Law and disorder in Sri Lanka

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]