Courtesy The Morning

• Claims De Alwis comm. report found ‘severe collapse of Nat’l Intel. Service’ which the CoI report made no mention of 
• Claims De Alwis comm. report recommended legal action against Ravi Seneviratne, Pujitha Jayasundara, Nilantha Jayawardena, Nandana Munasinghe, Lalith Pathinayake & Abdul Latheef, & disciplinary action against Deshabandu Thennakoon 
• Says Col. Archbishop’s claims against him are baseless 

Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe requested all parties to refrain from politicising the reports related to the Easter Sunday terror attacks. 

Issuing a special statement regarding the same, he noted that during his tenure, requests had been made to look into the revelations (that certain local intelligence officials were complicit in the attacks) that were aired on Channel 4, following which he had appointed a three member committee (led by retired Supreme Court Judge S. Imam, former Air Force Commander, Chief Air Marshal Jayalath Weerakkodi and President’s Counsel Harsha Soza). In addition, another three-member committee (led by retired High Court Judge A.M.J. De Alwis, W.M.A.N. Nishan and K.N.K. Somaratne) was appointed with the objective of looking into the steps that were taken when the Indian Intelligence Service informed local intelligence services about a potential terrorist attack and whether the measures taken were sufficient. The latter committee also inquired into the State Intelligence Service and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) announcing that the two Police officers killed in Vavunathivu were killed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and maintaining such as the official stance for four months. None of the people appointed to these committees are people I know personally”.

He claimed that he had handed over the Easter Sunday attacks Commission (Commission of Inquiry [CoI]) report to the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Harold Anthony Fernando, at the latter’s request. After that, the Conference had a number of clarifications, and those that were presented to him, according to him, were forwarded to the Attorney General. They were also instructed to discuss all related matters with the Conference, he claimed.

The De Alwis report was not prepared to take revenge on the then Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police (SDIG) affiliated to the CID and current Public Security Ministry Secretary, Ravi Seneviratne, nor the former Director of the CID, retired Senior Superintendent of Police and the current Director of the Criminal Intelligence Analysis and Prevention Division of the Police Shani Abeysekera. The report further recommended that all officers including former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundara, SDIGs Nilantha Jayawardena (on compulsory leave), Nandana Munasinghe, Lalith Pathinayake, Abdul Latheef, and Seneviratne should have legal action taken against them regarding the Easter Sunday incident. The report has recommended that the IGP whose appointment has been temporarily suspended Deshabandu Thennakoon also face disciplinary action”. 

The observations related to the killing of the two Police officers in the Vavunathivu area mentioned in the report are also very important. It was first announced that remnants of the LTTE carried out the killings. As a result, Thambirasa Kumar and Rasanayagam Sarvanandan were arrested. When the annexes of the report are examined, many contradictory facts are revealed. In one of the reports of the intelligence agencies, it is mentioned that Sivaneshthurai Chandrakanth alias Pillayan, who was in jail at that time, was behind this incident. Another related intelligence agency report also stated that the husband of a woman who allegedly had an affair with a Police officer named Ganesh who died in Vavunathivu was killed. The Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) has stated that the reason why it took four months for the intelligence agencies to trace the activities of the National Thauhid Jamaat (NTJ) was because the national intelligence agencies did not have a formal network for obtaining information. Although the Indian intelligence, which has a foreign intelligence service, had a strong information network in this area, a severe collapse can be seen in the operation of the Sri Lankan intelligence in this regard. It is unfortunate that we don’t have a strong intelligence network. This is a big threat to the security of the country”. 

My aim was to obtain the response of the Conference and appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) to look into the collapse of the intelligence services during the Easter Sunday attacks. A collapse of the National Intelligence Service poses a great threat to the country’s national security. I had also intended to appoint a PSC and then submit its report to a three-member committee of senior officers and experts to propose a complete reorganisation of the intelligence agencies. The Easter Sunday Presidential Commission report made no mention of the severe collapse of the National Intelligence Service”.

The De Alwis report came into my hands during the last Presidential Election, but, due to my reluctance to connect the Easter Sunday attacks to politics, I didn’t make those reports public. All the statements made by the Archbishop of Colombo regarding me are baseless”.