Former Commander-in-Chief and ex-President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s inadequate defence of the war-winning armed forces underscores the failure on the part of successive governments to address war crimes allegations. Wickremesinghe’s responses highlighted Sri Lanka’s collective and pathetic failure to defend its armed forces. The country missed an opportunity to question the absurdity of UN war crimes accusations based on claims by persons who couldn’t be questioned till 2030 as a result of shocking confidentiality clauses in the Panel of Experts’ report. Imagine a one sided trial where you cannot cross examine your accusers for 30 long years. No wonder much of the world is increasingly demanding urgent reforms in the United Nations as much of its system is rigged by the collective West since its formation.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Al Jazeera’s Head-to-Head presenter Mehdi Hasan and former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in an interview recorded in February but released last week, dealt with the conclusion of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009 without referring to the origins of terrorism here, while prolonging the narrative we were the bad guys throughout and not a word about the LTTE and how it terrorised this country for about 30 years.

The chosen audience at London’s Conway Hall, too, conveniently refrained from bringing up accountability on the part of India in sponsoring terrorism, beginning early ’80s. The issue is would there have been Mullivaikkal bloodshed if India didn’t step in here to pacify Tamil Nadu sentiments? Separatist terrorism received extensive backing in the West and there couldn’t be a better example than the LTTE being allowed to operate its International Secretariat in London, even after it assassinated former Indian Premier Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991, while campaigning in Tamil Nadu.

The discussion covered heavy defeat suffered by Wickremesinghe at the last year’s presidential election, still unfinished investigations into the 2019 Easter bombings, the failure on his part to prosecute the Rajapaksas, as well as why punitive measures weren’t taken against Gotabaya Rajapaksa, and unleashing the military on Aragalaya immediately after Parliament elected him President, in July 2022.

Hasan had conveniently forgotten that Wickremesinghe earlier threw his weight behind Aragalaya . Harin Fernando, who had been a SJB member of Parliament at the time of the Aragalaya, is on record as having said that Wickremesinghe directed him to join the campaign to oust Gotabaya Rajapaksa. One-time UNP MP Prof. Ashu Marasinghe, too, disclosed the UNP’s role in Aragalaya.

UK-born British-American broadcaster Hasan aggressively pushed Wickremesinghe on the accountability issues while the UNP leader, at least ended up defending General Shavendra Silva, the wartime General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the celebrated 58 Division (former Task Force 1) accused by the US and UN of perpetrating war crimes without providing any evidence.

Wickremesinghe should have exploited the reference made by the audience to the 1983 violence directed at the Tamil community to remind the world of the events leading to the unprecedented riots. Let me stress that no right thinking person would condone targeting civilians, under any circumstances. However, the country wouldn’t have erupted in July 1983 if not for the Indian military training Tamil terrorist groups and for some inexplicable reason, most probably out of fear, the failure on the part of JRJ to nip the riots in the bud. There were also some extreme elements of the UNP, led by its notorious trade union arm JSS, that perpetrated some of the violence. Some in the police, too, played a part in encouraging rioters, often to make a killing for themselves by taking part of the looted items. President Jayewardene even failed to address the issue for several days. The 1983 riots should be always examined, taking into consideration how the Indian trained LTTE terrorists successfully attacked an Army patrol at Thinnaweli, Jaffna. Of the 14-man contingent, only one survived. There had never been such a devastating attack on the Army, though there were sporadic small arms attacks on police.

Strangely, Hasan and Wickremesinghe discussed war crimes, atrocities and war-related allegations without once referring to the war waged by the Indian Army in the Northern and Eastern regions as if Indians were sacred cows. The audience, too, remained silent. Those who had been demanding accountability on the part of Sri Lanka never once questioned India’s culpability or the innumerable acts of terrorism resorted to by the LTTE, probably taking more Tamil lives, especially those of its rivals and moderate Tamils, who dared to speak up, than the number of security forces personnel and innocent Sinhalese civilians it killed. The fact that India suffered 1,300 officers and men killed and nearly 3,000 others wounded in encounters with the LTTE during July 1987-March 1990 deployment of its euphemistically called Indian Peace Keeping Force here proved the massive security crisis New Delhi helped to create here.

Have you ever heard of anyone seeking an explanation from New Delhi for the 1988 PLOTE (People’s Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam) raid on the Maldives? Indian trained PLOTE cadres carried out the sea-borne operation, targeting the then Maldivian leader Maumoon Abdul Gayoom at the behest of influential Maldivian Abdulla Luthufee. Would Hasan, born to parents from Hyderabad, and nine at the time of the PLOTE raid, dared to question India’s culpability. We haven’t heard anyone demanding to know the identities of those who perished in the failed Maldivian operation or Sri Lankan Tamils killed in India after the assassination of its one-time Premier Rajiv Gandhi by a teenage suicide bomber in Tamil Nadu.

Seasoned politician Wickremesinghe could have taken advantage of the Head-to-Head ‘show’ to set the record straight in the presence of Frances Harrison, former BBC-Sri Lanka correspondent, Director of International Truth and Justice Project and author of ‘Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka’s Hidden War,’ and Dr. Madura Rasaratnam, Executive Director of PEARL (People for Equality and Relief in Lanka), that was formed in 2005 in the run-up to the Eelam War IV (2006 August to 2009 May). The other panelist was former UK and EU MP and Wickremesinghe’s presidential envoy, Niranjan Joseph de Silva Deva Aditya whose interventions didn’t help Wickremesinghe at all. Aditya’s declaration towards the tail end of the 49-minute programme that Wickremesinghe caused a devastating split in the LTTE, in 2003, during Oslo arranged talks, seemed absurd.

Addressing a hastily arranged press conference in Colombo, Wickremesinghe alleged that the husband of Executive Director, PEARL and senior lecturer at City University of London Dr. Madura Rasaratnam, had been an associate of LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham. Wickremesinghe asked her to correct him if he was wrong. It would have been better if Wickremesinghe reminded that the late Balasingham had been a British citizen and his Australian-born wife Adele, who promoted recruitment of child soldiers and appeared in LTTE ‘uniform’ and garlanded LTTE female soldiers with their trade mark cyanide capsule, which they always carried around their necks, as they passed out after undergoing training for propaganda purposes. She is now living in the UK, so perhaps Al Jazeera can interview Adele about her sordid role in marching those girls, many of them being underage, to a certain gory death, especially in the event of being captured, as they had been ordered by the LTTE to bite their cyanide capsules.

Hasan accused the Sri Lankan military of depriving the Tamil people of food, medicine and other basic essentials during the war. Unfortunately, former president and six-time Premier Wickremesinghe pathetically failed to counter often repeated lies. Had Wickremesinghe perused the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts (PoE) report (read Darusman report) released in 2011, he could have comfortably defended the war-winning military. The UN report acknowledged that the ICRC (International Committee for Red Cross)-run ships evacuated the wounded and the WFP (World Food Programme) sent food to Puthumathalan until the very end. Though the programme is headlined Head-to Head, our ex-President pathetically failed to counter Hasan with credible answers on one-sided questions raised by the interviewer.

Forgotten Lord Naseby’s disclosure

It would be pertinent to mention that Wickremesinghe’s UNP never backed our fighting the Eelam War IV. The UNP quite confidently thought the LTTE could never be defeated, militarily. Actually, the UNP humiliated the military and questioned Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka’s suitability to lead the Army. One of its top rung Ministers, the late Mangala Samaraweeer,a even claimed in public that Fonseka was not fit even to lead the Salvation Army, that would have been a case of USAID money disbursed underhand to people like him, working overtime.

Hasan accusing Wickremesinghe of defending the military and the Rajapaksas seemed ridiculous against the backdrop of the latter’s treacherous co-sponsorship of an accountability resolution against one’s own security forces at the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by his government.

Then Premier Wickremesinghe teamed up with Yahapalana President Maithripala Sisisena to betray the warwinning military. In line with a backdoor agreement with the US and Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the Yahapalana government agreed to establish hybrid war crimes mechanism to investigate alleged war crimes.

The former President could have used Lord Naseby’s disclosure of confidential wartime British High Commission dispatches from Colombo to question Hasan and the audience on war dead. Both British diplomatic cables and a UN report that had dealt with war dead placed the figure between 7,000 and 8,000 whereas the PoE estimated 40,000 dead. Wickremesinghe couldn’t have been unaware of Lord Naseby’s revelation and the much discussed Colombo based US Defence Attaché Colonel Lawrence Smith’s declaration at the first ever Colombo Defence seminar, in 2011, regarding claims of planned surrender by a section of the LTTE. The writer was present at the event when Smith responded to questions raised by Maj. Gen. Ashok Mehta, who had served as the Indian commander in charge of the Barricaloa-Ampara sector during the 1987-1988 period.

“Hello, may I say something to a couple of questions raised. I’ve been the Defence Attaché here at the US Embassy since June 2008. Regarding the various versions of events that came out in the final hours and days of the conflict — from what I was privileged to hear and to see, the offers to surrender that I am aware of seemed to come from the mouthpieces of the LTTE — Nadesan, KP — people who weren’t and never had really demonstrated any control over the leadership or the combat power of the LTTE.

“So their offers were a bit suspect anyway, and they tended to vary in content hour by hour, day by day. I think we need to examine the credibility of those offers before we leap to conclusions that such offers were in fact real.

“And I think the same is true for the version of events. It’s not so uncommon in combat operations, in the fog of war, as we all get our reports second, third and fourth hand from various commanders at various levels that the stories don’t seem to all quite match up.

“But I can say that the version presented here so far in this is what I heard as I was here during that time. And I think I better leave it at that before I get into trouble”, he said.

No point in blaming Wickremesinghe for not exploiting such available information in the public domain when the warwinning team (read Rajapaksa governments) shamefully failed to mount an effective counter attack. The Rajapaksas were always in denial mode and never really wanted to address issues in a methodical way. Instead of using all available information to mount an effective defence, the Rajapaksa government squandered millions of USD for propaganda efforts in the US.

Wickremesinghe should have mentioned before the Conway Hall WikiLeaks revelations pertained to the war. WikiLeaks revealed a US dispatch that quoted ICRC Head of Operations for South Asia Jacques de Maio as having told US Ambassador in Geneva, Clint Williamson, though there had been serious violations of International Humanitarian Law, there was no genocide.

Perhaps, one of the most significant declarations that had been made by de Maio was that the Army actually could have won the military battle faster with higher civilian casualties, yet chose a slower approach which led to a greater number of Sri Lankan military deaths. Obviously Wickremesinghe hadn’t been aware of developments he should have been conversant with and as a result the former President couldn’t hit back hard.

How could Yahapalana Premier Wickremesinghe fail to mention two mega lies that had been propagated during his tenure, but subsequently exposed? High profile accusations regarding Mannar mass graves accepted no less a person than UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet and the then Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran’s claim of the Army poisoning over 100 LTTE cadres in custody proved to be nothing but lies.

The Fonseka factor

Wickremesinghe could have mentioned conscription of children by the LTTE and indiscriminate use of women in high intensity battles, particularly in the Northern theatre. The ex-President failed to do so. Perhaps, Wickremesinghe should have reminded the Conway Hall crowd that the people of the Northern and Eastern Provinces had clearly disregarded unsubstantiated war crimes accusations by overwhelmingly voting for retired General Sarath Fonseka at the 2010 presidential election. Although Fonseka lost by a staggering 1.8 mn votes, he comfortably won eight predominately Tamil-speaking administrative districts, including Jaffna, just nine months after the conclusion of the war.

War crimes allegations ended up in a wastepaper basket the day the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), one-time LTTE mouthpiece, declared its support for Fonseka. Against the backdrop of the TNA backing Fonseka, whose Army had been accused of human rights violations on a massive scale, often repeated allegations seemed untenable.

Wickremesinghe cannot, under any circumstances, forget that episode as it was his project that brought UNP-TNA-JVP-SLMC and CWC together in 2010. WikiLeaks exposed US dispatches from Colombo pertaining to the US hand in the political project.

We haven’t heard of PEARL or any other organization with similar vision requesting the LTTE to release civilians held during the last phase of the fighting as a human shield by the besieged LTTE. Having forced over 300,000 people to accompany retreating LTTE units, they used them as human shields. The bottom line is that the Diaspora remained blind to civilian sufferings as long as they felt the LTTE could deliver a knockout blow to the Army on the Vanni east front. Canada-based veteran journalist, D. B. S Jayaraj, then considered as an authority on the conflict by many, confidently predicted, in late Dec. 2008, an impending devastating LTTE counter attack and the rolling back of the Army. Then Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had been a frontline combat officer during his entire military career till he retired in the early ’90s , told the writer at the time that the LTTE was not in a position to reverse the situation. Within two weeks, the Army overran Kilinochchi, the headquarters of the LTTE. That was the end of the story.

Wickremesinghe and none of those seated at the Conway Hall ever anticipated the fall of Kilinochchi in early January 2009 and the total collapse of the Tiger fighting formations, within five months.

RW’s response to Aragalaya

Hasan questioned Wickremesinghe regarding his response to Aragalaya as well as what was known as the Batalanda torture camp that existed in the late’ 80s.

Hasan never sought Wickremesinghe’s opinion on the alleged US role in Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ousting, in spite of recent US declarations about USAID interventions in many parts of the world and accusations the US intervened in support of Aragalaya. Interestingly, Hasan found fault with Wickremesinghe for ordering the military to restore law and order while the former President recalled massive destruction caused by Aragalaya and the bid to storm Parliament. Wickremesinghe reminded Hasan how Aragalaya activists killed SLPP parliamentarian Amarakeerthi Atukorale at Nittambuwa. Atukorale was the last MP killed in violence. The LTTE and the JVP killed over 50 serving and ex-parliamentarians and many lesser politicians.

Batalanda operation, whether we like it or not, had been in line with President JRJ counter insurgency strategy at a time the JVP threatened to overwhelm the UNP-led dictatorial government, taking advantage of the Indo-Lanka accord and the deployment of the Indian Army here to inspire violence. Countries that had been threatened by terrorism adopted controversial measures such as ‘extraordinary rendition’ (apprehending/kidnapping suspected terrorists and detain them in countries where torture is widely practiced. The US-led operation received the backing of many countries, including the UK and Sri Lanka).

The second JVP insurrection had to be crushed, whatever the consequences were, though President JRJ should be held responsible for the catastrophic political measures that plunged the country into turmoil. Wickremesinghe had been a member of JRJ’s Cabinet and should be held collectively responsible for the mayhem the then President caused.

Proscription of the JVP in the run-up to the 1982 presidential election and the postponement of parliamentary election that was to be held in 1983 to 1989 caused resentment among all communities and set the stage for terrorist campaigns in the North and the South. The UNP that had caused so much political destruction is today represented in Parliament by just one MP (CWC member as the party contested under the Elephant symbol).

Wickremesinghe should be grateful to Hasan for not asking him to explain how under his watch the UNP deteriorated to such an extent that it was reduced to zero in Parliament. It would have been better if Hasan asked Wickremesinghe to explain why the Yahapalana administration from 2015 to 2019 borrowed billions of dollars from the international bond market, at high interest, and contributed to the economic bankruptcy of the country in 2022.

By Lynn Ockersz

She and He have stood their ground,

In factories and farms down the ages,

Braving the lashings of manor and nature,

Invisible yet radiating the Dignity of Labour,

Giving selflessly the Bread of the nations,

And in March when She is celebrated,

For very good reason too, I assert,

It is apt to revisit the timeless lesson,

That in the matter of feeding the masses,

Her Story and His come together

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Since the mid-1970s this country has seen so much bloodshed, beginning with the cold blooded killing of SLFP Jaffna Mayor Alfred Duraiappah on 27 July, 1975, by the LTTE, that even many of us journos, who have lived through and recorded much of that gory past, too, have literally lost the exact count from our memories, so no wonder having read last week’s midweek piece ‘A second killing in a courtroom, a question of national security and overall deterioration of law enforcement’ former Irida Divaina editor and one time colleague in our sister paper, Anura Soloman, reawakened the writer’s memory to the Wavulkelle killings. The writer inadvertently failed to at least refer to the Wavulkelle massacre that was also a grim reminder of the direct nexus between the party in power and law enforcers that had also become a cancer in this country, whether the rulers are corrupt capitalists or fake Marxists and opportunists or those somewhere in between.

We must also note that over the years our rulers also exacerbated feelings of resentment among Tamils as a result of many rotten cops, or those deemed politically undesirable, being posted to faraway places on punishment transfers. One can imagine how they would have taken out their own frustrations when discharging their duties in such places if they were so bad here, to start with. And that practice ironically continues to this day.

Sub Inspector Dhammika Amarasena, who had been interdicted over the Wavulkelle massacre, was shot dead inside the Attanagalle Magistrate court in Nov. 1991. Amarasena, who had been one of the accused in the Wavulkelle carnage where 12 persons were shot dead in late Feb. 1990, was the first suspect to die in a courtroom. Among the Wavulkelle victims had been a young woman who, according to the only survivor, was sexually abused by several male prisoners at the behest of a posse of bestial policemen before being killed.

The media reported at that time that the victims had been stripped naked and shot in single file by two gunmen. Amarasena had been among the gang of policemen responsible for the heinous crime that was carried out after the eradication of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s second armed uprising 1987-89. The victims were believed to be sympathizers of the then main Opposition Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Of the 13 people abducted and taken to a clearing, 12 had been shot dead and their naked and charred bodies were found by villagers. The crime would have remained a mystery if not for one of the abductees managing to flee from the clutches of those killers.

Solomon emphasized that the recent high profile courtroom killing of Sanjeewa Kumara Samararatne aka Ganemulle Sanjeewa, the fourth inside a courtroom, couldn’t be discussed without examining the killings carried out in the Attanagalle Magistrate court. Amarasena’s father-in-law, who had been seated next to the interdicted policeman, was also killed. The killer escaped.

Of the 14 suspects attached to the Weeragula and Attanagalla police taken into custody in connection with the CID investigation, the Attanagalle Magistrate discharged seven of the suspects and the remaining were charged with unlawful assembly, abduction, murder and lesser charges. The mastermind was never punished.

The Wavulkelle killings and the subsequent Attanagalla courtroom killing attracted international attention. The London headquartered Amnesty International (AI) dealt with this issue. It would be pertinent to stress that the Wavulkelle killings were carried out several months after the arrest and the execution of JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera and the elimination of its top leadership, barring Somawansa Amarasinghe, who managed to escape with clandestine Indian help.

The Nov. 1991 Attanagalle courtroom killings, during Ranasinghe Premadasa’s presidency, were followed up by the elimination of Dhamamika Amarasinghe in January 2004 during Chandrika Kumaratunga presidency, inside the Hulftsdorp court complex, and the most recent killing of Ganemulle Sanjeewa (Anura Kumara Dissanayake presidency/Aluthkade court complex).

The Attanagalle hit is widely believed to have been ordered by a businessman whose family happened to be among the victims of the Wavulkelle massacre. During the second JVP-led insurgency (1987-1990) both the government and the insurgents perpetrated heinous crimes. There cannot be any dispute that the ruling UNP exploited a murderous counter insurgency campaign to eliminate its political rivals as well. However, courtroom killings have to be thoroughly investigated and perpetrators (read masterminds) arrested and punished. The Attanagalle courtroom killings mastermind must have taken the law into his own hands as he felt the perpetrators of the Wavulkelle carnage wouldn’t be punished.

Parties in Parliament, as well as those not represented, have conveniently forgotten the murderous political culture that prevailed during that time. The Wavulkelle carnage never received the public attention it deserved. The police and successive governments never made an honest effort to investigate law enforcement officers’ alleged involvement in extrajudicial killings.

The second Aluthkade hit

Over the past three decades, the law and order situation has deteriorated to such an extent, that the corrupt elements in the police are now directly enmeshed in the underworld. Ganemulle Sanjeewa’s killing underscored the responsibility on the part of the National People’s Power (NPP) government to conduct a no holds barred investigation, particularly against the backdrop of the disclosure that the Colombo Chief Magistrate Court hadn’t directed the Prions Department to produce Ganemulle Sanjeewa in court on the morning of 19th February.

Colombo Chief Magistrate Thanuja Lakmali is on record as having questioned the senior Prisons Department officer present in court as to why Ganemulle Sanjeewa was produced in court in the absence of a specific court order in that regard.

Let me remind you what police constable Hewapathiranage Tharanga told the inquest into Ganemulle Sanjeewa killing held before Colombo Chief Magistrate Thanuja Lakmali on 24th February. PC Tharanga, of the Keselwatta police, said that the gunman, who had been dressed as a lawyer, fired several shots in rapid succession at Ganemulle Sanjeewa the moment Magistrate Thanuja Lakmali asked for an explanation from a Prisons’ Department officer. What the Colombo Chief Magistrate said was that Ganemulle Sanjeewa had been brought to Hulftsdorp from maximum security Boossa prison without a court order.

The Magistrate’s shocking declaration should be examined taking into consideration IGP Priyantha Weerasooriya revelation that he intervened to prevent Ganemulle Sanjeewa being produced in the Gampaha court the previous week following intelligence warning of a possible attempt on the underworld kingpin’s life. Therefore, the crux of the matter is who decided to produce Ganemulle Sanjeewa in court without any such order. That issue has to be addressed without further delay.

The possibility of the assassin – a legally discharged soldier who had undergone the basic commando training course – having access to those in charge of Ganemulle Sanjeewa’s security cannot be ruled out. If notorious underworld figure Kehelbaddara Padme, operating from overseas, had ordered the elimination of Ganemulle Sanjeewa to avenge the killing of his father, as alleged by some, targeting him while being escorted by a squad of elite police commandos wouldn’t have been feasible. In addition to police commandos, Ganemulle Sanjeewa ostensibly also received armed protection from the Prisons Department.

The latest underworld hit exposed glaring shortcomings in security. The police and the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) owed the public an explanation why lawyers weren’t subject to routine security checks before entering courtrooms during high profile cases.

Especially against the backdrop of IGP Weerasooriya’s disclosure that they had been aware of an attempt that was to be made on the life of Ganemulle Sanjeewa on the previous week at the Gampaha court, why were not special security arrangements made on 19 February?

Perhaps, the Justice Ministry, the police and the judiciary should reach consensus on the deployment of armed police within courts for the protection of criminals under threat. It would be pertinent to mention that police assigned to provide security to judges are authorized to carry side arms in courts.

The Aluthkade killing, coupled with the Middeniya triple murder where the one-time henchman of the Rajapaksas was killed with two of his children, and two deaths in police custody, placed the NPP government in an extremely difficult situation.

Twelve persons have so far been taken into custody in connection with the Aluthkade killing. However, the woman accomplice of the assassin, who smuggled in the weapon into the courtroom, remains at large.

The recent issuance of an order by the Matara Magistrate to arrest eight policemen, including ex-IGP Deshabandu Tennakoon, over an alleged conspiracy to commit murder with regard to an incident at W 15 hotel in Weligama on the night of 31 Dec., 2023. If it is true that further underscores the deterioration of law enforcement. The predicament of a once powerful cop on whose behalf the previous President went to the extent of clashing with even the judiciary stresses the responsibility on the part of all parties to exercise caution.