Former Ambassador to Russia Udayanga Weeratunga said that he has no intention of returning to Sri Lanka to become easy prey to the "Yahapaalana government" which fabricates lies against him.
Contrary to the claims by the government, there is no charge against him in Ukraine and he lives there at present, Weeratunga added.
Commenting on his recent meetings with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in Thailand and Uganda, Weeratunga said that he could meet the former President in any location as he has not committed a crime. However, returning to Sri lanka will make him easy prey to fabricated charges, he added.
The full press release is given below:
During the last few weeks, several ministers and the media who worked for the current regime have started to attack me again by making unacceptable false stories on me. The latest incident that they started to highlight, where I met former president. My visit to Thailand and Uganda has shown as a crime where an internationally wanted person who came out from hiding. First of all, I wish to inform you that as a person who didn’t commit any offence I can meet the former president at any location in the world without any obstacle. As you aware, I have no plan to meet the former president in Sri Lanka because I do not want to become a victim of the vicious vindictive campaign that goes after a selected group who are loyal to the former president. Due to my loyalty to the former president, I too have become a member of the group, which Yahapalana is after.
Prior to my appointment as the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Russia during the last government, I was living in Ukraine but not in Sri Lanka. After I resign from the ambassador position, I returned back to Ukraine until today. The ‘Yahapalana’ government currently started a false propaganda campaign against me, stating that I supplied arms to the groups of Ukraine terrorists. This is a completely false accusation. How can a person who supplied arms to anti-Ukrainian rebels freely live in the capital city of Ukraine?
Once, the current regime has found that this fabricated lie was not accepted by the public, the new set of false stories are to be released against me. Another rumour that the current regime spread was about the death of Mr Noel Ranaweera who worked as a messenger at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Russia. They falsely accused me that I was responsible for the death of Mr Ranaweera. However, the Russian driver who was responsible for Noel’s death was prosecuted and being sentenced by the Russian courts. With the sentencing of the Russian driver who caused the death of Noel, the false murder accusation which current regime fabricated became null and void. Detail report about the court proceedings and about the sentenced was delivered to the Sri Lankan Foreign ministry.
Another rumour that they released was the using of the diplomatic passport after my tenure as the Ambassador. However, this fabricated story again became a useless lie once the Department of Immigration and Emigration made a news release to the media. In the news release, they clearly indicated the diplomatic passport that I was using as an ambassador was cancelled and on 06th of March 2015 issued normal passports for us. After this news release, the some of the leaders were furious and discussed this matter at a recent cabinet meeting.
The current government is trying to portray me as a wanted person who is hiding from Sri Lankan and Ukrainian authorities and hiding from justice by moving from one country to another. I wish to emphasise that I live in Ukraine and currently have started to study for a Ph.D. at a Defense university in this country. Further, I wish to let the public aware that I am organising the Sri Lankans living abroad against this vicious government. I have no any plan to come to Sri Lanka to become an easy prey of the current regime. I ensure that it is not going to be an easy task for this vicious vindictive person to hunt me down for crimes which I have not done.
