The government is overlooking the Matale mass grave, says JVP

2013-06-25 

Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) alleged that the government is trying to evade taking action on the Matale mass grave, by diverting public attention towards the appointment of a Presidential Commission to carry out investigations on the issue.

In a media statement, the JVP pointed out that the President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed the Presidential Commission for the mass grave investigation, when an inquiry is already in progress at the Matale Magistrate Court.

"The government did not want to appoint any commission prior to this; they were trying to get away with the statement that the skeletons found in the mass grave belonged to various time periods. However, the situation is totally different now. Medical officers revealed that the skeletons belong to the period of 1987-89 and many people have filled petitions claiming that the skeletons found are the remains of their relatives. Additionally, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) extended their support to the petitioners. Given the nature of the circumstances, the sudden appointment of a presidential commission is very suspicious," the JVP statement said.

JVP also pointed out that in 1995 too, a presidential commission was appointed by the former president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga to investigate on missing people and abductions during 1988-89 period, but none of the recommendations of that committee were implemented.

The 1995 committee was headed by T. Sundaralingam and it was appointed to probe into disappearances and abductions in the Central, North Western, Uva and the North Central provinces. The commission started investigations in March 1995 and it inquired into about 775 cases, of which 225 inquiries were in regard to the Central Province.

The committee report revealed that some powerful politicians, police and army personnel were responsible for these cases of missing people and abductions.

Among the recommendations of the committee, are the conducting of impartial investigations by a special team on abductions and disappearances, taking action against those who were named as responsible for these losses, compensating families who lost their relatives due to these abductions, and issuing death certificates for those who have gone missing.

JVP urges the government to take action against those who were identified as being responsible for these crimes by 1995 presidential committee, instead of appointing another presidential committee to repeat the same task.

"We request the government to not to interfere with the work of the judiciary regarding the Matale mass grave by appointing presidential commissions. The government just needs to focus on implementing the recommendations of the previous presidential committee," the statement reiterated.

Lankan Military officers withdrawn from India

Two officers who were following the Defence Services Staff Course (DSSC) in Wellington, India returned to the island prematurely. 

Due to some security concerns the Indian Government had offered to transfer these two officers from DSSC Wellington to Higher Defence Management Course (HDMC) in the College of Defence Management, Secundrabad. Higher Defence Management Course normally followed by senior officers in the rank of Colonel is a higher course in scope. 

The Sri Lankan authorities whilst appreciating this offer kindly declined as it was observed that the HDMC was not in line with the initial purpose of sending these two officers for training in India. 

Moreover, a higher course with an entirely different scope would neither benefit the officers nor the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in immediate future employment of these officers.  Hence, the Sri Lankan Government made a request to withdraw the two officers from DSSC course and accordingly they returned to the island this morning (25 June 2013).

Further, it is reiterated that this withdrawal does not in any way hamper the growing relationship and training partnership between the Armed Forces of India and Sri Lanka.

The Indian Armed Forces are key partners in professional career development of Officers, soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Sri Lanka Armed Forces.  This valuable training engagement has a history of over 4 decades and has seen progressive improvement in the recent past.  There have been difficulties in training Sri Lankan military personnel in some training facilities in India. (Info Dept)