When hopes fade

Thursday 27th January, 2022

Archbishop of Colombo His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has steadfastly opposed moves to internationalise domestic issues, and insisted that Sri Lanka is capable of sorting out its internal problems without foreign interventions. Ironically, he himself has had to warn the government that he will be compelled to seek international help to have justice done for the Easter Sunday carnage victims. He cannot be faulted for contemplating such a course of action because he is apparently left with no option.

The Cardinal and other Catholic prelates have been urging the government to release the entire report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), which probed the Easter Sunday carnage, fully implement its recommendations, investigate the terror attacks further and bring the mastermind behind them to justice. These demands are nothing but fair. But the government has chosen to ignore them, claiming that the mastermind is a person called Naufer Moulavi, and criminal proceedings have already been instituted against him. But those who have studied the National Thowheed Jamaath, which was responsible for the Easter Sunday bombings, followed the PCoI proceedings and perused the commission report (Volume 1) are convinced otherwise. They are of the view that the mastermind is someone else, and have pointed out some flaws in the investigations into the carnage.

One cannot get a complete picture of the PCoI probe and its findings unless one is given access to all the volumes of the Commission report. It may be recalled that the government did not hand over the whole report even to the Attorney General, initially, claiming that some volumes thereof contained sensitive information related to national security. We pointed out that the PCoI itself had recommended that the President ‘transmit a complete set of the Report to the Attorney General to consider the institution of criminal proceedings against persons alleged to have committed the said offences’. Perhaps, the only thing Sri Lankan Presidents do properly is to swallow commission reports!

The government must stop implementing the PCoI recommendations selectively, and instead ensure that legal action will be instituted against all those against whom criminal proceedings have been recommended. Among them are former President Maithripala Sirisena and some state officials. The Attorney General should be given a free hand to carry out prosecutions. The government must not allow its political deals to stand in the way of legal action against the suspects. This is the least it can do for the Catholic community, having gained a lot of political mileage from the fallout of the Easter Sunday tragedy to win elections.

Opposition politicians are raking the government over the coals for shielding Sirisena and others who failed to prevent the Easter Sunday attacks. One cannot but agree with them. However, let them be reminded that all those who were in the Yahapalana government are accountable for the tragedy. The Easter Sunday PCoI says in its report (p 471): “The Government including President Sirisena and Prime Minister [Ranil Wickremesinghe] is accountable for the tragedy.” Most of those who were in the Yahapalana Cabinet are currently in the SJB. The JVP and the TNA were propping up that government at the time of the Easter Sunday attacks. Thus, almost all those in the current Parliament are duty bound to ensure that justice is done for the Easter Sunday terror victims.

The manner in which the government is handling the Easter Sunday terror issue will be grist to the mill of those who are campaigning for an international probe into alleged war crimes here. Having failed to ensure that justice is served for the carnage victims, the government will have its work cut out to convince even its friends at the UNHRC that Sri Lanka is capable of taking care of accountability issues on its own.