- Govt. moots review of Intelligence apparatus
- MOD categorically refutes Channel 4 allegations
- Gen. Sallay should request to go on leave: Dr. Jayatilleka
- If you admit your sins, we are ready to forgive: Archbishop
Last week’s documentary by the UK-based Channel 4, ‘Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings: Dispatches,’ added to the growing controversy surrounding the April 2019 Easter Sunday bombings – arguably one of the biggest security and governance failures in Sri Lankan history.
Sri Lanka will undoubtedly be hard-pressed to damage control the loss of credibility and to contain fallout from the documentary, especially in the international arena, where the global Catholic and Christian populace will likely ensure the issue gains relevant attention.
The allegations levelled by the documentary and statements regarding actions by some Intelligence officials before, during, and after the attack and during the investigations into the bombings have raised serious doubts about how some segments of the domestic Intelligence apparatus function.
Days after the release of the documentary, which the Government was aware of before, and after much delay due to bureaucratic approval processes, the Ministry of Defence issued a rebuttal on Friday night (8) ‘vehemently denouncing the accusations’.
It is in this backdrop that The Sunday Morning reliably learns that the Government is now expeditiously planning to commission an in-depth review of the Sri Lankan Intelligence apparatus. Highly-placed sources in the defence establishment told The Sunday Morning that the President may initiate the review prior to his planned official visit to China this month.
It is also learnt that discussions are underway on the possibility of appointing another committee to inquire into the allegations made by the Channel 4 documentary.
The Ministry of Defence and the Presidential Secretariat were not available for comment on the planned review of the Intelligence agencies and a mechanism to inquire into the Channel 4 allegations.
“These allegations tarnish the hard work done by many in the community over decades. Intelligence has always been a grey area. It is not something many nations, even democratic ones, discuss openly. However, when politicisation occurs and oversight is absent, the Intelligence system, like any other, becomes corrupted. So, for the sake of ensuring future security and to rebuild credibility, such a review should have happened years ago,” a retired Intelligence officer told The Sunday Morning, on terms of anonymity.
It must be noted that a review of the Intelligence community and the legislation it is governed by was called for by the two inquiry committees which were established, post bombings, to inquire into the security debacle. To this day, the Government has not been seen to act on updating the legislation regarding the Intelligence agencies.
Further, when Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed by Parliament to the post of President, he proposed to conduct an international investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks, with assistance from reputed foreign law enforcement agencies. However, no action has been taken to initiate such to date.
State rejects allegations
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) rejected the allegations made about the Easter Sunday bombings, criticising that the Channel 4 television corporation “audaciously shifts the blame of the Easter Sunday attack onto Military Intelligence and Major General Suresh Sallay, the present Director General of the State Intelligence”.
However, the MOD has not responded to allegations made in the same documentary about links to Intelligence agencies and the now-infamous Tripoli Platoon in relation to the murder of several Sri Lankan journalists.
“The Ministry of Defence vehemently denounces the accusation of orchestrating the attack and assisting the bombers against a dedicated senior military officer who has served the nation for 36 years. Major General Suresh Sallay served at the Sri Lanka High Commission in Malaysia as Minister-Counsellor from December 2016 until December 2018. He left for India on 3 January 2019 and returned to Sri Lanka on 30 November 2019 after completing the National Defence College Course in Delhi. This officer was never in Sri Lanka during the period mentioned in the Channel 4 video documentary.
“Furthermore, during the said period (December 2016 to November 2019), this officer was not employed in the Intelligence and security apparatus of the country, nor did he hold any official responsibilities in those fields. The Ministry of Defence also reiterates that no terrorists involved in the Easter Sunday attack have ever been on the Government payroll. Therefore, the Ministry of Defence categorically refutes these outrageous allegations and expresses profound dismay at Channel 4 for promulgating such a malicious and unsubstantiated narrative,” the MOD said in a press release.
The MOD also pointed out that a comprehensive investigation conducted by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the US, along with the subsequent verdict rendered by the US Department of Justice, had reaffirmed the findings of local investigations. “This resounding endorsement from an international investigative agency further substantiates the accuracy and integrity of the investigation,” the MOD stressed.
The documentary alleges, among other allegations, that current SIS Chief, then heading the Directorate of Military Intelligence, had approached Channel 4 whistleblower Azad Maulana to arrange a meeting with the Leader of the ISIS-inspired extremist group which carried out the Easter attacks, Zahran Hashim, in order to create an ‘unsafe situation’ for the Rajapaksa political family to return to power.
Irrespective of the accuracy of the allegations made by Maulana regarding his role in facilitating the said meeting, former Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced his run for presidency shortly after the attacks and rode a wave of ‘ensuring national security’ to come to power.
President Gotabaya Rajapakasa would go on to become the first Executive president of Sri Lanka to be ousted from power by a public protest movement, two years down the road.
Current SIS Chief, Major General Tuan Suresh Sallay, had replied to a Channel 4 questioner via his personal lawyers on 11 August denying the allegations.
Pillayan questions credibility of the source
Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) Chairman and State Minister of Rural Road Development Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan, who holds the wartime nom de guerre Pillayan, appearing on a television political talk show on Friday (8) night, rejected allegations made by former colleague Azad Maulana, who was the Spokesman for the TMVP in the prelude to the Easter Sunday bombings.
Responding to a question on the talk show, Minister Chandrakanthan questioned the credibility of his former colleague, stating: “That is lies… I had nothing to do with any of this. Why do I need to do something like this? Maulana has done this [statements to Channel 4] to find money and secure his life over there. He has nicely decorated it and made a statement. These are lies.”
Chandrakanthan also stressed that he was not aware of the Tripoli Platoon.
Chandrakanthan and the TVMP, which was the political wing of the east coast breakaway Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) faction, has been accused of a string of crimes, including murder.
He was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) over the 2005 Christmas Eve assassination of the late Tamil National Alliance (TNA) politician Joseph Pararajasingham. However, Chandrakanthan was acquitted when the Attorney General’s Department informed the Batticaloa High Court that it would not proceed with the case against him.
Pressure builds on Govt. to act
Pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to act on the latest allegations continues to mount, with Opposition and Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) Leader Sajith Premadasa echoing calls by Cardinal Malcom Ranjith for an investigation with credible foreign entities.
Following the release of the documentary, the Cardinal reiterated his calls for a new, transparent investigation with foreign support as he did not have faith in the local mechanism.
Premadasa also requested the Government to reinstate former Chief Investigator and Director of the CID Shani Abeysekara, who was removed from the role abruptly soon after Gotabaya Rajapaksa became President, and to hand over the investigation to him. Premadasa stressed on the need to include foreign investigators in the proposed inquiry, citing that a transparent and reasonable investigation had not occurred locally.
Opposition parties and Government MPs hotly debated the latest set of allegations, heating up the parliamentary session last week. Allegations on responsibility, collusion, and whose failure it had been to stop the attacks, on which actionable intelligence had been received but were ignored, were traded across the floor.
Minister of Justice Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who had raised concerns about growing extremist ideologies before the 2019 attacks, recalled the reception his comments about Islamic extremism had drawn at the time. However, last week the Minister of Justice stated in Parliament that Parliament should decide on the nature of the probe into the allegations by the recent Channel 4 documentary.
Sri Lanka is no stranger to extremist and racist ideologies that emerge from many segments of society, of which some iteration has been experienced since independence from the UK in 1948.
After much argument in Parliament, an adjournment debate on the Easter Sunday attacks and national security at present has been scheduled to be taken up on 21 and 22 September.
‘Admit your sins’
Addressing a congregation on Thursday (7), the Archbishop of Colombo called on the leaders of Sri Lanka to address the grave concerns of the Catholic and Christian community, who had borne the brunt of the attacks, through a transparent, credible investigation.
“Why are they [leaders] afraid of a transparent and credible investigation? If they are afraid of such, we have to assume they may have some link to the events. It is the first responsibility of the national leadership to carry out their duties to the public and reveal the truth. I call on the leaders of this country to at least now allow an internationally accepted investigation to take place.
“Further, if anyone is named in the investigations, they should act respectfully and resign from their posts to facilitate a sound inquiry… that is what an honest person would do. If you have done something wrong, you should accept your wrongdoing. Then we can forgive you,” Cardinal Malcom Ranjith said.
Trust deficit may take generations to bridge
The lack of transparency and lacklustre speed of investigations, the silence of the political leadership, and the reported interference with multiple investigations have eroded the public’s trust in the investigations into the deadly attacks. This has created a deep distrust in the collective consciousness of the public about the State, law enforcement, and the justice mechanisms in place.
The documentary not only focused on the Easter Sunday bombings and allegations of facilitation and collusion by senior Intelligence officials in the coordinated suicide bombings, but also revealed information about a string of assassinations of journalists, including slain The Sunday Leader Editor Lasantha Wickrematunge.
Over the last few decades, the politicisation of the military, the law enforcement agencies, and, at times, the verdicts issued by some justice mechanisms have seriously eroded the public’s trust in the State apparatus, with many in the younger demographic having little or no faith in State processes.
Urgent need for transparency and accountability
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, former diplomat and national security commentator Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka opined that while the information provided by the latest Channel 4 documentary may be largely circumstantial and the credibility of the sources may be questionable, the documentary and the information which came to light in the parliamentary inquiry and presidential inquiry into the Easter Sunday bombings indicated gross failures to act on actionable intelligence by five senior security officials.
Jayatilleka told The Sunday Morning that at present there was ample information and evidence to cast reasonable doubt about the official version of what had transpired.
“The Government can no longer ignore this issue. It will draw the attention of millions of Catholic and Christian societies across the world and they will notice it and pay attention. Sri Lanka should launch a credible, transparent investigation, like the one launched in the aftermath of the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in February 2005,” Sri Lanka’s former top diplomat to Moscow said.
Jayatilleka opined that Sri Lanka should place faith in multilateral agencies like Interpol and the United Nations and not in country-specific law enforcement agencies for such an investigation.
When asked what the current SIS Chief could do in the face of such allegations, Jayatilleka said that Sallay could step aside until a thorough investigation was conducted.
“I think Suresh Sallay should go on leave. He should have the decency to do so, or his bosses should send him on leave. Because no matter what he does or says, he is the person mentioned in the documentary. How can he function with his overseas counterparts, who are by now aware of the allegations? I am not saying he did anything. That remains to be proven. But in the eyes of the world he is compromised and in association so is the service [Intelligence service],” he noted.