Admission of concealing evidence from PCoI?

Friday 14th January, 2022

Former President and SLPP MP Maithripala Sirisena has an annoying habit of speaking in riddles. He is adept at obfuscating issues, and giving evasive answers to pointed questions. His long suit, as it were, is leaving things to the imagination when he happens to address crucial issues.

Sirisena is a worried man today because the families of the Easter Sunday carnage victims have filed more than 100 cases against him and others, seeking compensation, and there is also the possibility of the government making him face criminal proceedings the Easter Sunday Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) has recommended. He is reported to have said at a recent SLFP event at Pelmudulla, Ratnapura, that he will bare it all anent the Easter Sunday tragedy, and bitterly complained of a move to hold him responsible for it. When politicians find themselves up a creek, they concoct conspiracy theories in a bid to defray criticism. The incumbent government would have the public believe that there is a conspiracy behind the ongoing gas explosions as well although a special committee appointed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa himself has concluded that the blasts in kitchens are due to a change in the cooking gas composition.

Curiously, Sirisena has claimed the credit for appointing the Easter Sunday Presidential PCoI, which has held him accountable for the 2019 tragedy! So, this is all the more reason why he should accept the PCoI’s conclusions and recommendations. The commission says in its final report (page 265): “Based on evidence, the COI is of the view that there is criminal liability on his [Sirisena’s] part for the acts or omissions explained above. The COI recommends that the Attorney General consider instituting criminal proceedings against President Sirisena under any suitable provision in the Penal Code.” The commission report (page 471) says, “The government including President Sirisena and Prime Minister is accountable for the tragedy.” In other words, the commission has held all members of the yahapalana government including those who are currently in the SJB accountable for the carnage. The present government must explain why the PCoI recommendations have not been implemented fully. This is something the campaigners for action against those named in the PCoI report seem to have ignored. Shouldn’t they demand that legal action be instituted against all those who were in the yahapalana government?

Interestingly, in the run-up to the 2015 presidential election, Sirisena insisted that the credit for defeating the LTTE should accrue to him as well because he had functioned as the Acting Defence Minister during the final stages of Eelam War IV. So, how could he deny any responsibility for the security lapses that led to the Easter Sunday attacks while he was the President, Defence Minister and Commander-in-chief of the armed forces? He may have been out of the country when the attacks took place, but a foreign intelligence outfit had issued warnings of the bombings earlier, and it has now been revealed even SJB MP Harin Fernando’s late father had been aware of the impending danger. There is no way Sirisena could deny responsibility for the failure of the yahapalana government to prevent the terror strikes.

Sirisena testified before the Easter Sunday PCoI on several days. The question is why he did not divulge, in his testimony before it, what he says he is going to reveal. What one gathers from his recent statement at Pelmadulla is that he thinks the revelations he is going to make will help clear his name. If so, he should have disclosed that information before the PCoI and tried to avoid criminal liability. One could also argue that Sirisena concealed evidence when he testified.