anyone who stands in their way,\nanyone who is critical of the government or the president, will be seen as the\nenemy. We are in slow descent into something very frightening.\u201d <strong>This person who is a Tamil, and a staunch\nracist is a leading pro-Western and UNP activist sustained from western funds\nand has a gang of NGO personnel under him to extend servility to Tamil\nterrorists and the reactionary UNP.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Sunday, the president raged against the\ninvestigations of him, his family and their allies, dismissing them as\npolitically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The investigations\u2019 focus was to put those\nwho fought the war, the former navy commander, intelligence officials and me in\nprison,\u201d he said in a speech to Buddhist monks. They forced officers to say my\nname and implicate me in investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That is not justice,\u201d he added. That is not\nthe rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One case that may implicate Mr. Gotabaya had\nbeen set to begin on Wednesday, but was postponed until next month. It involves\nthe 2010 disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda, a journalist and critic of the\nRajapaksas. Government investigators said that a military intelligence unit\nabducted and likely killed him, and an army lieutenant colonel and six others\nwho served under President Rajapaksa\u2019s command when he was defense secretary\nhave been indicted.&nbsp; <strong>The true account of this matter was mentioned above together with the\nallegation of former Minister Ranawaka\u2019s role to avenge publication of his sex\ncrimes.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Eknaligoda\u2019s wife, Sandya Eknaligoda,\nbelieves the trial will not go forward, and fears for her safety after a decade\nof accusing the Rajapaksas of abducting her husband. <strong>It was also alleged the former minister Ranawaka has given a large\namount of money to Sandya Ekneligoda to continue with her allegations of\nRajapaksas so that his involvement will get covered.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The infrastructure that had been built to\nsupport the investigations into the Rajapaksas and their allies has swiftly\nbeen unraveled over the last week. The Criminal Investigations Department, or\nC.I.D., which has been spearheading the inquiries, has been gutted, and its\npowers limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The head of the C.I.D. was reassigned last\nweek to a junior position away from the capital, Colombo, officials said. And\nthe lead detective on many of the cases, Nishantha Silva, fled to Switzerland\non Sunday. National television channels on Tuesday displayed the photos of\nother detectives involved in the investigations, accusing them of corruption\nand treason, after they were stripped of their personal security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A spokesman for the National Police Commission\nof Sri Lanka said they would decide in the next few weeks whether the\ninvestigations would continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mr. Silva was the lead detective in several\ninvestigations into Sri Lanka\u2019s military, when President Rajapaska served as\ndefense secretary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Monday, Mr. Rajapaksa ordered a blanket ban\non travel out of the country for all 704 C.I.D. officials, a move seen as an\nattempt to prevent other police officers from fleeing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some diplomats said Mr. Rajapaksa may be\ntrying to take stock of the government he just took over. But, they added, they\nwould be watching closely whether the travel ban is eventually lifted or\nwhether the ban leads to the ranks of C.I.D. being purged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kamal Gunaratne, Sri Lanka\u2019s newly appointed\ndefense secretary, said Mr. Silva had broken the rules by not seeking approval\nfrom the government before leaving to Switzerland. He denied accusations that\nthe new government intended to derail the cases against the Rajapaksas and\ntheir associates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We are not going against anybody or any\nofficer of the C.I.D. We are just following the rule of law,\u201d Mr. Gunaratne\nsaid in a telephone interview. This is a democratic country. It is not a\nmilitary rule, where dissent will be crushed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During the civil war, Mr. Gunaratne led a\nmilitary unit that the United Nationsaccused of conducting summary executions\nof detained rebels. Mr. Gunaratne has denied the accusations. <strong>The western imperialists and the Tamil\nterrorists are envy of Mr. Gunaratne because it was the Army Division under him\nthat shot and killed the terrorist leader Prabhakaran at Nandikadal, a lagoon\narea, and thereby put an end to the 30 years of aggressive war.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By : A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA The Sunday Island in its editorial said that it is now abundantly clear that neither Switzerland nor Sri Lanka want to escalate what followed the alleged abduction of a local employee of the Swiss Embassy in Colombo. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went on public record saying that Switzerland did its duty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aamnizam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}