Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday denied allegations that China had funded his election campaign in 2015. Rajapaksa was voted out of power in the presidential re-run.
A New York Times report on June 25 had alleged that $7.6 million (approximately Rs 52 crore) was dispensed from the account of of China Harbor Engineering Company to affiliates of Rajapaksa’s campaign. The report said there were documents which revealed that around $3.7 million (approximately Rs 25 crore) was distributed in cheques for promotional material and gifts for supporters.
The firm is involved in the Hambantota port, located on the southern tip of Sri Lanka. Unable to pay back debts, Sri Lanka in July, 2017, had agreed to give 70% stake in the port on a 99-year lease to China.
“No contribution was made by China to my 2015 presidential election campaign,” Rajapaksa said in a statement, according to PTI. “While claiming that my ‘affiliates’ and ‘campaign aides’ had got the money and that volunteers’ had delivered the cheques to Temple Trees, the writer has been intentionally vague about who had given this money and who had received it.”
The former Sri Lankan president said the report seemed to be a way of “carrying out a smear campaign without incurring any liability”.
The report also claimed that India was concerned about any Chinese attempt to use the Hambantota port for military purposes. Rajapaksa denied this, saying former Indian National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon had written in his book (Choices: Inside the Making of India’s Foreign Policy), published in 2016, that New Delhi was comfortable with the assurances made by his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa as the defence secretary. “Such assurances given by Sri Lanka to the then Congress Party government were respected throughout,” Rajapaksa added.
The Chinese embassy in Colombo claimed that the New York Times article was full of “political prejudice and completely inconsistent with the fact”.
On Saturday, Sri Lanka’s Prime Minsiter Ranil Wickremesinghe said that the country will move its southern naval command to the Hambantota port. “There is no need to be frightened as security of the port will be under the control of the Sri Lanka Navy,” Wickremesinghe’s office said in a statement. “Sri Lanka has also informed the Chinese that Hambantota cannot be used [by China] for military purposes.”
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