Rajapakse visits Vaharai

[TamilNet, Saturday, 03 February 2007, 10:39 GMT]
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Saturday morning visited Vaharai region together with his Commanders and the Defence Secretary, his brother, Gotabhaya Rajapakse. All the mobile phone links in Batticaloa district were disconnected before SLAF helicopters carrying Mr. Rajapakse and his commanders reached Vaharai. The visit, which comes a day before the Sri Lankan Independence Day on Sunday, is to be showcased as a symbol of military victory, before the celebrations in South, that target military recruitment.



Sri Lankan homeguards, will also participate in the Independence Day parade on Sunday, the sources added.

Mahinda Rajapakse, the Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan armed forces, undertook a visit to Trincomalee Naval base on 27 December last year, when his second son Yoshitha Rajapakse, who had joined the Navy recently as Officer Cadet, was provided a photo opportunity of saluting and greeting his father and given media publicity. But, he was sent to UK, after two weeks of joining the Navy, on a full naval scholarship.

"Ironically, it is the very day after there was a media blitz of the President going to Trincomalee and young Yoshita in full navy attire with a sword to boot acting as his ADC that he was flown down to Colombo by helicopter and later sent to Dartmouth," wrote The Sunday Leader, which broke the story on 14 January.

Talking to the press at Vaharai, the SL President said he was ready to talk to Tigers and put forward a political solution. "If they do not agree, I wil defeat them," he told the journalists who were taken to Vaharai.



Chronology: