9 June 2016 01:51 pm
The former president had said the war would have to be stopped if this blast occurred under his administration.
Even Gotabaya Rajapaksa said arrangements had been made to move the army camp to another location during the tenure of the previous regime but it had to be put on hold when the then regime was defeated.
“The war came to an end in 2009 and in the six years after that they could have relocated the armoury if they wanted to. I challenge the Rajapaksas to show the written and legal documents to the people if they had plans to move the armoury to a safer area,” Mr. Kariyawasam said.
He said if the previous government wanted to remove the armoury, they had to follow internationally accepted procedures of the United Nations.
“Now they are making irresponsible statements without following relevant procedures,” he said.
He said that there were several incidents of blast that happened during the previous government’s tenure such as the Armoury store blast in Vavuniya in 2009 and the blast which occurred in 2014 when the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) was about to topple.
“Without considering those incidents, the Rajapaksas are shedding crocodile tears over the Salawa Army Camp explosion,” he said. (Chaturanga Pradeep)