{"id":88022,"date":"2019-04-30T17:05:04","date_gmt":"2019-05-01T00:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=88022"},"modified":"2019-04-30T17:05:04","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T00:05:04","slug":"easter-blasts-and-its-aftermath-part-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/04\/30\/easter-blasts-and-its-aftermath-part-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"Easter blasts and its Aftermath \u2013 Part IV"},"content":{"rendered":"

By ; A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The foreign servile Ranil Wickremesinghe has acknowledged in an\ninterview with Susan Ormisten of the CBC News when he was asked as to why, as\nprime minister, he did not known about repeated serious warnings, he has  accepted accountability and said: My being\naware is separate from the fact that the security system had failed to\nimplement it \u2014 some of them didn\u2019t take it seriously (his usual habit of evading responsibility and blaming others) <\/strong>and\nhas shamelessly said that government machinery was faulty and warnings from\nintelligence agencies were not implemented before the Easter Sunday attacks  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wickremesinghe said that for the next few days or weeks, he\nworries most is that one of those individuals may not turn up in\nsurveillance inquiries or isn\u2019t detained before acting independently may commit\nsuicide by blasting himself in public.\n(an absurf statement and a deliberate attempt to incriminate the dedicated\nsecurity services personnel who are carrying out a dedicated service round the\nclock under immense threat to their own life. \nWhere on earth, the terrorist suspects or potential terrorist\nvoluntarily turns up to get himself subjected to surveillance? It is shame to\nfind this kind of an imbecile functioning as the Prime Minister of our\ncountry)\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interviewer said that Sri Lankan security officials warned\nlawmakers on 4th<\/sup> April almost two weeks before the attacks and asked\nwhy these warnings were ignored by the government and kept only the Christians\nof the government inform therebypreventing them getting caught in the carnage?\nEvading direct response to the question, Mr. Wickremasinghe said that in future\nthey have to put into effective measures to ensure it doesn\u2019t happen again,\nthat information comes to be acted upon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 But pressed as to why, as prime\nminister, he did not know about repeated serious warnings, he accepted\naccountability and acknowledge  the fact\nthat the government machinery was faulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dSri Lankan Archbishop Cardinal Dr.Malcolm Ranjith criticized top\nleaders in government for feuding during the crisis. He said that at a time\nwhen the whole country has been affected by a major catastrophe, politicians\nshould stop finding fault with each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The economic impact of the attacks could cripple the tourism industry\n\u2014 at least for awhile.Sri Lanka\u2019s Tourism Bureau has warned that tourist\narrivals in Colombo could drop by 50 per cent over the next two months, and with\n30 per cent fewer travellers predicted according to chairman Kishu Gomes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the prime minister who has ruined the economy of the country for\nthe last 4 years, despite claims made by him and his butterfly cabal (including\nthose holding commercially acquired Doctorates)   that he is an economic wizard, predicted a\nsmaller impact in the long-term. In another bluffing he claimed that Sri Lanka\nis in its low tourist season now.  If\nthat was true why he ans his butterflies claimed two weeks before that there is\na steep increase in high end tourist arrivals?.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a photograph published by the CBC News damage from the blast\nsurrounding a statue of St. Jude at St. Sebastian\u2019s Church in Negombo has\nkilled ore than 100 around this statue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is shameful and disgusting to note that this sadist\nPrime Minister has said that there was no significant community backlash\ncausing more violence in the critical first three days after the attacks. It\nmay be one of the reasoms that he was hiding for those three days like his\nuncle after black        July.   Uttering another blatant lie he has said\nthat it was terrible when the civil war (it\nwas not a civil war but over three decades of terrorist aggression, shamrlessly\nattempting to distort the truth for which he has gained notoriety<\/strong>) ended in\n2009. It   seems that this idiotic Prime\nMinister edo not know what happened in the country after our gallant soldiers\nvanquished the terrorists.  19TH<\/sup>\nMay 2009 was the Deepavali of Sri Lanka in which people of the country devoid\nof party, colour, religious, and ethnic differences celebrated distributing sweets\nand kiribath, holding motor vehicle parades and many expressing their gratitude\nto Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa for ending terrorism by prostrating before him.  He was almost considered as a diety by the\npeople with the song of Maharajanani played in full blast in the background. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Renember Mr. Wickremasinghe that you will never achieve a\nstatus like this even if you rule the country for the next 100 yearsand you\nwill only be considered as DDon Juan Dharmapala. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Ranil Wickremasinghe shamelesslt claim that our intelligence is\nnot capable of dealing with what he calls the globalterrorism and the country\nneeds international spies to face the current situation the former President\nand the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa has thanked India for the\nhelp in uncovering the extremist plot but has said  that Sri Lanka does not want any foreign\nforces, like the Indian National Security Guard, on its soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\n“India has been helpful. But there is no need for the NSG to come in. We\ndon\u2019t need foreign soldiers. Our forces are capable enough\u2026 We just need to\ngive them powers and freedom,” he has told News18 in an exclusive\ninterview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

His reaction came after a government official told CNN-News18 that the\nelite force has been kept on standby if the island nation needed any\nhelp. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nThe former president, who was involved in a soft coup attempt last year,\nblasted the government and said both President Maithripala Sirisena, who is\nalso the minister of defense and in charge of national police, and Prime\nMinister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been kept out of high-level security\nmeetings since Sirisena tried to oust him last fall, were responsible for the\nseries of blasts in which over 300 people were killed on Easter Sunday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\n“They are busy playing politics at the cost of national security. Everyone\nknew about the growth of radicalism. They were worried about votes and their\nvote bank and did not act,” Rajapaksa told News18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nNews 18 saif that Elections to pick a new president are due between October and\nDecember and Rajapaksa has started targeting Sirisena and his Wickremesinghe\nfor failing to preserve the hard-fought peace that he helped to bring by\ncrushing the Tamil Tiger separatists. Although Rajapaksa cannot contest for\npresident again, his brother Gotabaya is ready to make a bid, his aide has\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nIndia has said that it had shared very specific intelligence inputs about the\nIslamic State\u2019s plans of the bombings, but the warnings had remained\nunheeded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nTop officials have acknowledged that some of the intelligence units were given\nadvance notice about the attacks \u2014 starting weeks ago and up until the morning\nof the bombings \u2014 but that little was done to prevent them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nN 18 ai  that the country\u2019s police chief\nPujith Jayasundara and defense secretary Hemasiri Fernando have both have been\nasked to resign over their failure to prevent the blasts despite having prior\nintelligence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a tweet, PM Wickremesinghe said, “We take collective\nresponsibility and apologize to our fellow citizens for our failure to protect\nvictims of these tragic events.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Rajapaksa also dismissed the PM\u2019s view that no\naction could be taken against citizens who had left to join the Islamic State.\n“The existing laws are good enough to act against those with terror\nlinks,” he argued. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PM Wickremesinghe said that the government had known that Sri Lankan\nnationals who had joined the Islamic State had returned to the country, but\nthey could not be arrested as joining a foreign terrorist organization is not\nagainst the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the Easter terror\nattacks on three Catholic churches and three luxury hotels that claimed over\n300 lives but the government has blamed a local Islamist extremist group\nNational Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) for the bombings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report published by tr Island said that Archbishop of Colombo Dr.Malcolm\nCardinal Ranjith has told the government, in no uncertain terms, that he is\nutterly displeased with the security measures adopted since the Easter Sunday\nattacks. He has urged the government to ensure that the armed forces and police\nwent beyond merely acting on tip-offs. He has struck a responsive chord with\nthe public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island said rhat one cannot but endorse the prelate\u2019s call for the\ngovernment to pull all stops to remove the scourge of terror. Schools and\nplaces of worship cannot remain closed for fear of terror attacks an it is the\nbounden duty of the government to ensure public safety. The country was not\ncrippled in this manner even during the height of war. It is in this predicament\nbecause national security did not figure high on the yahapalana agenda. Shaken\nawake by the Easter Sunday bombings, the government is now running around like\na headless chicken. The police and the armed forces have been allowed to do\nwhat they should have been ordered to carry out long before the Easter tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IGP Pujitha Jayasundara has been sent on compulsory leave over the\nEaster Sunday incidents which the police failed to prevent in spite of\nintelligence warnings. Secretary of Defence Hemasiri Fernando was made to\nresign within a few days of the bombings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Terrorists only have to be lucky once, and their targets have to be\nlucky always, as the IRA told Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, having failed\nto kill her. This country suffered a countless number of terror attacks, for\nnearly three decades, many in the city and its suburbs, while Prabhakaran was\naround. Thousands of people perished in them. Terrorists killed one President,\nin 1993, and another came very close to being blown to smithereens, six years\nlater. The Army Headquarters was bombed and the then Army Commander Lt. Gen.\nSarath Fonseka seriously injured. But the Easter Sunday blasts were different\nin that they could have been averted as the government had been sufficiently\nwarned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Islabd report askrf is it only the IGP and the Defence Secretary who\nshould take the blame for security lapse and queried what about the political\ngrandees who did not care to take any action though it was brought to their\nnotice, in Parliament, way back in 2016, that several Sri Lankan families,\ntrained by the ISIS had returned home? When the then Justice Minister Dr.\nWijeyadasa Rajapakse made that revelation, he drew heavy flak from the\ngovernment MPs themselves,  . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The President and the PM claim they were not aware of the pre-Easter\nintelligence warning. So does Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa. Try as they\nmight, they won\u2019t be able to dupe the public into taking their claims\nseriously. The intelligence document, containing the warning, at issue, had been\ncopied to all VVIP security divisions as a leaked image thereof shows. Some\nmembers of the Cabinet have admitted they had been aware of the danger well in\nadvance. Are we to conclude that the President, the PM and the Opposition\nLeader are less informed than others the report asked.  It pointed out that the  PM has claimed that there are no laws to deal\nwith Sri Lankans who have joined foreign terrorist groups. Some legal experts\nhave pooh-poohed this claim, arguing that the existing laws are sufficient for\naction to be taken against them. Even if there had been a lacuna in the\ncountry\u2019s laws, remedial measures should have been adopted as a national\npriority to arrest the terror suspects concerned. New laws could have been\npassed immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reports also pointed out that the 19th Amendment was passed in\nrecord time at the behest of the UNP. The FCID (Financial Crimes Investigation\nDivision) was set up almost overnight to deal with the rivals of the yahapalana\ngovernment, which dragged its feet on matters concerning national security and\nsaid that Cardinal Ranjith has proved that he is a much better leader than the\nself-proclaimed ones who are making a lot of noise in politics. In the\nimmediate aftermath of the terror attacks, he intervened to defuse tension and\nensure that the public acted with restraint despite the sheer magnitude of the\ndisaster. He was, of course, assisted by other religious leaders in the noble\ntask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Island emphasized let the government be urged to heed the Cardinal\u2019s\nwarning that the people\u2019s patience is wearing thin and their anger might spill\nover into the streets unless the situation is brought under control and the\nremaining terrorists brought to justice forthwith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nbelow is a translation of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) proposals\nsubmitted by Mr. Mahinhxda Rajapaksa at the All Party Conference inParliamrnt\non 25th<\/sup> April. (courtesy Lanka CNews)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) extend our gratitude for calling\nan all party conference to discuss the situation that has arisen following the\nterrorists on the Easter Sunday and for inviting our party to attend this\nconference. We hereby submit our proposals relating to the terrorist attacks,\nthe situation that led to these attacks, the after effects of the attacks, about\nthe steps that need to be taken to ensure and strengthen national security and\nreconciliation among all communities while expressing our whole hearted\nreadiness to extend our unhesitant and fullest cooperation for the future\nmeasures.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our vision as the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is our sole expectation to build the modern  Sri Lankan nation in which all Sinhala,\nTamil, Muslin, Malay and Burgher could communities could live freely and\nharmoniously upholding theit cultural identity and with religious and ethnic\nfreedom and reconciliation. All other rights in the human society come only\nafter the right to live. Therefore there can be nothing above the national\nsecurity. It is only within a secured society that all matters relating to ethnic\ncooperation and religious reconciliation that take place. The reconciliation\nremains within the common factor of national security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the recent past an attitude showinh that there is a contradiction\nbetween national security and national reconciliation, socialized from top to\nbottom. This attitude showed the opinion that showing interest on national\nsecurity is tantamount togo against national reconciliation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is like an unscientific expression saying that breathing is injurious\nto the heart. This condition knowingly or unknowingly and directly or\nindirectedly contributed to this massive tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we urge for is to place the national security in its due place. To\ngive its due place to the national security. To entrust the task of managing\nthe national security to                       \nqualified professionals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We did observe a sever collapse in the National Security Council and the\nin the institutions in charge of national security.  Immediately restructure these institutions on\na scientific basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a well known fact that the State Intelligence services are being\nsubjected to abhorrent suppression.  Due\nto this factor the State Intelligence services have become ineffective. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We emphatically request to immediately understand the importance of a\nState Intelligence service for the prevalence of a State and activate the State\nIntelligence service which has been inactivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is only after proper scientific filtering that information collected\nbecomes usable data <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not gossips that data collected by a State Intelligence\nservice..  When we analyse the recent\nevents it becomes clear that State Intelligence data has not even received the\nimportance given to a normal goddip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is no use of obtaining medicine if you do not consume it.  It is the prime responsibility of those who\nare in charge to utilize the State Intelligence properly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government should immediately analyse on steps to be taken er a\nnational disaster.In this instance civil and leaders and the general public\ndisplayed a verty progressive behaviour. They were very much ahead of the\nresponsible authorities.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At this moment as there is a possibility of creating hatred on Sei Lanka\nMuslims and a conspiracy to shatter national unity as it was done after Black\nJuly it is the bounden duty and responsibility of the government to enhaance\nsecurity for all communities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We respectfully bow down our heads in gratitude to the neighbours who\nrushed to assisy and help the victims, the staff of hospitals, officers of the\nsecurity forces, to all disaster management services . and to the public who\ncame forwatd to provide material and physical help d assistance.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka Podejana Peramuna (SLPP).  <\/strong>…<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(To be copntinued)  .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ; A.A.M.NIZAM \u2013 MATARA The foreign servile Ranil Wickremesinghe has acknowledged in an interview with Susan Ormisten of the CBC News when he was asked as to why, as prime minister, he did not known about repeated serious warnings, he has  accepted accountability and said: My being aware is separate from the fact that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aamnizam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88022","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=88022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88022\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}