‘Reconciliation took precedence over national security under yahapalana govt.’

By Rathindra Kuruwita

Reconciliation had figured above national security on the Defence Ministry’s list of priorities under the yahapalana government and it was a mistake, former Chief of National Intelligence Sisira Mendis yesterday told the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) investigating the Easter Sunday attacks.

The witness said so in answer to a question from one of the Commissioners.

“Yes, reconciliation came first. The previous government was trying to improve the country’s image because Sri Lanka was facing many issues internationally. A lot of foreigners came in to talk about reconciliation and the Defence Secretaries had to sit down with them and have long discussions.”

The witness added that there had been times when he wondered if they were talking about intelligence gathered during weekly intelligence review meetings.

“The government also wanted to release lands in the North that were held by the security forces. This is not an easy thing to do. Releasing land took so much of our time. There were no barriers on the roads and no search operations. People forgot about security. I knew the importance of national security but there wasn’t anything we could do.”

Although representatives of intelligence agencies were to meet on Tuesday every month, those meetings were never held as scheduled between July 2015 and April 2019, he said.

The weekly intelligence review meetings were to be chaired by either the State Minister of Defence or the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence, he said.

“Four meetings should be held each month but the representatives never met four times a month between July 2015 and April 2019,” Mendis said.

During some months only one meeting had been held, he said.

“Although the State Minister chaired some of them initially, he did not attend any meeting in 2019,” he added.