Reuters, Colombo :
Sri Lanka’s former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa vowed on Tuesday to reclaim power in a general election, eight months after he was ousted as president, saying he was “ready for struggle” against an international war crimes investigation.
Defeated by erstwhile ally Maithripala Sirisena in January, Rajapaksa wants to turn the tables at the Aug. 17 parliamentary polls, setting his sights on the post of prime minister that has been beefed up under constitutional reforms.
Launching his manifesto, the 69-year-old sought to mobilise public opinion against a U.N. investigation into suspected atrocities committed against minority Tamils towards the end of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war.
“We think fresh. We are ready for a struggle and war on behalf of the country,” Rajapaksa said as he announced policies designed to appeal to poorer voters in the island nation of 21 million off southeast India.
The U.N. report on human rights in the final stages of the war in 2009, when Rajapaksa’s military crushed resistance in the Tamil-speaking north, is due to be released after the election.
