Harin challenges Public Security Minister for TV debate

Weerasekera tells him to divulge everything to CID investigators

By Saman Indrajith

SJB MP Harin Fernando yesterday in parliament challenged Public Security Minister Rear Admiral (retd) Sarath Weerasekera for a public debate on matters hitherto been held hidden from the public pertaining to the Easter Sunday carnage investigations.

MP Fernando said that while he was in the hospital undergoing a heart surgery the minister through the media had asked him to reveal anything he knew about the Easter Sunday carnage to the CID without doing so in Parliament. “I challenge Minister Weerasekera to come for a public TV debate so that everyone can see and hear what I have to say. I am not afraid of being arrested but I do not want to reveal these matters to people who want to know the truth. If the minister accepts my challenge, I am ready to

divulge these matters in public. I am ready to do so in a live debate on a TV channel of his choice. We come to the beach because we are not afraid of the waves.”

Minister Weerasekera: MP Fernando got himself admitted in the Nawaloka hospital stating that he was terribly ill. I have no intention of accepting a challenge from such a person. Investigations on the Easter Sunday incident are still in progress. Some arrests are still being made. The CID has taken into custody some persons who had once been arrested and later released by the former government and they were being questioned again. We have not interfered in those investigations in any manner. MP Fernando’s connection is relevant to that second investigation which is conducted by the CID. So, the best he could do is to go before the CID and tell the investigators what he knows. There is no point in arguing with me because this is not a political matter; it is a police matter.

MP Fernando: All right you can bring your CID officers to the debate too. I will come. Bring with you the CID officers for a live public debate on TV, so that the entire nation could hear and see.