28 March, 2024

Blog

Lasantha Tapes: More To Come But It Becomes Clear

It’s eight years since Lasantha was murdered. Recorded conversations between former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Lasantha Wickrematunge have been released to the media via websites. That is understandable if one puts his thinking hat on. The persons releasing them do not want to be identified. It also means such is released for public consumption and not for legal reasons. Public consumption without legal scrutiny means the released tapes will only have one purpose. Tilt public opinion.

lasantha-wickrematunge-and-mahinda-rajapaksa-phone-conversationThe first leaked tape was initially sent to Colombo Telegraph. As is normal with Colombo Telegraph standard procedure we did an analysis for our readers without simply reproducing it. For reasons best known to the whistleblowers the subsequent leak was not sent to us. Nevertheless since it is in the public domain we shall discuss it.

There are basically two sides to the story of Lasantha’s murder. That of Lasantha and the other of Lasantha’s murderers. Now consider. Who would gain from releasing these conversations and who would have taped them? Both Lasantha and Mahinda could have taped. So let us consider both possibilities. If Lasantha did and given the gist of the conversations, what is to be gained by releasing them now? Who would have had access to his tapes, eight years after his death?

His cell phone was taken after the murder by a thief and later recovered by the Police and handed over to Court. It is yet in the custody of the Court. Of course it would have been possible possible to transfer the recorded conversations from a phone to another device by Lasantha. Let us assume that was done by Lasantha. In whose custody was it after his death and why release it now. The secret and also the raison d’etre, is in the gist of the conversation. There is nothing to be gained for Lasantha in the conversation thus released. If he was accused of whispering UNP secrets to Mahinda as was reported immediately after his murder by pro Mahinda groups, there was no sign of that. If at all the conversations reflected Lasantha advising Mahinda on corruption within his government and also the harassment of journalists.

It is also apparent from the second recorded release that it was the infamous doctor of dubious repute who had been the go between. Pretending to be snow white, he seems to have been the facilitator between the two. It’s almost akin to him giving steroid to an athlete prior to taking part in Olympics knowing that he/she would be tested. But we digress. Such persons would fish in troubled waters and would even steal power from the National Grid.

Without any remorse !!!

Let us ponder. If Lasantha had nothing to gain from releasing these conversations, who would have been at an advantage? The answer is clear. What advantage would have accrued to Mahinda? There has been elaborate attempts to inform the public that Mahinda was a friend of Lasantha. True to an extent. He was. But that was before Lasantha exposed the Helping Hambantota deal. We have also read how he used filthy language on Lasantha over the phone many times and vowed to destroy him which Lasantha reported in his paper without a murmur of denial by Mahinda.

It is understood universally that mediamen do speak to politicians despite them having been admonished and vilified. Vice versa is always not true but Mahinda being the quintessential politician would have done so. We know that. So given the probabilities it appears as if Mahinda taped these conversations and released them via guerilla mail addresses. Why? We do not know. Perhaps he scents something which we do not. It will not be long though before it becomes apparent.

There is yet another distinct but remote possibility. Sections of the armed or security forces who carried out clandestine ops during Mahinda’s presidency including intercepting and recording conversations, could have recorded these conversations and/ or would have been tasked to hold them for future reference or had access to such. if so, why would they release them now and on whose instructions? To fix Mahinda or some within his fold for Lasantha’s murder or to show he had no reason to murder Lasantha. One of the two.

Which one?

Related posts:

Leaked Tapes By Mahinda Begs More Questions Than Answers

The Politics Of The Decision To Kill Lasantha

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Latest comments

  • 11
    1

    RE: Lasantha Tapes: More To Come But It Becomes Clear

    1. “There are basically two sides to the story of Lasantha’s murder. That of Lasantha and the other of Lasantha’s murderers.”

    Whose self-interest is that?

    2. “Let us ponder. If Lasantha had nothing to gain from releasing these conversations, who would have been at an advantage? The answer is clear. What advantage would have accrued to Mahinda? There has been elaborate attempts to inform the public that Mahinda was a friend of Lasantha. True to an extent. He was. But that was before Lasantha exposed the Helping Hambantota deal. We have also read how he used filthy language on Lasantha over the phone many times and vowed to destroy him which Lasantha reported in his paper without a murmur of denial by Mahinda.”

    There the Cat is coming out of the bag.

    “So given the probabilities it appears as if Mahinda taped these conversations and released them via guerilla mail addresses. Why? We do not know. Perhaps he scents something which we do not. It will not be long though before it becomes apparent.”

    3. “To fix Mahinda or some within his fold for Lasantha’s murder or to show he had no reason to murder Lasantha. One of the two.”

    Which one? The former, by reasoning using common sense and self-interest of those involved.

    • 8
      2

      From what we heard – in the tape – MR behaved as if he could be a thug.

      ” MATA allala denna eya, mama dennam wade- please catch him for me I will destroy him or the like”:
      I myself could not realize if that was Mahinda Rajaakshe.His responses given to Lasantha was similar to a STREET thug issued to them. He even wanted to meet himself up with Lasantha – not in Temple trees but somewhere else. I think even if MR sounded to be nice as is the case with him with anyone, he had second thoughts not being able to get on with the blunt manner of Editor-Lasantha. Lasantha even resounded as a president he expected him to stand against high corruptions.

    • 7
      0

      Besides, it is no secret that even normal secretarial offices have backup recordings for their each and every conversations. Given that, President should have recorded the conversation on that day.
      President and their men should be the ones who have setit to the air a week ago

      a) To show that Mahinda had even closer contacts with LW, he would never be the person would ever kill LW

      b) To attack others – who are now againsst him – Namely SF or anyone within army

      c) To dilute the thoughts being rained on MR/GR et al to have murdered LW.

    • 7
      1

      Rajapakshe as a leader no means credible. At the time press conference was called immediately after Baratha was gunned down – he even spoke to the media with tearing eyes. The very same reactions were seen at the time LW was also shot down. But in the same time, there are more than enough evidence him to have worked with higher criminals in murder activities. So, I think, we need local forensic analysts, reporters, lawyers, Doctors, psychologists and all kind of professionals to share their thoughts what they think about the personality. Many who may have met him or herself with him may see it he was very nice for the moment, but his true colours can only be traced through the kind of tapes now being in air or other rival incidents and subsequent explanations made to the press. At the time UNP visiting MPs were on a fact-finding mission to Hambantota and the area – there the men instigated by Rajaakshe ground handling units were attacked on broad day light. The filthy langague being used by those thugs were similar to that of MANGALARAMAYA monk s derogatory sinhala terms. But Rajaakshe publicly defended those men, criticising the fact finding missions. There those victimized parties were double attacked both by former president s rherotics and those criminals in that area. Nobody talked about the incidents after that. All was seen as in Zimbawian dictator-regime run by Mugabe.

      • 2
        0

        Even in the days of Mrs B she had been supicious on Mahinda Rajaakshe. One could not keep the faith on the man even that time.
        So was the Regime of CBK as she expressed it to the media not once several dozens of times. Howver, thuggery and peoples indifference allowed the bugger to be the leader of the nation. Last week people got hurt by Tsunami mourned again not having them built proper housees from the donations received the country following the disaster. With former CJ SN Silva s appologies on the verdict in which Rajaakshe embezzeled the donations received to the country, revealed that it was no correct verdict – MR was fault taking away those millions of US dollars. However, all these covered by Rajaapkshe men, since he was the President, Alibaba and 40 Thieves until 8th Jan 2015.

        NONE OF THE COUNTRY MEN SHOULD EVER FORGET ALL THESE FACTS.

        RAJAKSHES ARE BORN RASCALS – IF ANYONE WOUDL SEEK ANY GOOD FROM THEM:: IT WILL BE LIKE WANTING FEATHERS FROM TURTLES:

    • 3
      0

      හිටපු ජනාධිපති මහින්ද රාජපක්ෂ සහ විදේශ වාර්තාකරුවන්ගේ සංගමය අතර දෙසැම්බර් 29 වෙනිදින පැවති සාකච්ඡාවේදී, බීබීසී කොළඹ වාර්තාකරු අසාම් අමීන් එම හඬපට පිළිබඳව හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයාගෙන් කරුණු විමසීමක් කළ අතර, එම අවස්ථාවේ ඉදිරිපත් කෙරුණ ප්‍රශ්න හා හිටපු ජනාධිපතිවරයා දුන් පිළිතුරු මෙහි දැක්වෙයි.

      There had been a discussion between former prez MR and foreign journalists on the 29th Dece, there BBC journo Asam Ameen had questioned about the tape being added by someone to the media and the questions posed to him there are as follows.
      ——————————-

      ප්රශ්නය ;මාධ්යවේදී ලසන්ත වික්රමතුංග හා ඔබතුමා අතර ඇතිවූ දුරකථන සංවාදයක් ඇතුළත් හඬ පටයක් නිකුත් වී තිබෙනවා, එය නිකුත් කළේ ඔබ විසින්ද? ඔබ එයට සවන් දුන්නාද?
      Question: There is a tape of a phone conversation of Editor of SL LW and you being cirulated ot the media these days. Was that added by you ? Did you listen to the it ?
      පිළිතුර; මම එවැන්නක් නිකුත් කළේ නැහැ, මට අහන්නත් බැරිවුනා. නමුත් ඒ ගැන මට දැනගන්න ලැබුණා.
      Answer: I myself did not add the kind of tape to the media. But I was informed about that from others.
      ප්රශ්නය; ඒක මේ වෙලාවේ නිකුත් කෙරුණේ කුමක් නිසා කියලද ඔබතුමා හිතන්නේ ?
      Question: What do you think why the tape was issued to the media right these days ?
      පිළිතුර; මම දන්නේ නැහැ, ඒක මටත් හොයාගන්න අවශ්යයි. කවුද මේක කළේ කියලා. ඒ හඬපටය එක්කෝ ලසන්තගේ ‘සන්ඩේ ලීඩර්’ කණ්ඩායමත් එක්ක තියෙන්න ඕන. නැත්නම් පොලිසියේ NIB (රාජ්ය බුද්ධි අංශය) එක ගාව තියෙන්න ඕන.
      Answer: I am afraid, I dont know. I also need to know and who issued to the media etc. Either it should be with the team of LW or police NIB (police intelligence).
      ප්රශ්නය; ඒ කියන්නේ, පොලිසියේ NIB එක (රාජ්ය බුද්ධි අංශය) දුරකථන ඇමතුම් පටිගත කළාද – ඔබතුමා ජනාධිපතිවරයා ලෙස සිටි අවධියේ ?
      Question: This means, you believe POLICE NIB recorded your conversation while you were in the office ?
      පිළිතුර; නැ
      Answer: No
      හැ, ලසන්ත තමයි පටිගත කළේ. එහෙම පුරුද්දක් ඔහුට තිබුණා, ඔයගොල්ලොත් එහෙම කරනවනේ. ලසන්තට එහෙම පුරුද්දක් තිබුණා, එයා මට ඒ වගේ හඬපට දීලත් තියෙනවා ඒ දවස්වල. විවිධ ඇමතිවරුන්ගේ සහ විවිධ පුද්ගලයන්ගේ සංවාද ඇතුලත් හඬපට එයා මට දීල තියෙනව. එයා මගේ යාළුවා.
      Lasantha is the person who taped it. It was used to do so. Even you too do so. Lasantha had also the same habit. He had even given me the kind of tapes those days. He had given me the Tapes of various ministers and like minded person in which convesations were recorded. Anyways he was my friend.
      ප්රශ්නය; බුද්ධි අංශයේ ලිපියක් පවා වෙබ් අඩවිවල පළකර තිබුණා – ලසන්ත ඇතුළු තවත් අයගේ දුරකථන ටැප් කරන ලෙස ඒ දවස්වල ආපු නියෝගයක් ඇතුළත්?
      Question: There was also a letter issued by Intelligence was circulated in the websites, that inteilligence was ordered to tape the conversations of LW and other persons ?
      පිළිතුර; නැහැ, අපි නම් කාගෙවත් දුරකථන ටැප් කළේ නැහැ. මම දන්න විදිහට – මම දන්නේ නැහැ- මගේ සංවාදත් NIB එක ටැප් කරාද කියලා.
      No, as for us we never taped the phone calles of anyone. As I know this was the truth. However, I was not aware if my conversations was tapped by NIB without my knowledge
      ප්රශ්නය; එවකට ආරක්ෂක ලේකම් ගෝඨාභය රාජපක්ෂ එහෙම කළාද?
      Question: Did former secretary of defece Gotabaya Rajaakshe order to so ?
      පිළිතුර; ඇයි එයා එහෙම කරන්නේ?
      Answer: Why should he have done so ?

  • 9
    5

    In advanced countries, without any clue they find the murderers but in our wonder island, even with all the clues we could not find the murderer or act like it is impossible to find. How the country will prosper – Poor beggars will be beggars for ever and only depend on charity money like GSP, tsunami charity etc.. I wonder how our politicians visit other rich countries wearing national dress without shame – do you thing any other country really respect us. Human being should live with dignity or die. At least LTTE(freedom fighters) faced 30 more countries and died with dignity.

    • 10
      4

      At least LTTE(freedom fighters) faced 30 more countries and died with dignity….hiding behind the skirts of their own kidnapped women and children

    • 6
      1

      The Case is getting more and more intruging, as my guess is that the end is nearing and
      black coats along with the Police (heavily bribed by the Rajapakses, as they can
      afford to) want to divert public opinion and create gossip who jointly are releasing the
      irrelevant tapes.
      The high ups have to give O.K. to question MR and GR / the Political hirearchy is waiting
      for a more appropriate time to do so / therefore these diversions with the connivance of the CID. The non questioning of Sarath Fonseka todate is also a Political matter.

  • 10
    3

    The fool that he is, Mahinda will get fixed in this murder if he tries to prove that he was a friend of Lasantha, just like he lost his election bid based on a foolish astrological advice.

    But hang on is SIRA THE TURNCOAT, cash in on the evidence which will be made available by GON MARA himslef.

    Welcome to the land of Serendipity.

    • 8
      0

      Why is it difficult to trace who should have put to the tape to air ?

      That should be possible according to IT experts.

      • 8
        0

        If ALmost even animals are becoming clear that THE TAPE should been originated from former Presidential secretariat.

        Why is that Journos have not the least guts to interview each and every men of former Prez secreatariat ?
        I think the worst journalists are produced from srilanka. After Lasantha or the like, there exists no such brave fearless men in lanken journalism.

        Even that Victor Ivan behaves today as if a dog hidden his tail behind the legs (Being niwataya of the day).

        I THINK LANKENS JOURNOS SHOULD LEARN IT FROM THE WEST TO HAVE BALLS- THEN ONLY THEY CAN DO THEIR JOB PROPERLY:
        We lack of fearless journos in this country.

        Had we had them we could already have done the job in terms of serving the justice to all victimized families that lost their lovely ones during the high days of Mahinda Jarapakashe.

    • 8
      0

      ” Please listen to the tape – Mahinda sounded as if he is number one IRC man- how could you ever believe this man -had been our president. Real face of Mahinda is known to anyone. I even today say this.
      He is even worst than Prabakarano or any other men that killed masses.

  • 15
    5

    wow look at these guys cmb telegraph, who blatantly accused MR of Lasantha murder, more oh here say than jurno facts, now facts have come out to show the true picture. so when so called pictures were leaked in a similar way to ch4 during the war, why didn’t cmb telegraph have such a scrutiny?

    • 8
      12

      shan

      “so when so called pictures were leaked in a similar way to ch4 during the war, why didn’t cmb telegraph have such a scrutiny?

      Please clarify:

      Lasantha is still alive and living abroad, and is the Editor in Chief of Colombo Telegraph.

      Lasantha was caught in the war and part of what you call Collateral Damage.

      Lasantha was killed by his wife who collected Insurance claim.

      Lasantha was killed by LTTE

      Lasantha was kidnapped by Wella Sudha and sold abroad.

      ……

      ……

      Lasantha is hiding away from his family somewhere in Antarctica

      • 14
        2

        Native Vedda

        we don’t know.. you seem to know a lot. Full of Lasantha conspiracy theory. Are you the Editor of CMB Telegraph???? Like many stories baseless fantasy until years later evidence show many stories passed as new’s are a dreamy fantasy or mud sling campaign. Like Jan 8th Gota Flw to Maldives on a sea plane full of Loot. We even got a picture treat of that news item. Ohh And How MR Kids fled to China, was it Via hambantota port???

  • 2
    0

    Can any one explain this for my information:

    Firstly:

    The following in the article is referred:

    “There has been elaborate attempts to inform the public that Mahinda was a friend of Lasantha. True to an extent. He was. But that was before Lasantha exposed the Helping Hambantota deal.”

    Lasantha married Sonali in 2008. The couple were invited by Mahinda to Temple Trees and they paid the visit. Isn’t that much after the Helping Hambantota? The statement in the article appear to differ from the above stated event.

    Secondly:

    Articles published by Lasantha hurt many in the Government of the Day, the head of which was Mahinda. So there is a strong possibility for the person who masterminded the murder was hurt or even exposed from Lasantha’s articles.

    So when the article outlines that “To fix Mahinda or some within his fold for Lasantha’s murder or to show he had no reason to murder Lasantha” it means there were persons who could commander goon squads (official or unofficial) and act independently of Mahinda. But that number of persons are a within the number of fingers of a hand and it has to be a person now not in good terms with Mahinda but hurt by Lasantha’s articles then.

  • 0
    3

    How about C.B.K ???

  • 0
    0

    [Edited out]

  • 2
    2

    in developed foreign countries, murders and other criminals, no matter who the perpetrators and their background is, the investigators, besides available evidences, use the lie detector systems in the process of investigation and would determine if a crime has been truly committed or not then either clear or charge the culprits. But in Sri Lankan justice system is very appalling, criminals murderers fraudsters with glaring evidences proving their guilt, are not prosecuted. Just like American wrestling, the public made to believe the fight is real, but behind the ring both fighters are thick pals who do the game plans before coming to the ring. Gullible public pay for the show. Only God Almighty Will Have to dispense the true justice. Our sympathies to the families of all victims for the crimes committed against them for standing for truth, also crime committed against the mother Lanka by stealing its wealth committed by Rajafucksha Sahoodarayoos. May all of them and their henchmen rot in the hell fire forever.

    • 3
      0

      Pradeep,
      cant agree with you more. We are even worst than any other poverty stricken afro countries. But the lable is different. Just only the lable.

      Berlin s christmas market was subjected to an amok run by a tunisian young man (24yrs), 10 days ago, leaving 12 dead and several others injured and shocked. How many days it took RESPONSIBLE AUTHORITIES TO COLLECTIVELY WORK on that and trace the CRIMINALs of the incident who in the incident was reported to have gone missing the place,- not even a week, but the crimedoer was caught by THE RESPONSIBLE in Italy last week ITSELF and put HIM in jailed. Now all the investigations are being FURTHER held, and justice is being served – PEOPLE met with the incident are happy for serving justice, but are made vigilent not to allow the incidents again.

      In lanken context, Lasantha W the editor of the Sunday leader was killed inhis vehicle on broad day light in 2008, with over 8 years passed since then, not killers were caught by the govt – why ? If people are genuines, systems being applied are good enough, what block them being not caught by resposnible authorities.
      I believe, there exists a greater lack in lanken JUSTICE, law and order, Police and all related mechanisms and the methodologies from basic to the standards. They talk big about the country and the folks, but not the least of justice being unable to fulfil for the sake of its people yet, with 2 more days to with this year 2016.

  • 2
    0

    He’s no saint. When he was lurking around Mrs. Bandaranaike as her private secy he was trapped and caught by late Anuruddha Ratwatte because he was leaking out information to the UNP. That’s what this busy body gossip did to be paid as a spy or playing all sides to ingratiate himself. He was caught after suspicions of leaks and that is why for the longest time he hated Ratwatte and Chandrika CBK too because CBK told Mrs B the truth about the lovable English speaking man. Then this man , after failing to win votes, jumped to Anura camp and finally to Ranil. He carried low down attacks on CBK from 1994 until 2005. He lied to promote a VVIP homosexual’s fake marriage to a Lesbian as a love marriage to promote him politically.

    He relentlessly attacked Field Marshal Fonseka; guess who else is involved in his assassination then?

Leave A Comment

Comments should not exceed 200 words. Embedding external links and writing in capital letters are discouraged. Commenting is automatically disabled after 5 days and approval may take up to 24 hours. Please read our Comments Policy for further details. Your email address will not be published.