PCoI report: Harin wants soft copies; Kiriella says it’s too late, and of no use

By Saman Indrajith

SJB MP Harin Fernando, speaking in Parliament, yesterday called on the government to provide soft copies of all the volumes of the final report by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Easter Sunday carnage.

The MP said so when the Speaker announced that all the volumes he had received from the Presidential Secretariat on the previous day were placed at the parliamentary library for the perusal of the MPs.

MP Fernando said that the PCoI report received by Parliament had over 69,800 pages. “It is practically a time consuming process to get a copy for each MP. It is better if we can get a succinct version of this report or either a soft copy for our perusal,” the MP said.

Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena said that he had been given all the volumes of the report by the Director General of Legal Affairs of the Presidential Secretariat Harigupta Rohanadheera and all the documents were thereafter sent to Parliament library.

Chief Opposition Whip Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella it was of little use getting the report after some of the cases had been completed and those indicted had been acquitted and released. “There is no use of giving us these witnesses’ accounts now. They should have been given earlier so that the MPs could have debated those facts here in Parliament and expressed their standpoints,” Kiriella said.