{"id":87516,"date":"2019-04-23T15:14:23","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T22:14:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=87516"},"modified":"2019-04-23T15:14:23","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T22:14:23","slug":"the-statement-made-by-opposition-leader-mahinda-rajapaksa-in-parliament-on-23-april-2019-regarding-the-easter-sunday-terrorist-attacks-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/23\/the-statement-made-by-opposition-leader-mahinda-rajapaksa-in-parliament-on-23-april-2019-regarding-the-easter-sunday-terrorist-attacks-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"The statement made by Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament on 23 April 2019 regarding the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks (Translation)"},"content":{"rendered":"

MEDIA RELEASE – Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Hon Speaker, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are gathered here today, to discuss the\nfuture of our country following the bomb attacks that took place on Easter\nSunday. More than 300 people were killed and more than 500 people were injured\nin those attacks. I wish to take this opportunity to once again convey my\nheartfelt condolences to the families of all those who have lost their lives\nand to wish those injured a speedy recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After we ended\nthe 30 year war on 19 May 2009, we all thought we had seen the last of such\nattacks. We were to mark the 10th<\/sup> anniversary of the ending of\nterrorism next month. Even during that 30 year war, no single attack carried\nout by the terrorists targeting civilians ever resulted in as much carnage as\nthe Easter Sunday attacks. The LTTE also carried out co-ordinated simultaneous\nattacks on multiple targets but even they were not able to wreak the same\namount of destruction. The Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka is said to be the\nbiggest single terrorist attack targeting civilians ever to take place in South\nAsia. So many people did not lose their lives even in the Mumbai attacks of\n2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This House has\nto look into the circumstances that enabled terrorism to once again raise its\nhead in this country with such virulence. In November 2005, when I became\nPresident for the first time, there was a nominal ceasefire in operation. But\nthe LTTE was carrying out attacks on a daily basis and killing two or three armed\nforces personnel in each attack. During that period a bomb attack on a bus\nresulted in a large number of civilian deaths. \nWhen I went to St Anthony\u2019s Church last Sunday following the attacks, I\nwas reminded of the Kebithogollewa incident. The people of that area expressed\na great deal resentment at our government over the Kebithogollewa incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people\nhave no use for a government that cannot assure them of the safety of their\nlives. In July 2006, we recommenced the war because the LTTE closed the\nMavilaru anicut and blocked the water supply to a large number of villages in\nthat area. It is the duty of the government to at the very minimum, to uphold the right of the\npeople to live and to create an environment where they will be able to go about\ntheir day to day lives. That is why we never looked back after recommencing the\nwar following the Mavilaru incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January\n2015, I handed over a completely secure and peaceful country to the new\nPresident. We had strengthened the intelligence services so that there would be\nabsolutely no threat to the national security of the country. Our intelligence\nservices worked closely with other intelligence services of neighbouring\ncountries and other international intelligence services to ensure the security of the\ncountry. Whenever we got wind of a threat to national security, we acted on it. The\nEaster Sunday attacks would never have taken place under our government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The present\ngovernment is squarely responsible for the terrorist attacks that took place\nlast Sunday. The police had issued early warnings of an impending attack.  However what action did the government take\nwith regard to those warnings? They never informed the Church leaders about\nthose warnings and neither did they provide extra security to the possible\ntargets. All that the leaders of the present government did was to ensure that\nthey themselves were nowhere near a possible target. On important occasion such\nas Easter, representatives of the government usually attend Mass, but this time\nthere were no such representatives in the Churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I went to\nthe scenes of the attacks on Sunday, one government minister said that the\nopposition is trying to make political capital of the situation. I must remind\nthem that I also visited Kebithigollewa in the same way in 2006. I am not\nspeaking here as someone spewing forth empty words but as the individual who\ngave leadership to the government that defeated the terrorists that no one\nthought could ever be defeated.   From\nthe moment this government came into power in January 2015, they have been\npersecuting the members of the armed forces and the intelligence services that ended\nthat war.  How many of our armed forces\npersonnel have they jailed over the past four years? How many times have they\nhauled former army commanders and commanders of the navy and airforce to the\nCID to be questioned?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our war time\ndefence secretary was relentlessly persecuted because he was my brother. They\nwere not able to imprison him due to the intervention of the courts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have told\nthis government on many occasions that this is not the armed forces of the\nRajapaksas but the armed forces and intelligence services of the Republic of\nSri Lanka. Regardless of which political party is in power, it is they who will\nhave to ensure the security of the nation. This government never understood the\npoint. Due to the political leadership that we gave them, our armed froces were\nable to win the war that was deemed unwinnable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The armed\nforces personnel who carried out their duties on behalf of the nation were harassed and\nhunted down by this government. The government should at least now realise that you cannot\nrun this country according to the dictates coming from foreign countries. We have\nto solve our own problems. The government was preparing to repeal the\nPrevention of Terrorism Act on the instructions of their foreign masters. If\nthat Act had been repealed, what kind of a position would we be in today? Because\nthe government was engaged in relenetlessly persecuting its own armed forces,\nwe became an easy target for terrorists. No other country in the world has\npersecuted and weakened their own armed forces and intelligence services in\nthis manner. Terrorists observe these things and plan accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday\nattacks did not take place due to the negligence of one or two officials.  We can now see that the government is\npreparing to sacrifice some official and wash their hands of the matter. This\nincident occurred because of the conduct of this government from the time they\ncame into power in January 2015. If anyone is to resign over these incidents,\nit should be the government. Despite the persecution that the intelligence\nservices had been subject to, they did obtain prior intelligence relating to\nthis attack and conveyed the information to certain quarters. But nothing\nhappened thereafter.  That warning had\nbeen sent to my security officers as well, but they did not keep me informed\nabout the threat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If I had known\nthat there was an imminent threat of this nature, I would have immediately\ninformed His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and also curtailed my own movements.\nInstructing officials on the manner in which they should conduct themselves in\nrelation to matters involving national security, is the task of the government.\nThat is what people\nelect governments for. The signal sent by this government to officials at all\nlevels is that national security is not important.That is the reason for all\nthis mayhem.  These incidents did not\noccur without warning. The recent destruction of Buddha statues in Mawanella,\nthe attempt on the life of a close supporter of a Muslim Minister from that\narea, the discovery of over 100 kilos of explosives from Puttlam, are all\nconnected. So this attack did not just come from the blues. Having received\ninformation that an attack can take place, all that the government did was to\nensure that they themselves were safe.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This terrorist\nattck is very different to similar attacks that took place during the 30 year\nwar. The terrorists of that time did not target foreigners because they had\npeople living in those countries and funding the terrorist campaign in Sri\nLanka. But this new terrorism targets locals as well as foreigners. That\nstrikes a death blow not only to the tourist industry but to foreign investment\nas well. This terrorism has to be conclusively defeated.  I request the government to halt the\npersecution of the armed forces at least now. The Council of Religions headed\nby the Ven. Ittepane Dammalankara Mahanayake Thera and His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has\nalso called upon the government to desist from weakening the intelligence\nservices further.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrests of\narmed forces and intelligence services personnel that took place after this\ngovernment came into power was very often not based on solid evidence. In order\nto please the yahapalana government the CID obtains statements from certain\npeople using various stratagems and then uses these statements to arrest members of\nthe armed forces and intelligence services. Some of these so called witnesses\nhave made special statements to Magistrates explaining how the CID obtained\nstatements from them implicating various people. Stop this filthy practice at least\nnow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the\nopposition, we will extend our fullest cooperation to the law enforcements\nauthorities and the armed forces to ensure national security. I request the\npeople not to take the law into their own hands and to extend their fullest\ncooperation to the law enforcement authorities and the armed forces to solve\nthis problem. We must remember that terrorists have no religion. The public needs more\ninformation about some matters and I would like to address the following\nquestions to the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. When did the SIS and the Security Concil first get to know of the organisation that is said to be behind these attacks?<\/strong><\/li>
  2. According to the information available to the government, since when has this organization taken to terrorism?<\/strong><\/li>
  3. What action was taken in respect of these reports?<\/strong><\/li>
  4. Who investigated the Wanathaviluawa incident where over 100 kilos of explosives were found?<\/strong><\/li>
  5. Who were the suspects arrested in this regard? Was this brought to the notice of the Security Council? If so when and by whom? What action was taken in this regard? <\/strong><\/li>
  6. How many persons were arrested in this regard? Who were they? How many of them sere produced in courts?\u00a0 How many were released? <\/strong><\/li>
  7. Were any of these suspects released at the request of any person? If so who was the person who made such a request?<\/strong><\/li>
  8. Was there an intelligence report of a threat to national security in the month of April? Was this brought to the notice of the Security Council? If so, when and by whom? Who attended the security council on that day? <\/strong><\/li>
  9. Has the involvement of a foreign party in these attacks been established? If so what is the foreign party involved?<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Thank you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    MEDIA RELEASE – Mahinda Rajapaksa Hon Speaker, We are gathered here today, to discuss the future of our country following the bomb attacks that took place on Easter Sunday. More than 300 people were killed and more than 500 people were injured in those attacks. I wish to take this opportunity to once again convey […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mahinda-rajapaksa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}