Col R Hariharan
Sri Lanka Perspectives March
2025 | South Asia Security Trends, April 2025 | https://www.security-risks.com
President Anura Kumara
Dissanayake (AKD) completed six months in office in March. During the month the
first-ever Budget 2025 of the National Peoples Power (NPP) government, was
passed in Parliament by a thumping 159 votes in favour with 45 against it.
President AKD in his speech said “We have come to know of some things only now.
When I become president, I will receive a pension provided to an MP. That
means, in addition to the presidential salary, I will also receive the MP’s
pension. I gave a letter today saying that I do not want the MP’s pension. We
have to start fixing this country,” he added.
While such symbolic gestures
is likely to endear him to the masses, to the detriment of a few past
presidents, his government has much bigger problems to solve in the coming
months. These include taming the economy and overcome shortage in food supplies
that continue to plague the people.
President AKD also has the
thankless task of keeping the state afloat in the increasingly unpredictable
strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific, particularly after Donald Trump became
President of the US. In this context, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first ever
visit to Sri Lanka after President AKD assumed power, scheduled in the first
week of April 2025 assumes importance.
However, the Sri Lankan
government formally tabled the infamous Batalanda Commission Report in
Parliament, provoking once again discussions on the alleged torture chambers
and human rights violations that took place during the JVP insurrection in the1988–1990
period. President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga established a Commission
in 1995 to investigate the illegal detention, torture, assassinations, and
disappearances carried out by the law enforcing authorities at the Batalanda
Housing Scheme.
Though, the Commission
submitted the final report to President Kumaratunga in 1998, its
recommendations were never implemented. All these years, the families of
victims covered in the Report, continued their agitation demanding action
against the perpetrators of state terror.
Lack of follow up action on
Commission’s findings was perhaps the norm followed by political parties as the
reports of 35 other commissions also seem to have met with the same fate.
But the game changed with the
National Peoples Power (NPP) government in power. Minister Bimal Ratnayake, Leader
of the House, presented the Bathalanda report to Parliament. He said the report
was being forwarded to the Attorney General for legal action. He criticised the
United National Party (UNP) led government of 1977–1994, for what he called
state-sponsored crimes, including the maintenance of the Batalanda torture
chambers. He blamed the UNP- specifically for its crackdown on dissent and its
role in the July 1983 anti-Tamil pogrom as the part of pattern of repression it
had followed. The minister also accused President Kumaratunga’s government for
failing to take legal action after receiving the report. He assured President
Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government would not delay in follow action.
The tabling of the Batalanda
Commission Report comes after a controversial interview by former president
Ranil Wickremesinghe to Al Jazeera, where he faced tough questions on
accountability for human rights violations. During the interview, Wickremesinghe
was pressed on his record of impunity, his shielding of war criminals, and his
failure to address enforced disappearances. He denied that he was
complicit in the use of torture, illegal detention, and extrajudicial killings
at Batalanda housing complex. Wickremesinghe first denied the existence of the
report, before backtracking. He said “There is nothing to be found against me…
I am telling you there is no report.” However, it became awkward for Wickremesinghe
when the former BBC Sri Lanka correspondent Frances Harrison held up a copy of
the report during the interview. She said “It shows the impunity that he is
supporting. It’s absolutely shocking.”
As a follow up to the
disastrous interview, Wickremesinghe issued a statement on the report. He
recalled the turbulent period following the Indo-Lanka Accord, when the Janatha
Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) launched violent attacks across the country. As a
minister in President JR Jayawardane’s government, he was responsible for
protecting key economic sites in the Biyagama area, including an oil refinery,
a diesel power plant and the Mahaweli electricity supply centre. To facilitate
security operations, several abandoned houses belonging to the Ceylon
Fertilizer Manufacturing Company were allocated for the use of security forces at
the request of-Deputy Minister of Defence Ranjan Wijeratne. During this period,
several violent incidents occurred, including the assassination of a police officer-
and attacks on local political figures. The government focused on restoring
national security and rebuilding the economy.
He said President Chandrika
Kumaratunga was politically motivated to establish the Batalanda Commission in
1994 to tarnish reputations. Wickremesinghe maintained that he was called
before the commission only as a witness, as he was the Leader of the Opposition
at the time. The report did not make any direct allegations against him. He
rejected any suggestion of wrongdoing and dismissed the report’s credibility.
Denying the report was suppressed, Wickremesinghre pointed out that it was
presented in Parliament in 2000, but no party, including the JVP, requested a
debate on it.
The Commission, chaired by
Justice D Jayawickrama with N E Dissanayake as a member, investigated human
rights violations in an unofficial Government detention Centre in Batalanda
Housing complex. The 179-page Report provides a detailed account of
several individuals and their affiliation to the Police Department. It showed
how Douglas Pieris, one of the main suspects of the Batalanda torture camp was
promoted to the rank of ASP based on the duties carried out by him during
Subversive Insurgency. The terminologies used before the Commission included
terms like ‘justifiable homicides’. It also showed how the then Minister of
Industries Wickremesinghe instructed the Liquidator the State Fertilizer
Manufacturing Corporation to allocate some houses in the Batalanda Housing
Scheme to Police Officers. Witness testimonies showed the houses were used as
torture chambers and detention centres for unlawfully detaining and interrogating
individuals.
There are other issues
as well. Human rights activist Brito Fernando at a press briefing on behalf of
victims, appealed to the government to fill 257 vacancies in the Office on
Missing Persons (OMP). The OMP is vested with the task of investigating
disappeared persons. Currently it had only 27 staffers, he added.
Fernando also referred to the
mass grave discovered at the Matale Hospital with 155 skeletons. “We believe
that these incidents occurred during 1988-1990. This area came under the
purview of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as the military coordinating officer of the
Matale District during the second JVP insurrection between 1987 and 1990. The
Presidential Commission report indicates that 1041 persons went missing in this
area and 700 individuals went missing during his tenure. So, we believe that
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is responsible for the disappearances that happened in
Matale”.
The AKD government has promised
to take strong action on the Batalanda Commission Report with a special
committee to recommend further actions. Apart from some of the explosive
political issues discussed above the moot point is whether the NPP government
would like to remind the voters of JVP’s dark past before going for local
government elections in May 2025? Moreover, the government’s interest in
investigating allegations of human right violations against Batalanda House
perpetrators can trigger renewed international call to probe war crimes
committed against Tamil and forcible disappearances during the last phase of
Eelam War. It will be interesting to see how AKD is able to fulfil his promise
to ensure the perpetrators are brought to book.
Hollywood actor Alfred Newman
once said “crime does not pay as well as politics.” Reports of politician-criminal nexus in Sri
Lanka during the month seems to prove Newman’s altruism. Can AKD break this
nexus?
[Col
R Hariharan VSM, a retired MI specialist on South Asia and terrorism, served as
the head of intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka
1987-90. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies. Email: haridirect@gmail.com,
Website: https://col.hariharan.info]