(Lanka-e-News -30.July.2025, 11.00 PM) As Russia and Japan confront the wrath of a new Pacific tsunami, Sri Lanka revisits the ghost of one that struck two decades ago — and the billions that disappeared under the guise of helping a devastated town.
-By LeN Legal Correspondent
As Japan and Russia scramble for relief in the wake of the devastating tsunami sweeping across the Pacific Rim this week, thousands of miles away, in Sri Lanka, another storm is brewing — not in the sea, but in the nation’s conscience.
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was one of the deadliest disasters in living memory. It left over 30,000 Sri Lankans dead and hundreds of thousands displaced. Amid the wreckage and tears, global aid poured in — and so was born “Helping Hambantota”, a charitable initiative spearheaded by then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa to rehabilitate the southern coastal town, which he also happened to represent in Parliament.
But today, the question reverberates louder than ever: What happened to the money?
The Helping Hambantota initiative collected billions of rupees in local and international aid — contributions came from Sri Lankan expatriates, NGOs, governments, and humanitarian groups. It was the single largest pool of private tsunami funds under one initiative in the country.
Yet, two decades later, there’s no clear audit, no published outcome, and — crucially — no accountability.
Documents seen by The Times reveal that significant portions of the funds were funneled into private accounts, allegedly under Rajapaksa’s control. One such transfer was flagged by a 2005 whistleblower complaint brought by then-UNP MP Kabir Hashim, who filed a case at the Supreme Court accusing the Rajapaksa-led initiative of serious financial misconduct and breach of public trust.
But the case never saw the light of justice.
In a development many legal experts consider the most disgraceful moment in Sri Lanka’s judicial history, the Supreme Court dismissed the case without full hearing. This was despite clear documentation presented to court showing millions deposited into an unregulated private fund bearing the same name as the official tsunami relief operation.
Retired Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva, who presided over the court at the time, recently made a startling admission in a private legal forum — “I regret withdrawing the case. It should have been heard. It was a mistake.”
Silva’s comment, coming after years of silence, raises uncomfortable questions about judicial impartiality. Sources familiar with the court proceedings now allege that two of the judges had personal and political connections to Rajapaksa, with one even attending his private family functions.
In what some are calling “judicial manipulation at its highest level”, the case was thrown out under the pretext that “no public funds were misappropriated,” despite clear evidence to the contrary.
With the National People’s Power (NPP) government now in power under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, calls are mounting for a full public inquiry into the Helping Hambantota scandal, and more alarmingly, into the role of the Supreme Court judges who may have acted in bad faith.
Legal reform advocates and civic organisations say this is not just about Rajapaksa. It’s about restoring faith in Sri Lanka’s judiciary, which has historically been seen as independent and trustworthy. The Helping Hambantota case, they argue, remains an indelible black mark.
“When judges protect politicians, the law ceases to be blind. It becomes complicit,” said one retired appellate court judge who asked not to be named. “The people of Sri Lanka deserve to know how billions vanished.”
Diplomatic cables from 2005 (later leaked) show that Sri Lankan missions abroad — including in London, Washington, Canberra and Tokyo — had collected millions under the Helping Hambantota banner. Then Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the UK Faiz Mustafa reportedly coordinated a massive campaign in Britain that yielded £7.4 million alone.
There is no public record of where that money went.
One senior diplomat, now retired, told The Times: “We were told the funds were going to a Presidential Task Force. Next thing we knew, the money was untraceable. Everything disappeared behind political fog.”
Former MP Kabir Hashim, who brought the original case, has long maintained he was threatened, politically isolated, and at one point warned to “drop the matter or face consequences.” Now, in a quiet comeback, Hashim has reportedly submitted a fresh dossier to President Dissanayake’s transitional legal commission.
That dossier includes:
• Wire transfer slips from foreign embassies marked “Helping Hambantota”
• Bank statements showing unusual private deposits
• A timeline showing overlap between donations and Rajapaksa’s 2005 presidential campaign expenses
“I was called a liar. But I have never backed down from the truth,” Hashim said at a closed-door legal forum last week. “That fund was looted, and now the country must know the truth.”
As nature’s fury again devastates the Pacific, it also serves as a grim reminder of Sri Lanka’s missed opportunity — not only to rebuild homes and schools, but to show the world what transparency and compassion could achieve.
Instead, Helping Hambantota became a masterclass in political looting.
The NPP now faces a critical test. If it is serious about reforming Sri Lanka’s broken institutions, it must reopen the case, investigate the role of judges who misused their robes for political favours, and bring the Rajapaksa family’s tsunami profiteering to justice.
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by (2025-07-30 18:47:48)
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