Easter Sunday of 2019 will remain in the hearts and minds of all Sri Lankan, regardless of race, caste, or creed. The week that began with the carnage at three Christian places of worship, including one of the most sacred shrines for Catholics and non-Catholics alike – St. Anthony’s Church, Kochchikade – and three five-star hotels, continues to haunt the average Sri Lankan with salt being rubbed into their wounds with political leadership beginning their usual, ugly political games from the very next day. However, in the absence of Sirisena, who was in Singapore on a private visit, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe decided to initiate the first response. At 9.05 a.m. on Sunday, Wickremesinghe called his Secretary (Saman Ekanayake) informing him that he was returning to Colombo from Bentota and to meet him at Temple Trees. At 9.15 a.m. Ekanayake called the Premier and suggested they immediately call in the IGP, Defence Secretary, and the heads of the armed forces, which Wickremesinghe had agreed to. When called, the officials said that they were engaged in initial response action and would be there by 10.30 a.m. However, at 10.20 a.m. when Ekanayake had called again, they had said they were still doing some work and would come later when they finished. At that point, Ekanayake had informed Wickremesinghe of their response, saying that he felt they did not want to come. The Premier had told him to immediately get his car ready and that they would go to the Ministry of Defence and meet them there. When the Prime Minister had arrived at the Ministry of Defence, they were informed that the National Security Council (NSC) was finishing some work and that they would have to wait outside. Despite the Prime Minister’s Secretary insisting that Wickremesinghe be allowed inside, the security had refused. The Prime Minister was escorted to the State Minister’s Office where he was made to wait for 20 minutes. When he was finally allowed to chair a meeting with the NSC, they had briefed him on the current status of the bombings and outlined the security plans. They had not discussed the prior warnings, saying that they would examine why there was a lapse in security. Wickremesinghe had then returned to Temple Trees where he had spoken to several senior ministers who suggested the NSC be called to brief the Cabinet of Ministers who were meeting at 3 p.m. that same day. When Ekanayake had called the President's Secretary Udaya Seneviratne, informing him of the meeting, the latter had responded saying that they were busy with other work and would not be able to brief the Cabinet. He had further told Ekanayake that the President had insisted curfew would not be implemented neither would social media be blocked until he returned to the country. However, following the Dehiwala and Dematagoda explosions in the afternoon, the Prime Minister instructed the IGP to impose curfew immediately. The President was telephoned by the IGP asking whether he was agreeable to this, before the IGP enforced the curfew. President Sirisena who according to the Constitution holds the high office of the Minister of Defence called an All Party Conference last Thursday (25) in a desperate, eleventh hour bid of taking control, stressing that setting aside all political beliefs and differences, everyone should collectively commit towards building a peaceful environment within the country. Towards the latter part of the day, the President also convened a meeting of religious leaders. The moving statement made by His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith was no doubt an indictment on the good governance administration. “Especially it is important to have a strong intelligence apparatus. Because of outcry of the international (community) the intelligence establishments became severely weakened. We know that during the functions of an intelligence apparatus some faults may occur. But remedying the errors is one thing and weakening the intelligence establishment according to outside whims is another. What I have seen is that a lot of decisions lately were taken at the behest of the international (community),” lamented the prelate. “This has nothing to do with Islam. We have clearly stated this before. My people, do not lift a hand against them (the Muslims) for it is not they who did this. This was perpetrated by an invisible hand behind international forces…” reiterated Cardinal Ranjith. Addressing the gathering, the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulama (ACJU) President Ash-Sheikh Mufti M.I.M. Rizwe, appealing for pardon for the atrocities committed in the name of Islam, said that Muslims were a strength to the Sri Lanka armed forces during the 30 year civil war. “There were Muslims who laid down their lives for the country. In fact, Lt. Col. Tuan Nizam Muthaliff sacrificed his life,” said the cleric breaking down. Another Moulavi, addressing the religious leaders, said that the Cardinal had defeated the carnage through his love and called upon the Muslim community to come forward with cash and kind to support the affected Christians. Insult to injury On Friday, Wickremesinghe took to Twitter to tender the Government’s too-little-too-late apology. “We take collective responsibility and apologise to our fellow citizens for our failure to protect victims of these tragic events. We pledge to rebuild our churches, revive our economy, and take all measures to prevent terrorism, with the support of the international community.” Adding what many call an insult to injury, Wickremesinghe, in an interview with Sky News, in a poor attempt to exonerate the Government, claimed that Sri Lanka does not have any laws to arrest individuals who join a foreign terrorist organisation. The Premier, whilst noting that that the Government was aware that Sri Lankan nationals who joined the Islamic State had returned to the country, had claimed that they could not be arrested as joining a foreign terrorist organisation was not against the law, in total contrast to reality. “We knew they went to Syria...But in our country, to go abroad and return or to take part in a foreign armed uprising is not an offence here,” Wickremesinghe said. “We have no laws which enable us to take into custody people who join foreign terrorist groups. We can take those who belong to terrorist groups operating in Sri Lanka.” Many in the West were perturbed by such an audacious statement. The Washington Post queried – “But how could Sri Lanka — a country where a US-Government-designated terrorist organisation waged war against the state for decades — not have such legislation?” In fact, to the contrary, Sri Lanka’s draconian yet all-powerful Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) No. 48 of 1979, which was pushed by none other than Wickremesinghe’s uncle – President J.R. Jayewardene – provides ample provision to tackle terrorism – be it domestic or foreign. Any examination of the very long name of PTA proves that, as it contains, “… within Sri Lanka or outside Sri Lanka.” “An act to make temporary provision for the prevention of acts of terrorism Sri Lanka, the prevention of unlawful activities of any individual, group of individuals, association, organisation or body of persons within Sri Lanka or outside Sri Lanka and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.” Further examination of Section 31 of the Act will prove beyond any reasonable doubt the same, as the “unlawful activity” is defined “whether within or outside Sri Lanka”. “‘Unlawful activity’ means any action taken or act committed by any means whatsoever, whether within or outside Sri Lanka, and whether such action was taken or act was committed before or after the 24th day of July, 1979, in connexion with the commission of any offence under this Act or any act committed prior to the 20th day of July, 1979, which act would, if committed after such date, constitute an offence under this Act.” So there is no doubt that the move by powers that be to shirk responsibility is nothing but futile and fruitless. Blame game Having no reports of violence by civilians and of people taking the law into their own hands following these dastardly acts of carnage is a living testament to the resilience and compassion to one another in the face of extreme violence, despite many expecting retaliation and retribution to erupt right from that moment. The peace-loving Catholic community, which had been most affected, had anger towards the political leadership of the day and never towards any ethnic or religious group. However, let alone the civilian society, it is very unfortunate that from the very first day, the decision-makers of the land engaged in passing the buck and downplaying the incident. Beleaguered former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando was one of the first to do this when he stated that although the Government was aware of the threat of suicide bombers, it did not expect the casualties to be so high. Fernando submitted his resignation to President Sirisena followed by Inspector General of Police Pujith Jayasundara, who too was supposed to have been given as many as 13 reports on planned attacks on churches. It is learnt that many parties had been providing information on the nefarious activities of the National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ) and other extremist groups as early as 2014. From Easter Sunday till Friday (26), the President and Prime Minister were engaged in a blame game. Premier Wickremesinghe first stated that neither he nor the State Defence Minister Ruwan Wijewardena had been invited for the NSC meetings since last December. Why Wickremesinghe had to wait till the Easter Sunday attacks to state it leaves people wondering whether he was just looking at how to exonerate himself from the oversight on the part of the Government in tackling the issue of Muslim extremists that it had been warned of even by members of the Muslim community. Meeting media heads President Sirisena, on Friday, convened a meeting with media heads during which he detailed his grievances. Sirisena was very descriptive of the sequence of events that led to the Easter Sunday attacks. He started off by saying that bombs have exploded during the tenures of every president in the country and that unfortunate incidents should not be used to treat an entire community as a group of terrorist. “We must protect the ordinary Muslim citizens in the country.” The US couldn’t prevent 9/11, so this sort of terrorism isn’t unique to Sri Lanka. Even the most powerful nations in the world have suffered. “ISIS had been very active in 2016-2017, almost every country has felt its impact and even European countries have come under attack,” the President said. Sirisena also drew a link between religious extremism, drugs, and arms smuggling. “Drugs and terrorism are closely connected. Therefore, the crackdown on drug operations could have also propelled the attacks.” The President then pointed to the difference between the LTTE and ISIS, claiming that the LTTE was a local organisation while ISIS was an international network. “We must first understand what ISIS is,” he said. According to Sirisena, one of the key reasons for the breakdown in intelligence and lapse on the part of national security was the weakening of the military and intelligence community, which he openly blamed on the Wickremesinghe-led United National Front (UNF) Government. He openly acknowledged the clash between him and the Government. “It is no secret that the Government and I have been having differences of opinions during the past two years. One of the main reasons for my clash with the Government was because I stood by the military and spoke against the continuous harassment of military intelligence personnel. Some of them had to leave the country and I had to intervene and send some to overseas missions because the Government said they cannot work with these officials. One such example is officer Salleh (former Military Intelligence Head),” the President charged. He also took a swipe at civil society movements, saying that those who spoke of human rights and worked to weaken the security forces are today silent after the attacks. He said that a detailed description was given by a friendly “neighbouring nation” to the Head of the State Intelligence Bureau on 4 April. The note had included targets and methods of the attack. “Until 12 April, this information was passed around,” Sirisena charged. He claimed that the Defence Secretary had not taken the intelligence seriously and had not acted on it with any intent. “The Defence Secretary had written a minute and given it to the national security officer at the Ministry, who in turn had minuted it and sent it to the IGP. The IGP had then sent it to five DIGs; one of them, DIG Dasanayake, in-charge of VIP security, had taken action and sent it to the VIP security. But the IGP and the other four DIGs didn’t do their job,” a visibly angry Sirisena charged. According to the President, when the VIP security heads were informed of an impending threat, neither the Presidential Security Division (PSD) or the Prime Ministerial Security Division (PMSD) were informed of it. “I was in the country till 16 April, yet I was not informed of this intelligence,” Sirisena said. “Neither the IGP nor the Defence Secretary informed me of the intelligence report. I am not saying this to absolve myself from any responsibility. But this is the fact,” he stressed. “When I asked the IGP and Defence Secretary as to why they didn't inform me or anyone above them on Intel reports, they both remained silent,” Sirisena noted, adding that silence is an admission of guilt. He added that the Government must accept responsibility. According to the President, over 70 persons have been arrested so far and information is that there’s a total of 130-140 IS suspects in Sri Lanka. “No foreign army will step into Sri Lanka, but we will get assistance from other nations to help us fight IS,” Sirisena said. “I will stamp out IS from Sri Lanka. Our Police and security forces are capable of achieving this,” he said, adding that “action will be taken against all officials who neglected their duties, and a total reorganisation of the security establishment in the days to come will take place”. The President stated that one of the main reasons for the rift between the Government and him over the past two years was because he stood against the weakening of the armed forces. “Top intelligence officers were harassed and I had to even send a few on overseas appointments to help them.” Referring to the link between the extremists involved in the Mawanella incident and last Sunday’s attackers, the President said that six suspects were arrested following the Mawanella incident and held on Detention Orders. However, two persons were released due to the lack of evidence without any political intervention, he said. “We looked into banning the NTJ on 22 April. But we don't have the laws to be able to do that right now. We are now looking into the Acts passed by the Australian Parliament to help us draft the required laws. We will get this done very soon,” the President noted. Be that as it may, it would be apt from the President and Prime Minister to remember the words of United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) MP Kumara Welgama in his speech during the parliamentary debate on emergency regulations. “All 225 of us should take responsibility. We all come here and we fight each other. We only think about ourselves and not about the country,” Welgama said while appealing for unity in the wake of the attacks. Ample evidence The ACJU and the Muslim community had informed Secretary Fernando of the threats, providing ample documentation and video evidence as recent as January 2019. Western Province Governor Azath Sally claims that he himself had provided information to several Defence Secretaries – Thilak Ranaviraja, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Kapila Waidyaratne, and finally Fernando on numerous occasions. “Long before they were planning all this, we informed that this was a radical group that was growing in the country. They were doing all this separate from the Muslim community...and that led to the vandalism of Buddhist statues in Mawanella, and we have been telling this to the intelligence. The intelligence knew everything very well. We gave (information) to former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa and even (Military Intelligence Director Brigadier Suresh) Salleh and (his assistant) Mohammed knew everything about these people. This is my point.” He added that three months back, he once again took the entire body of theologians (i.e. Jamiyyathul Ulama), civil society organisations, President’s Counsel Faisz Mustapha, and met the Defence Secretary (Hemasiri Fernando), the Inspector General of Police (Pujith Jayasundara), Intelligence Chief and had given critical information on Zahran Hashim – the alleged mastermind of all the attacks. “We want this guy arrested. At least I am happy as the Terrorism Investigations Division (TID) Director told me that they were finally acting on my information. Had they acted three years ago, this situation would not have arisen today,” lamented Sally. “If you take the situation 15 years ago, there was no Thowheed Jamath. I have been shouting about this for the last 10 years. I was branded as anti-Muslim.” According to several sources including Sally, although Sri Lanka did have the intelligence network, the powers that be were using them for their political goals. “The former regime was using them. The present regime was silent. So we say extremism in all forms should be condemned.” Fundamental flaws Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarian M.A. Sumanthiran, addressing the emergency session held in Parliament last Tuesday (23), pointed out several fundament flaws in the system and called for the resignation of those responsible. “Very serious questions have arisen as to why preventive action was not taken when information was available. Those responsible from the very top, must at the very least resign. I raised the issue of the President keeping the Department of Police under his charge during the budget debate. This is clearly unconstitutional. The Police come under a separate ministry called Law and Order when the 19th Amendment was passed. The Constitution identifies only three subjects the President can hold – defence, Mahaweli, and environment. Law and order is not one of those. But unlawfully holding onto this portfolio, the President has now become the first person who should be responsible for these attacks that could have been prevented,” charged Sumanthiran. Meanwhile, addressing Parliament, Field Marshal MP Sarath Fonseka lashed out at the Government members for destabilising national security in general and the intelligence apparatus in particular for not taking prompt action when warnings were received and for making political appointments to key defence positions. “Overseas intelligence kept Sri Lanka informed. If foreign agencies informed us on the 4th (April), we should have acted the very next day – on the 5th. If Sri Lanka was informed on the 9th (April), measures should have been taken on the 10th. There is no use debating this in this chamber. Action should have been taken the very next day they had received the intelligence...There are two memos, one the IGP sent and the other that the Chief of State Intelligence Service (SIS) sent. The SIS Chief does not report to the IGP but is under purview of the Minister of Defence and the Secretary of Defence and as such, should report to them.” He also slammed the Minister of Law and Order, the Prime Minister, and the President and called for the immediate resignation of the former. “I am confident the President would have received the letter the SIS Chief sent. So it is unfair to attack only the IGP. There is no cause for the President to not receive this letter in question. The NSC should have been convened immediately. Anyway, I was against appointing this IGP (i.e. Pujith Jayasundara). DIG Wickremesinghe should have been appointed. I met the President on numerous occasions to stop the appointment but my call was not heeded. Anyway, removing the IGP now will not solve our issues. This issue won’t be resolved by firing the Police Chief,” lamented the former Army Commander who spearheaded the last stages of Eelam War IV that saw the eradication of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He added that several MPs requested him not to criticise the President as he had the chance of being appointed the Minister of Law and Order. However, claiming that President Maithripala Sirisena could have returned to Sri Lanka on an earlier flight, Fonseka added that if the President of a country was weak, the Government and the legislature would also naturally be weakened. All including the Defence Minister, the Defence Secretary, and the heads of security forces had neglected their duties despite their numerous excuses, he charged. Had this been another country, the whole bunch would have resigned. “This intelligence received by the authorities was not given half the priority given for Namal Kumara or Madush. Previous Law and Order Ministers did not have any background in the field and I believe that even ‘Julampitiye Amare’ had more experience than them,” lamented the former Army Commander.