Ended war with LTTE for reconciliation: Mahinda Rajapaksa

Colombo, June 26: Former Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday, june 26 accused the government of a political "witch hunt" against him and to wipe out the legacy of his regime that had ended the separatist war with LTTE with an aim to achieve reconciliation with the minority Tamil community.

Addressing a gathering in the rural Polonnaruwa, he said the current government under President Maithripala Sirisena is attempting to wipe off from public memory his legacy of ending the war waged by the LTTE.

"I ended the war to achieve reconciliation," Rajapaksa said, adding he in the last stages of his rule had begun to handover the Tamil civilian lands back to their owners".

"I held elections and was taking action to achieve normalcy in the areas", Rajapaksa said. Rajpaksa also alleged that Sirisena's government is wasting time on its current political "witch hunt" aimed at taking political revenge from him.

"The government is wasting time on investigations without delivering the promises," Rajapaksa said. Rajapaksa's government became unpopular with the the minority Tamil and Muslim communities.

They backed Sirisena in defeating Rajapaksa in the snap presidential election called by the latter two years ahead of schedule. Rajapaksa's family has faced a string of investigations over alleged wrongdoing after he was thrown out of power.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) battled Sri Lankan forces for a separate Tamil homeland. A brutal military crackdown ended the 37-year conflict in 2009. Rights groups claim government forces killed nearly 40,000 civilians in the final months of the brutal ethnic conflict.

PTI