{"id":3561,"date":"2012-01-13T08:33:26","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T08:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/?p=3561"},"modified":"2012-01-13T08:33:26","modified_gmt":"2012-01-13T08:33:26","slug":"wikileaks-rajapaksa-frequently-contacted-us-with-mangala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/wikileaks-rajapaksa-frequently-contacted-us-with-mangala\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks: Rajapaksa frequently contacted US with Mangala"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Colombo Telegraph \u2013<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cHe frequently contacted the Embassy in the 1988-89 period to complain of disappearances and extra-judicial killings under the then-United National Party (UNP) government, and with fellow southerner and Minister of Ports in the Kumaratunga administration Mangala Samaraweera\u201d the US Embassy Colombo informed Washington.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3565\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/mangala-and-mahinda-colombotelegraph.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3565\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3565\" title=\"mangala and mahinda colombotelegraph\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/mangala-and-mahinda-colombotelegraph.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/mangala-and-mahinda-colombotelegraph.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/mangala-and-mahinda-colombotelegraph-300x152.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3565\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rajapaksa frequently contacted US Embassy with with fellow southerner Mangala<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cA memcon in Embassy files quotes Rajapakse as freely admitting to ballot stuffing during that race&#8211;but only to balance out just-as-vigorous ballot stuffing by his local UNP rival\u201d the Embassy further informed.<\/p>\n<p>The Colombo Telegraph found the related leaked cable from the WikiLeak database. The cable is classified as \u201cCONFIDENTIAL\u201d details biographic details on Sri Lanka&#8217;s fifth President\u00a0 Percy Mahendra Rajapakse. The cable was written on November 21, 2005 by the US Ambassador to Colombo Jeffrey J. Lunstead.<\/p>\n<p>The Ambassador wrote \u201cRajapakse lost his seat, along with many of his SLFP colleagues, in his party&#8217;s landslide defeat in the general elections of 1977. He then turned to the practice of law in Colombo and the south, where his defense of suspected JVP sympathizers first earned him a reputation as a human rights activitst. He frequently contacted the Embassy in the 1988-89 period to complain of disappearances and extra-judicial killings under the then-United National Party (UNP) government, and with fellow southerner and Minister of Ports in the Kumaratunga administration Mangala Samaraweera, Rajapakse formed a human rights organization in 1988, called the Mothers&#8217; Front, to advocate on behalf of family members of &#8220;disappeared&#8221; JVP suspects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter he returned to Parliament in 1989 (a memcon in Embassy files quotes Rajapakse as freely admitting to ballot stuffing during that race&#8211;but only to balance out just-as-vigorous ballot stuffing by his local UNP rival), Rajapakse served as Secretary to the Committee of Parliamentarians for Fundamental and Human Rights and as Director to the Center for Human Rights and Legal Aid. His standing as one of the few such lawyers in the south who continued to operate throughout the height of the violent JVP insurgency&#8211;despite threats of reprisal from both right- and left-wing extremists&#8211;made him a valuable source for our human rights reporting.\u201d ambassador Lunstead further wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Related news to the same cable;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a title=\"Permalink to WikiLeaks: Mahinda Rajapakse did not complete his Advanced\u00a0Level\" href=\"http:\/\/colombotelegraph.com\/2012\/01\/02\/wikileaks-mahinda-rajapakse-did-not-complete-his-advanced-level\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">WikiLeaks: Mahinda Rajapakse did not complete his Advanced\u00a0Level<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Below we give the\u00a0relevant part of the confidential cable;<\/p>\n<pre>C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 COLOMBO 001981\n\nSIPDIS\n\nE.O. 12958: DECL: 11\/20\/2015\nTAGS: <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PINR_0.html\">PINR<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/PGOV_0.html\">PGOV<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/tag\/CE_0.html\">CE<\/a>\nSUBJECT: SRI LANKA:  BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION ON PRESIDENT\nMAHINDA RAJAPAKSE\n\nREF: A. COLOMBO 1853\n\n     <a id=\"parB\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2005\/11\/05COLOMBO1981.html#parB\">\u00b6<\/a>B. COLOMBO 1975\n\nClassified By: AMB. JEFFREY J. LUNSTEAD.  REASON:  1.4 (B,D).\n------------------------\nDEFENDER OF JVP MISSING\n------------------------\n\n<a id=\"par4\" href=\"http:\/\/wikileaks.org\/cable\/2005\/11\/05COLOMBO1981.html#par4\">\u00b6<\/a>4.  (C)  Rajapakse lost his seat, along with many of his SLFP\ncolleagues, in his party's landslide defeat in the general\nelections of 1977.  He then turned to the practice of law in\nColombo and the south, where his defense of suspected JVP\nsympathizers first earned him a reputation as a human rights\nactivitst.  He frequently contacted the Embassy in the\n1988-89 period to complain of disappearances and\nextra-judicial killings under the then-United National Party\n(UNP) government, and with fellow southerner and Minister of\nPorts in the Kumaratunga administration Mangala Samaraweera,\nRajapakse formed a human rights organization in 1988, called\nthe Mothers' Front, to advocate on behalf of family members\nof \"disappeared\" JVP suspects.  After he returned to\nParliament in 1989 (a memcon in Embassy files quotes\nRajapakse as freely admitting to ballot stuffing during that\nrace--but only to balance out just-as-vigorous ballot\nstuffing by his local UNP rival), Rajapakse served as\nSecretary to the Committee of Parliamentarians for\n\nSIPDIS\nFundamental and Human Rights and as Director to the Center\nfor Human Rights and Legal Aid. His standing as one of the\nfew such lawyers in the south who continued to operate\nthroughout the height of the violent JVP insurgency--despite\nthreats of reprisal from both right- and left-wing\nextremists--made him a valuable source for our human rights\nreporting.\nLUNSTEAD<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":3578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,1,63,27],"tags":[1143,1790,1139,1161,1134,1791,1298,1263],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disappearance","category-news","category-politics-2","category-wikileaks","tag-authoritarianism","tag-biographic-details-of-mahinda-rajapaksa","tag-democracy","tag-foreign-affairs","tag-human-rights","tag-jvp-sympathizers","tag-sri-lankans-in-wikileaks","tag-us-embassy-cables-on-sri-lanka"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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