Where are all the commission reports?

"What guarantee is there that Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission would be made public? It is already flawed in that except for a few witnesses who were in the midst of the war against the LTTE the others who are mainly ex-civil servants, a newspaper editor and a ‘terrorism expert’ did not present any evidence except opinions and recommendations."

by Pearl Thevanayagam

(October15, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) President Premadasa started Presidential Commissions of Inquiry with Kokkadicholai Commission inquiring into the massacre of 152 villagers in Kokadicholai, a village in Batticaloa, by the security forces in 1991. Months of daily sittings at the BMICH comprising learned judges and led by Justice Siva Selladurai the report never saw the light of day. The only places one can retrieve them are from the archives of newspaper publishing houses.

The second Presidential Commission of Inquiry was into the activities of NGOs by a seven member panel led by Justice Wasasundera in 1992/1993. This is perhaps the longest inquiry lasting 18 months. Although the government announced an interim report would be released no such report was forthcoming. EDS (Eye Donation Society), Sarvodaya, Assembly of God and several more NGOs were investigated and the panel found serious misappropriation of funds and proselytizing by some sections of the churches.

The director of EDS, the late Dr Hudson Silva, was transmitting funds for the EDS obtained from abroad into his son’s bank account in the US. Employees of Sarvodaya were given houses amounting to several lakhs of rupees from Sarvodaya funds. Churches bribed Hindus with land in return for becoming Christians and when they re-converted to their original Hindu faith their lands were reclaimed by the churches and these people were left homeless. The commission report was never made public.

The next one was the Batalanda Commission where Ranil Wickremasinghe covertly or overtly ran a torture chamber with the assistance of IP Douglas Peiris in Batalanda in Kadawatha area in on of the housing estates during the Black Cat swoop on JVPers in ‘89/90. The report was never released to the public.

The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into removals and disappearances in 1998 was also an eye-wash it suffered the same fate as the previous commissions of inquiry.
What guarantee is there that Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission would be made public? It is already flawed in that except for a few witnesses who were in the midst of the war against the LTTE the others who are mainly ex-civil servants, a newspaper editor and a ‘terrorism expert’ did not present any evidence except opinions and recommendations.

The panel itself was appointed by the President and it makes a mockery of natural justice is an insult to the intelligence of the public. The fact the three respected independent international human rights bodies, Amnesty International, International Crisis Group and Human Rights Watch refused to appear before this commission proves the government has absolutely no intention of investigating atrocities committed during the war with the LTTE. In fact it is mollycoddling LTTE combatants who conspired against the government and its people. Prof. G.L. Peiris is re-enacting a Pontius Pilate and finds this refusal of the human rights NGOs a golden opportunity to challenge and present his case ‘ look, we are being as transparent as possible; but they (the NGOs) would not co-operate. Now the ball is in their court’.

There is hope in hell before we see any report being made public.