Easter Sunday carnage probe:  UNP makes strategic move

By Vishvanath

The UNP, in an open letter to the government, has raised a vital legal point regarding the Easter Sunday investigations while the SLPP is intensifying its propaganda campaign in defence of former Director of the State Intelligence Service Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Suresh Sallay, who is receiving treatment in the National Hospital, while being detained by the CID in connection with ongoing investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

The SLPP is trying to prove its claim that the ongoing probe is politically motivated and therefore not impartial because CID Director retired SSP Shani Abeysekera and Secretary to the Ministry of Public Security retired Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne are members of the ruling NPP. The UNP has sought to highlight what the Opposition describes as a fundamental flaw in the ongoing probe.   

The UNP has asked whether the present government, which has resumed investigations into the 2019 terror attacks, has formally requested the finding of an FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) probe into bombings. It has said that if such a request has been made, the government should disclose the response received from the United States.

The UNP has called on the government to obtain all material related to the US investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, stating that the information is currently held by the FBI and/or the US Department of Justice. It has stressed that all investigative material obtained through the US probe should be made available to Sri Lankan judicial authorities.

Recalling developments following the 2019 attacks, the UNP has noted that the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe requested a full US investigation and report on the incidents, citing limitations in domestic investigative capacity. It has said the request was made with assurances of full cooperation from Sri Lankan authorities.

The UNP has pointed out that a similar request was later made during a telephone conversation between then Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and the then US President Donald Trump.

According to the UNP, the FBI conducted an extensive investigation in collaboration with Sri Lankan agencies including the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Military Intelligence, and the State Intelligence Service, and subsequently submitted a report to the Sri Lankan government.

The UNP has also referred to a 71-page affidavit filed on November 12, 2020, by FBI Special Agent Merrilee R. Godwin in the US District Court for the Central District of California, as well as a criminal case filed on December 11, 2020, in the US District Court in Los Angeles. It has noted that several suspects named in the case were already in Sri Lankan custody at the time.

The findings of an FBI investigation are too important to be overlooked and are sure to be used by the defence counsel when Sallay’s trial begins.

An argument put forth by the government and its propagandists is that the Easter Sunday attacks were engineered to facilitate the SLPP's victory in the 2019 presidential election by catapulting threats to national security back to the centre stage of politics.

Having turned the tables on the UNP-led Yahapahana government by sweeping the 2018 local government elections, and caused a rift in that administration, the SLPP was on its way to win future elections. That the SLPP would field Gotabaya Rajapaksa as its presidential candidate in 2019 was a foregone conclusion. It was left with no alternative. The candidates had to be a member of the Rajapaksa family. Mahinda could not seek a third term. Basil was very unpopular. Namal was a greenhorn. Chamal lacked popular appeal. So, it had to be Gotabaya. After all, he had launched ViyathMaga, “a common forum for Sri Lankan scholars, professionals and academics with patriotism and a sense of purpose, living here and abroad”, as a launch pad for his presidential bid.

The Yahapalana government was on its last legs, with the SLFP having broken ranks with it, and there was no way the UNP could prevent the SLPP's victory in the presidential election. So, the argument that since Gotabaya officially announced his presidential candidacy after the Easter Sunday attacks, he may have had a hand in them is not irrefutable.

It may be recalled that when the UNP presidential candidate Gamini Dissanayake was killed in an LTTE bomb blast a couple of weeks before the Nov. 1994 presidential election, which People’s Alliance (PA) candidate Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga won with a record majority, it was claimed in some quarters that the LTTE had carried out the bomb attack to ensure Kumaratunga’s victory, as Dissanayake was close to India. When the LTTE made an abortive attempt on President Kumaratunga’s life at the conclusion of her last re-election campaign rally in 1999, a conspiracy theory was concocted that she herself had orchestrated the attack to gain public sympathy to secure a second term in a close contest. Some supporters of President Kumaratunga claimed the LTTE had sought to ensure UNP presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe’s victory, as under her command the military had driven the Tigers out of Jaffna.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal has deferred further consideration of a petition filed by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, seeking an order preventing his arrest in connection with ongoing investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks. His writ application is to be taken up again next Wednesday (24).  

Gotabaya’s writ application has prompted some government MPs to claim that there is no reason for the former President to seek a judicial intervention to prevent his arrest if he is innocent.

Interestingly, Gotabaya is not alone in having sought a court order to prevent his arrest in connection with matters related to the Easter Sunday terror attacks. In early 2022, Shani Abeysekara filed a fundamental tights petition before the Supreme Court seeking an order to prevent his arrest and detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). In his petition, he claimed that an attempt was being made to arrest him based on a false and anonymous petition alleging that he had been derelict in his duties during investigations into the National Thowheed Jamath and its leader Zaharan Hashim. Ravi Seneviratne also filed a fundamental tights petition before the Supreme Court seeking an order preventing the CID from arresting him under the PTA in connection with some allegations related to the Easter Sunday terror attacks. In November 2021, Rev. Fr. Cyril Gamini Fernando filed a Fundamental Rights application with the Supreme Court seeking an order to prevent any attempt being made by the Criminal Investigations Department to arrest him.

The argument that Sallay played a key role in defeating the LTTE and provided information that led to the elimination of key Tiger leaders and therefore he must not be probed in connection with the

Easter Sunday terror attacks is also not compelling. Anyone suspected of having had a hand in a crime must be probed in the name of the rule of law. Even those who are fighting for Sallay have said they are not against the ongoing investigations provided the investigators have no connections with the government.

The controversy over ongoing investigations into the Easter Sunday attacks would not have arisen if a team of serving police officers without political links to the government and facing no allegation of failure to prevent the carnage in 2019 had been assigned to conduct the probe. If the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) had not been invoked to arrest and detain Sallay, there would have been no grounds for protests, which are against the alleged mistreatment of him while being held on a detention order issued by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in his capacity as the Defence Minister.