Once Rajapaksas were revered as ‘heroes’ or ‘saviors’ of Sri Lanka despite the fact of serious human rights violations targeting Tamil ethnic minority during the civil war. In a political landscape with a tradition of political dynasties, the Rajapaksas stood out in terms of scale of their power and influence. For the past two decades, a large number of the members of Rajapaksa dynasty held key political positions in the cabinet and state institutions while relatives of this mighty family were awarded top diplomatic posts in a number of countries. Before Gotabaya Rajapaksa, his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was the president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015 – ten years. The Rajapaksa brothers were involved in brazen nepotism, rampant corruption, loot of country’s wealth while several members of this family were involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking, and even forcing Sri Lankan females into prostitution.
While Rajapaksas were engaged in numerous forms of illegal and criminal activities, people in Sri Lanka were duped with mostly false stories portraying members of this dynasty as “people of virtue” or angels. Sri Lankan media mostly is controlled by the members of the Rajapaksa dynasty or their cohorts, while top-brasses in the military are beneficiaries of the rampant loot of public wealth by the Rajapaksas.
Although a notorious Gotabaya Rajapaksa should have been stopped from leaving Sri Lanka, several influential members of the Sri Lankan Army helped this man fleeing the country using a military aircraft against a secret deal of millions of dollars. While the people of Sri Lanka still are angry at Rajapaksas and looking for punishment of the members of this bandit-like family, a section of Sri Lankan Army as well as media are already plotting fresher strategy in erasing anti-Rajapaksa sentiment from people’s mind and paving a newer path for the return of Rajapaksas in power.
ALSO READ: Rajapaksa family looted billions from Sri Lanka
ALSO READ: Sri Lankan Rajapaksa family smuggled massive wealth to UAE
ALSO READ: Million-dollar deal behind fleeing of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
ALSO READ: Sri Lankan godfather Gotabaya Rajapaksa set to flee
ALSO READ: Poverty forces hundreds of women towards prostitution in Sri Lanka
ALSO READ: Sri Lankan Rajapaksa family stashes riches around the world
Today Sri Lankan economy is broke because members of the Rajapaksa dynasty had stolen billions of dollars from the country. Most of the people in Sri Lanka now say – “we’re broke because they stole all the money. We want the money to be brought back to the national treasury”.
The demand for accountability and auditing also stems from the fact that there is no transparency or public record of the Rajapaksas’ actual wealth and assets despite the family having been in politics since the 1940s. Observers note that the family ran the country like a family business, and focused on centralizing power while taking away all checks and balances, including on allegations of grave war crimes against Tamils.
In 2021, the Pandora Papers, a series of leaked documents released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists had exposed the illegal wealth of world’s rich and influential people, found some of the members of the Rajapaksas hoarding millions of dollars in offshore investments and accounts.
Before that, in 2015, an opposition politician accused the Rajapaksa government of illegal financial deals amounting to over US$5 billion.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was accused of stealing millions of dollars meant for tsunami relief in 2004. Over the years, Mahinda’s son Namal Rajapaska also has been laundering money and receiving payoffs worth millions by private foreign companies.
How Gotabaya Rajapaksa succeeded fleeing Sri Lanka?
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is the top enemy of the Sri Lankan people. This newspaper on July 11, 2022 had reported Rajapaksa’s notorious bid of fleeing the country, moments after he would sign the resignation paper. And, as usual, our exclusive report has been proved once again to be prolific and based on solid information. Now we are revealing another shocking information on how this man was allowed to flee Sri Lanka for Maldives using a military aircraft.
From the noon of July 2022, Gotabaya Rajapaksa made numerous attempts of fleeing Sri Lanka, first by air to the United Arab Emirates, and then through sea and land routes. As his attempts were foiled by the patriotic officials in Sri Lankan immigration department, the ‘God Father’ of Sri Lanka then held a secret negotiation meeting with at least three military officials, who are known as his loyalists. Gotabaya Rajapaksa offered them cash in exchange for helping him in fleeing the country. The negotiation continued for two hours, before there was a transaction of US$15 million, which was handed over to those officials by Rajapaksa’s man in Dubai. Within two hours of this transaction, keeping Sri Lankans in absolute dark, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was allowed to flee Sri Lanka in a military aircraft.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has caused severe damage to Sri Lanka’s economy as every member of his family were engaged in looting public wealth and secretly smuggling-out to foreign nations, including the UAE. Some of the members of this notorious family hold duel and even triple citizenship, as according to credible source, several members of the Rajapaksa Dynasty are holding citizenship in the United Kingdom, Malta, the UAE, Dominica, Greece, Cyprus, Panama, Turkey, Vanuatu, and few other Caribbean island nations.
While Gotabaya Rajapaksa is on run, his agents in Sri Lanka are still trying to revive his image and help the Rajapaksas return to power.
