President Sirisena: Warning letter was never forwarded to me
The English translation of the speech made by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday after the Easter Sunday attacks on churches and hotels killing 253 people and injuring more than 500.
I urge the Sri Lankans not to look at all the Muslims as terrorists. I am not trying to take advantages of this situation, but I like to stress that there is a connection between religious extremism and drug trafficking.
Perhaps the attacks on the Easter Sunday on April 21 may have been expedited because my attention was directed against fighting the drug mafia in the country. It may not be a secret to you that the problems between me and the government had intensified during the past few months. The main reason for this is my opposition to the government’s efforts to weaken the intelligence network of our armed forces.
Many experienced officers had been taken into custody in the past few years. I have often spoken against such moves by the government. Some of our experienced intelligence officers have left the country during the last four years as the government said they could not be allowed to continue in their intelligence duties.
On April 4, one of our friendly countries had sent a detailed letter to the intelligence chief warning about the attacks. From April 4 to 12 this letter was tossed around here and there without being forwarded to me.
The national intelligence chief fulfilled his duties by forwarding the letter to the defence secretary who did not pay special attention to the letter and forwarded it to the chief intelligence officer with his observations made in the letter. Following the usual procedures the chief intelligence officer forwarded the letter to the Inspector General of Police. What was going around in circles was the detailed letter we received from the friendly country.
The IGP also entered his comments in the letter and forwarded it to five Deputy Inspector Generals. One is DIG Dassanayake who is in charge of VIP security. That DIG sent it to the officers in charge of the VIP security for the attention of the officers guarding the VIPs.
The defence secretary, the IGP and the four DIGs have failed to fulfill their official responsibilities.
The letter got tossed around from April 2 to 12. I went abroad on April 16. Neither the defence secretary nor the IGP informed me about the letter. I am not trying to use this as an alibi. I am telling you what really happened.
If someone called me even after I went to India and informed about this warning I would have stopped all my work and come back to attend to this serious matter. It would have taken only one hour for the journey. From India I went to Singapore to take a rest.
I was in Singapore for three days and was to fly back on April 21. On the same day morning I read about the attacks through social media while in Singapore. After about two hours a friend in Singapore showed the warning letter circulating on social media. It was a copy of the letter sent by DIG Dassanayake to the security officers in charge of the VIP security.
I am not trying to create an alibi and escape from my responsibilities but the government has to accept the blame for weakening the intelligence units by cracking down and jailing some senior intelligence officers in addition to effecting drastic cuts to armed forces. The government has to accept the full responsibility for this disaster.
The defence secretary and the IGP failed to fulfill their duties. At least they could have telephoned me about this letter. Both these officers came to meet me on April 14 to offer betel leaves to greet me for the Sinhala and Tamil New Year. They never uttered a word about the warning letter even at that moment. I stress that this tragedy has occurred due to the negligence of the IGP and defence secretary. Therefore, I asked both of them to resign before facing a disciplinary inquiry. The defence secretary has already resigned. I will appoint a new defence secretary and the IGP has said he will resign.
During the next four days we will summon the national security council for a meeting to discuss the effects of the attack and ways and means of containing violence.
The police, STF, CID and the armed forces are conducting investigations into attacks and have launched operations against the terrorists successfully. Up to now more than 70 people have been taken into custody. According to the information we have received so far only about 130 to 140 people are connected to this radical organisation. At the moment there are attempts to hunt down all these people and prosecute them.
Foreign professionals who have experience in dealing with the ISIS have arrived in Sri Lanka to conduct investigations along with our armed forces. With all these efforts I am sure we will be able to contain this group and their activities within a short time. We will deal with these terrorists accordingly, and restore peace in the country.
