The Batalanda Commission was established to investigate allegations of unlawful detention, torture, and extrajudicial killings at the Batalanda Housing Scheme in Sri Lanka between 1988 and 1990, during the JVP insurgency.
The Batalanda report resurfaced recently following former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s interview with Al Jazeera, where he was questioned about the torture allegations.
Leader of the House Bimal Rathnayake, tabling the report in Parliament today, noted that despite its significance, the Batalanda report had never been presented in Parliament since its completion decades ago.
“As the main accused revealed during the Al Jazeera interview, it was never tabled in Parliament” he said.
Commissioned by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, the inquiry focused on human rights violations in an unofficial government detention centre. The Commission, chaired by Justice D. Jayawickrama with N.E. Dissanayake, was appointed by a presidential warrant in 1995. The tenure of the Commission was extended on multiple occasions.
“A final Batalanda Commision report and relevant material was handed over to the Director of the National Archives in 1998, May 20th,” Rathanayake revealed in Parliament.
Upon instructions of President Kumaratunga, 750 printed copies of the report including Sinhala and Tamil copies had been printed, he added.
“The astounding fact is that not one of the 750 printed copies were forwarded to the Attorney General. Therefore those who called for this report not only failed to implement the recommendations, but merely used it as a political tool during elections,” Rathnayake charged.
“It is evident that the report should have been handed over to then-President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga before May 1998. However, the reason she did not forward a copy to the Attorney General was unclear at the time—but today, those reasons are clear as day,” Rathnayake said.
Minister Rathnayake said that the Cabinet and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake have decided to seek the Attorney General’s advice on the Batalanda Commission Report. (Newswire)
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