• Sajith irked by referencing being supervised by P'ment Secy. Gen.

The main Parliamentary Opposition Party, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) demanded the disclosure of the facts included in the second volume of the report prepared by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the Easter Sunday attacks.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday (19) – on the eve of an adjournment debate on the Channel 4 documentary revelations related to the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, scheduled for tomorrow (21) and 22 September – Opposition and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa said that his Parliamentary privileges had been violated by Parliament staff on account of his not being issued the important parts of Volume 2 of the report prepared by the CoI despite having requested the same on several occasions in Parliament.

He said that the incumbent Government is also continuing the order given by the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to not issue Parts 2 and 3 of Volume 2 of the said report, but for the same only to be used for Parliamentary library reference under the supervision of the Parliamentary Secretary General. “The first volume of the report was given to all Parliamentarians the very first time it was published. But parts two and three of the second volume were not published and a print of the same cannot be issued to anyone as per an order given by Rajapaksa. These parts are very important. Therefore, we as MPs have a right to study those parts. It is in the Parliamentary library but we cannot have a printed version. Even though we can refer it, it should be done under the supervision of the Parliamentary Secretary General. Should the Opposition Leader work according to the instructions of the Secretary General?” he queried.

Premadasa also stated that the aforementioned parts must be given to all MPs, and that it is important for the debate on the revelations made by the controversial Channel 4 documentary titled Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings: Dispatches. “These parts must be given to all 225 MPs since we have privileges to know what those parts contain. How can we debate the matters revealed by the said documentary without having an understanding about what is included in the CoI report,” he questioned.

In response to the matter, the Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana said that the parts in question could not be published since they contained sensitive information relating to national security, but that anyone who wishes to refer to them could go to the library and do so under the supervision of the Parliamentary Secretary General.