President to appoint probe Commission Matale mass grave -JVP also wants govt. to release 1995 report on all extra judicial killings
Posted on April 7th, 2013
ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ By Ravi Ladduwahetty Courtesy The Island
April 7, 2013, 10:03 pm
Following the discovery of a mass grave near the Matale hospital and the controversy surrounding it, President Mahinda Rajapaksa has decided to appoint a commission to probe it.
Presidential Spokesman Mohan Samaranayake told The Island yesterday that the President would appoint the Commission this week. He said the PresidentƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s decision follows the last NovemberƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s discovery of 154 skeletal remains from the Matale grave. “The President has decided to appoint a Special Presidential Commission regarding this all-important matter and he informed me of his decision this morning,” Samaranayake said.
Police inspecting the grave. File photo
Tests conducted so far have revealed that the grave dates back to the 1986-1990 period.Meanwhile, JVP Parliamentary Group Leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake told The Island yesterday that the commission to be appointed should function independently free from political interference. He said that two commission reports had been submitted to the Chandrika Kumaratunga government in 1995 on a number of mass graves but their findings had not been disclosed to the public. He urged the incumbent government to reveal them so that the commission the president had promised could use those data.
MP Dissanayake added that the public had lost faith in Presidential Commissions of Inquiry and it was up to the government to conduct a thorough probe and restore public confidence in presidential investigations.
Meanwhile, Leader of the House and IrrigationƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Minister Nimal SiripalaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ de SilvaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ was quoted by The Island edition on Saturday that it was President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the Defence Minister, who shouldƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ initiate such a probe and that the matter had not been even taken up at Cabinet level as of last Friday
Meanwhile, President Ranasinghe PremadasaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s son and Hambantota District UNP MP Sajith PremadasaƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ told The Island on Saturday that all extra judicial killings should be probed.
Ideally, extra judicial killings should be probed from the time of the April 1971 insurrectionƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ until now, whether they were committed by the SLFP, UNP, JVP, LTTEƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ or any other party,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ he said.
April 7th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
JVP has forgotten they were in BED with their killers in January 2010!!
April 8th, 2013 at 3:05 am
President has to appoint a commission not only to Matale mass grave but to Battalanda and other killing fields during 89/90.
It is a well known fact that in 1987- 1990 U.N.P and J.V.P both parties massacred political opponents non second to any. Roughly 60,000 Sinhala youth and 900 Bhikkus killed by Premadasa, Ranjan Wijeratene and Ranil Wickremasinghe gang. In Sri Lanka’s history this is the highest number of Bhikkus killed by any leader. Champions are 3Rs. (Ranasinghe P, Ranjan W and Ranil W)
Both party secretaries were in laws. U.N.P secretary general was Sirisena Cooray and his brother in law was J.V.P’s secretary Somawansa Amarasinghe. But at the end of the power struggle J.V.P defeated.
Few only knew how Somawansa managed to go to U.K as a political refugee. This was also a debatable and highly suspicious story and many rumours on it. He said he went to U.K via India. But being the secretary of the party who were anti Indian and ordered others to boycott even Dhal and Onion can go to India when RAW was very active?
Who gave the information of Wijeweera and Gamanayake also suspicious? When in the situation where entire political bureau and central committee killed and only one survived also a suspicious? Presidential commission has to solve these unsolved too.
No doubt Premadasa, Ranjan Wijeratene, Ranil (Batalanda), John A, Festus Perera, Piyasiri (Matara) Aluvihare (Matale) and Udugampola were leading killers. Even Wicramabahu were in PRAA killer gang.
The Presidential commission must investigate the past activities and involvements during 1989/90 era of Ranil, John, Jayawicrema Perera, Joseph Michel, Wickramabahu, Somawansa, Tilwin, Wijitha Herath and Premakumaran Gunaratnam.
April 8th, 2013 at 4:14 am
Now Soma is trying to escape back to UK!
But the elimination of Wijeweera was the best achievement. Had he survived a few more thousand Sinhalese would have been killed. JVP should have attacked “LTTE” terrorists. Then their deaths would have been worthwhile.
April 8th, 2013 at 7:01 am
Time to bring all that happened out of the closets. Time to examine what happened, what went wrong, and forgive and forget.
This wound has to heal if the country is to move forward.
It was the Sinhala/Buddhist people of Lanka who got caught up in the Cold War politics of the 1970-1980s era – never let that happen again. It is always mainly the Sinhala/Buddhist people who get killed in thousands in other peoples wars. Never let that happen again.