Cardinal’s battle

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His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has once again demanded that the recommendations of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI), which probed the Easter Sunday terror attacks be fully implemented. The PCoI has not revealed the mastermind behind the carnage; it has only cursorily dealt with the alleged foreign involvement in the attacks. However, those who are seeking justice for the families of the terror victims have been left with no alternative but to call for the implementation of the PCOI recommendations, while demanding a thorough probe. This is what the Cardinal and others have been doing.

Two and a half years have elapsed since the Easter Sunday killings, and it was nine months ago that the PCoI report was handed over to the Attorney General (AG) for carrying out its recommendations. The Cardinal has said that in March, the then AG met him and promised to study the PCoI report and initiate legal action thereafter. But the recommendations have been implemented only selectively.

One cannot but endorse the Cardinal’s call. Why the government has not had the PCoI recommendations implemented fully defies comprehension. The reason may be that the PCoI has recommended that criminal proceedings be instituted against the then President Maithripala Sirisena, who is now a government MP. The Commission has said it is of the view that there is criminal liability on Sirisena’s part. Its report specifically states: “The CoI recommends that the Attorney General consider instituting criminal proceedings against President Sirisena under any suitable provisions in the Penal Code.”

One of the main promises the present-day rulers made before the 2019 presidential election was to conduct a thorough probe into the Easter Sunday carnage and bring those responsible for it to justice. But this pledge remains unfulfilled. The Cardinal is asking for access to the entire PCoI report, which consists of 22 documents including five volumes. Only Volume One has been released; it may look self-contained, but one has to peruse all documents to get a better understanding thereof. Why the Cardinal’s request cannot be granted is the question.

One may recall that initially the government refused to hand over the entire report even to the AG, citing various reasons, and we had to point out that the PCoI wanted the whole set of documents handed over to the AG. Its report says: “The COI recommends that Your Excellency the President transmit a complete set of the Report to the Attorney General to consider institution of criminal proceedings against persons alleged to have committed the said offences.”

It may be politically difficult for the government to implement all PCoI recommendations, given that former President Sirisena’s SLFP is a coalition partner of the ruling SLPP. But that is no reason why it should refrain from allowing legal action to be taken against him. Criminal proceedings have already been instituted against former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando and former IGP Pujith Jayasundera. Sirisena should not be spared simply because he is a government MP and his party has 14 members in the SLPP parliamentary group.

The SLFP is bound to react aggressively if its leader is prosecuted, and the government might even suffer a split, but that should not be allowed to stand in the way of the full implementation of the PCoI recommendations. The government is duty bound to make good on its promise, which helped it muster a lot of votes at the last presidential election held a few months after the Easter Sunday attacks, and at the last parliamentary polls.

The Cardinal did not mince his words when he said, at St. Anthony’s Church, yesterday, that he did not think it was possible to have the PCoI recommendations fully implemented under the present administration. It is only natural that the government is seen to be a party to a grand cover-up.

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