Gota rejects Somawansa’s claim
(Created date: 29-Jan-2010) Back
Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa yesterday told The Island that he phoned Amarasinghe to urge him not to carry news items and articles defamatory of him as he was not a politician but a public servant doing his duty.
Strongly dismissing allegations that he had threatened the JVP leader with death, Rajapaksa said that he only explained his position with regard to a news item carried out by Lanka, a weekly run by the JVP. The Defence Secretary said that he had raised this issue with MP Lal Kantha but Amarasinghe construed it as a death threat.
He said that there had been several articles defamatory of him in the recent past though he ignored them believing this would end with the election. But he had to step in as the JVP continued its attack, he said.
Rajapaksa said that he reminded Amarasinghe how he had butchered the youth, destroyed public property and then fled to India carrying a stock of gold. According to the Defence Secretary, Amarasinghe had said that he (Gotabhaya) fled the country.
Rajapaksa said that he warned Amarasinghe that the coming parliamentary elections would cause his party to come down to its knees. Now that you have badly lost the presidential poll, the parliamentary polls would make the JVP nothing but a three wheeler party, Rajapaksa told Amarasinghe.
