Sri Lanka finds arms cache following ex-leader’s downfall

Jan 21, 2015 News

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police yesterday seized weapons from a conference centre visited by the pope during his visit to the island after receiving a tip-off that the former president’s family allowed arms to be stored there.

Sri Lanka’s former president Mahinda Rajapaksa

Police said the family of Mahinda Rajapaksa had allowed a private security firm to keep the weapons at the high-security complex in central Colombo where the pope met leaders of other faiths last week. They received complaints that the weapons, which were imported by the government, had been used to intimidate political rivals in the run-up to elections earlier this month in which Rajapaksa lost power.
“They were supposed to have 3,473 weapons, but today we found only 151,” police spokesman Ajith Rohana said in a statement on the discovery at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall complex. “We are investigating to whom these weapons had been issued, on what basis and for what purpose.”
Police said the weapons belonged to a private security firm incorporated by Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who served as defence secretary when his brother was president.
Since Rajapaksa’s downfall, police have discovered warehouses full of illegally imported merchandise intended to be given to voters as gifts – a practice that is strictly forbidden. These include tens of thousands of wall clocks and crockery sets bearing Rajapaksa’s image and logo.

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, former Defence Secretary

Police have also found an abandoned Nissan GTR sports car once driven by Rajapaksa’s youngest son Rohitha, and a two-seater aircraft given to his second son Yoshitha. The latest discovery came days after police in the island’s southern port city of Galle found a ship carrying over 3,000 automatic weapons including machine guns.
“We are trying to find out how weapons bought from other countries ended up in private hands,” a police official said. “There are serious national security implications and we are investigating several angles.”