CHAMIKARA WEERASINGHE-Courtesy The Daily NewsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

The international community is being made aware about the events that led to the impeachment of Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayaka, even as the impeachment debate takes place in Parliament today, sources at External Affairs Ministry yesterday said.

External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunathilaka Amunugama said, the government has made its position clear to diplomatic corps in Colombo that it will not protect wrong doers and impede the administration of justice.

“We informed them that the process of impeachment is a matter lying with Parliament and only the Speaker of Parliament and the President can decide on the procedure of the impeachment”, he said.

Amunugama said they are well aware of the fact that certain anti-government lobbyists, pro-LTTE elements and their sympathizers in UK and Canada, Tamil Diaspora and some NGOs have launched various disinformation campaigns against Sri Lanka, to discredit the government over the ongoing impeachment of Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayaka.

The External Affairs Ministry took steps to apprise the international community of the conditions that led to the impeachment of the Chief Justice.

“We explained to them how the government was drawn into initiating an impeachment motion against the incumbent Chief Justice on various negative accounts that have been brought to the notice of the government by MPs of political parties such as Opposition UNP and JVP, relating to misbehaviour in her conduct as the Chief Justice” the sources said.

UNP and JVP called on the government to bring an impeachment motion against Chief Justice Dr Shirani Bandaranayaka over her husband’s infamous National Saving Bank – The Finance Company transactions among other things, Amunugama said, External Affairs Minister Prof G L Peiris has briefed foreign diplomats in Colombo about the totality of the ongoing impeachment process as a Parliamentary process in the Constitution.