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Rajapakse to seek explanation from minister
ent Mahinda Rajapakse will seek an explanation from a Cabinet minister who had failed to adhere to instructions given during their visit to Geneva for peace talks.
- By Sinha Ratnatunga, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 March 8, 2006
Colombo: President Mahinda Rajapakse will seek an explanation from a Cabinet minister who had failed to adhere to instructions given during their visit to Geneva for peace talks.
An explanation is to be sought from Rohitha Bogollagama, Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, as to why he disregarded his instructions and chose to stay at a suite in the Geneva Hilton instead of Chateau de Bossey during talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Expensive hotels
Rajapakse has already directed that neither the Government nor any of its agencies should meet the bill for his stay, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Rajapakse's move comes in the wake of repeated complaints to him that Bogollagama had chosen to disregard government policy and stayed in expensive hotels during his visits abroad.
Before the Sri Lankan delegation to the Geneva talks with the LTTE on the implementation of the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) left Colombo, Rajapakse had briefed them.
He had made clear that ministers should not take their wives along with them and that the Swiss authorities were making arrangements for the accommodation for the delegation. This was at the request of the Royal Norwegian Government.
Rajapakse has now been told that Bogollagama did not stay with the rest of the Sri Lankan delegation at Chateau de Bossey. He had instead booked a suite at the Geneva Hilton and checked in there with his wife and two sons.
Further complaints were to reach the president when the Government delegation met at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Geneva for private consultations.
It was felt that holding their own meetings in Chateau de Bossey posed security risks since their conversations could be bugged.
Meetings
It was reported that Bogollagama had attended such meetings in the company of one of his sons, the newspaper reported.
Delegation leader, Nimal Siripala de Silva had brought this to the notice of President Rajapakse. He wanted the president to speak to Bogollagama and get his son to withdraw.
In the alternative Rajapakse had told de Silva to ask Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle to talk to Bogollagama, the newspaper said. However, Bogollagama had declined to ask his son to leave and explained that he was training him in politics.
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