26 October 2024 12:57 am Views - 855
Catholic Church had rejected not only the reports but the very two committees outright when they were appointed by Wickremesinghe
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Archbishop of Colombo Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith |
The can of worms that was opened by the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader, Parliamentarian Udaya Gammanpila with regard to the Easter Sunday attacks seems to have been overshadowed by the US travel advisory due to a purported plan by certain individuals to launch a similar attack on Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka.
Nevertheless, only a small group of anti-NPP (National People’s Power) individuals seems to want to take his narrative seriously.
He demanded last week that President Anura Kumara Dissanayake release the reports of two committees appointed by former President Ranil Wickremesinghe on the attacks that carried out against Christians by a group of Muslim terrorists on an Easter Sunday five years ago, failing which he stated that he would release them.
While releasing the reports after the government ignored his demand, he quoted one of them as recommending that the Secretary to the Public Security Ministry, former Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne and the Director of the Criminal Intelligence Analysis and Prevention Division, former Director CID Shani Abeysekara - both appointed to the current positions by the new NPP government - be taken to task for failing to prevent those terrorist attacks.
However, Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Vijitha Herath told media that the government rejected the report of the said committee as it had been headed by former High Court Judge A.N.J. De Alwis, who he said was accused of misconduct. He added that the government would appoint a Presidential Commission to investigate the crime and legal action would be taken against the suspects. The Catholic Church which represents the majority of the victims of the said terrorist attacks, on its part, also rejected the report.
Archbishop of Colombo, Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith told media that the very committee was appointed to implicate the two senior officials, Ravi Seneviratne and Shani Abeysekara.
In fact, the Catholic Church had rejected not only the reports but the very two committees outright when they were appointed by Wickremesinghe. They stated what is needed is not more commissions and committees to investigate into the suicide attacks but to implement the recommendations of the only Presidential commission that was appointed to probe the incident.
Endless investigations
The number of investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks carried out on April 21, 2019, in fact, has become as tricky an issue as the very attacks have been. Seven local investigations including two court cases have so far been launched over this macabre carnage and it is said that law enforcement authorities of six foreign nations have produced reports after conducting probes into it. Two more investigations proposed by Wickremesinghe never saw the light of the day.
First of the seven local investigations was the committee appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena on April 22, 2019, under the chairmanship of Supreme Court Judge Vijith Malalgoda. The committee submitted its report to President Sirisena on June 10, 2019.
Secondly, just over a month after the tragedy, on May 22, 2019, the Parliament, through a resolution, appointed a select committee (PSC) to look into the attacks, with former Deputy Speaker Ananda Kumarasiri chairing it.
Thirdly, President Sirisena on September 20, 2019, through an extraordinary gazette, appointed a Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI). This Commission had Supreme Court Judge Janak de Silva as its Chairman. The final report of the Commission was handed over to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by Justice Silva on February 1, 2021.
Fourthly, 12 fundamental rights petitions were filed in 2019 against authorities including President Sirisena who were responsible for the security of the people. The Supreme Court on January 12, last year ordered President Sirisena, former Police Chief Pujith Jayasundara, Former State Intelligence Services (SIS) Chief Nilantha Jayawardene, former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former Chief of National Intelligence (CNI) Sisira Mendis to pay compensation to the victims of the tragedy.
Fifthly, Britain’s Channel 4 broadcast a video that suggested that the SIS was behind the Easter Sunday carnage. President Wickremesinghe, in response to the uproar that followed appointed a three-member committee headed by retired Supreme Court Judge S.I.Imam to look into the claims by the Channel 4.
Sixth investigative initiative was the Alwis Committee appointed by President Wickremesinghe in June this year to look into the intelligence aspects related to the terrorist attacks and it was that committee that made headlines this week. Interestingly, all five previous investigations had dealt with the same lapses of intelligence arms while SIS chief and the CNI had already been ordered to pay compensations for the failure on their part. We, in one of our columns in June, hence, questioned the need of another committee to inquire into the same lapses.
These apart, out of the thousands of people who were arrested subsequent to the terrorist attacks that killed over 270 people, 25 men who were said to be associates and relatives of the suicide bombers involved in the crime have been indicted.
Besides all these local investigations, President Wickremesinghe told Martin Gak of the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) during an interview in Berlin on October 2, last year that investigative arms of six foreign countries, namely “Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the UK police and other authoritative bodies of Australia, India, China and Pakistan have all issued reports on the attack.”
Wickremesinghe had proposed two more investigations. On the eve of the Presidential election held in Parliament on July 20, 2022, Wickremesinghe, the then Acting President stated that he would obtain the assistance of the Scotland Yard police of the UK in order to complete the investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks. However, the Catholic Church rejected the call accusing that Wickremesinghe, who is contesting the Presidential election in Parliament, was using the terror attacks to achieve his political goal.
Grand conspiracy
The President’s Media Division while announcing the appointment of Imam Committee claimed that Wickremesinghe was taking steps to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee over a statement made by Dappula de Livera, the Attorney General at the time of the attacks that there had been a grand conspiracy behind the crime. However, it also never materialised.
The current controversy as well as how Gammanpila gained access to the reports have to be looked through this short history.