WikiLeaks recalls Ranil asking Japan in 2007 to suspend funding

WikiLeaks has recalled how then Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had asked Japan in 2007 to suspend funding to Sri Lanka.

Referring to a classified cable, WikiLeaks tweeted saying newly re-elected President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, then opposition leader, asked Japan to suspend economic assistance to Sri Lanka [2007] – Japan responded people should not be punished “for acts of commission and omission by their leaders”.

The classified cable was sent by then US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert O. Blake, where he spoke about a briefing to Co-Chair Ambassadors by then Japanese Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi.

Akashi found Colombo more polarized and pessimistic when he arrived on June 5 (2007) than he had seen in any of his 14 previous visits. By the end of his visit, he was only slightly more optimistic.

In response to a private exhortation by Opposition Leader Wickremesinghe for Japan to suspend its economic assistance, Akashi told Wickremesinghe and later reiterated publicly that the Sri Lankan people should not be punished “for acts of commission and omission by their leaders.”

The cable further noted that then President Mahinda Rajapaksa emphasized to Akashi the government’s readiness to investigate all human rights violations and support the Commission of Inquiry, but said that the “complete revamping” of the Sri Lankan legal system that some eminent persons were seeking would not be possible. Rajapaksa repeated his pledge to support whatever consensus proposal emerges from the APRC process and pledged to do his best to persuade the people of Sri Lanka to support such a proposal.

Then JVP Leader Somawansa Amarasinghe told Akashi that while the JVP is opposed to the devolution process, it will support a consensus APRC proposal provided such a proposal receives popular approval either through a referendum or a majority vote in parliament. (Colombo Gazette)