Britain’s Channel-4 aired a special documentary on Tuesday revealing some shocking details about the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka in 2019. This programme was based on the claims made by some whistleblowers who are presently living in Europe as asylum seekers. To find out the veracity of these claims, Daily News spoke to Professor Rohan Gunaratna, an international expert on terrorism who recently published a book titled Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Massacre.
Q. You must have seen the Channel 4 Video regarding the Easter Attacks. What is your overall view about it?
A. The documentary about Sri Lanka’s Easter Sunday Attacks is very controversial. The Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka’s Easter Attacks has the exact opposite effect in Sri Lanka. The view of Sri Lankans is that Channel 4 documentary is very selective in the people it interviewed. The principal allegations are made by Azad Maulana who is a former member of a breakaway faction of a terrorist group and by Nishantha Silva, a police officer who has left Sri Lanka. Only 1/3 of the documentary focuses on the Easter Attacks, although the title of the documentary is “Sri Lanka’s Easter Bombings – Dispatches”. Sri Lankans would wish that Channel 4 interviewed a wide range of people, rather than basing its story on two individuals who have subscribed to the conspiracy theory. However, whether we like it or not, the Channel 4 documentary will shape perceptions and narratives. In fact, the Channel 4 documentary has the power to shape perceptions and narratives. As such, I would propose the government to consider a four-step approach in responding to the Channel 4 documentary on Sri Lanka. The first to conduct a national investigation to determine the veracity of Azad Maulana’s allegation that General Suresh Salley met with Zahran Hashim in February of 2018. Azad Maulana also alleges that General Salley contacted him immediately after the attacks took place in April 2019. General Salley was serving in the Sri Lankan High Commission in Malaysia throughout 2018 and was a student at the National Defence College in India throughout 2019. The Malaysian immigration will be able to certify if General Salley was in Malaysia in February 2018. Similarly, the Indian Immigration will be able to certify if General Suresh Salley was in India in April 2019. If they are unable to verify the whereabouts of General Salley, then Scotland Yard should be invited by the Government of Sri Lanka to come and investigate the allegations made by the Channel Four documentary on the Easter Sunday Attack. Scotland Yard can also interview Azad Maulana and check his whereabouts to see whether he travelled to Vanathavillu for the alleged meeting in February 2018 and check call records to determine whether General Salley was in contact with him in February 2018 and April 2019.
The second is that the Sri Lankan government should invite Channel 4, the team that made the documentary to visit Sri Lanka. Because they have obviously not been to Sri Lanka and they do not have an understanding of Sri Lanka. They should interview a wide range of Sri Lankans rather than base their story on the narratives of two asylum seekers who are advocating a conspiracy theory. In Sri Lanka there is free media; people can say what they want, but a media outfit like Channel 4, should engage in a process of verification and validation of information. They should not be selective in getting their narrative and perception across. The third is General Suresh Salley should be granted permission to speak to the media and the public. Historically security and intelligence officers were always reluctant to speak their minds. But I believe that this is an exception because General Salley has personally been attacked. It is important to give him an opportunity to defend himself by telling the truth. Otherwise, people will have wrong perceptions. He has served both in Sri Lanka and overseas, and he is a highly respected and admired officer by the international intelligence community. He spent nearly five years in Europe, and nearly seven years overseas in various appointments. He is a highly decorated officer who has worked for four presidents – former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former President Sirisena and incumbent President Wickremesinghe. He is not politically driven. His key aim is to protect the Sri Lankan state. He has served Sri Lanka and he has served the nation. I believe he should be given an opportunity to set the record straight. The fourth is that Sri Lanka should have a law to protect the public from online falsehoods and manipulation. It is important that the government should ensure that there is an online safety bill. An anti-fake news bill to protect this generation and the next generation. Otherwise, we will have a generation of people who believe in online falsehoods and manipulations. I will give you one example. A taxi driver told me recently: “Sir the man who died in Shangri-La, he is Zahran’s double. The real Zahran is in India doing a heroin business.” I spoke to him at length and interviewed him. I asked him – “Who asked you to say this?” Then he said – “No sir these are the thoughts that come to my mind.” So people are saying what they want. It must be based on evidence. It must be based on investigation results. I believe it is high time for the government to develop a robust legal policy framework to protect the Sri Lankan population when it comes to online falsehoods and manipulations. If we don’t do this the Sri Lankan community will fragment along ethnic, religious and ideological lines and we will not have peace in this country. So the government should work on this bill. When Ali Sabry was Justice Minister, he crafted this bill, and I believe that the current Justice Minister, Dr. Wijayadasa Rajapakse should himself support this bill because it is important to protect the information space.
Q. Do you think that Maulana has been bought by Channel 4?
A. Azad Maulana is an asylum seeker. Based on the immigration services of the Western world, the applications of about 98% of the asylum seekers from Sri Lanka are based on falsifying the truth. Sinhalese, Tamils and now Muslims! So naturally whatever an asylum seeker says, the information should be verified and validated. So he should be investigated by Scotland Yard and other law enforcement authorities. This is because the allegations he has made against an officer of impeccable reputation are very serious. Those allegations should be treated as allegations until they are proven. I believe that even a Sri Lankan team of officers should go and interview Azad Maulana.
Before the documentary was aired General Suresh Salley wrote to the Channel Four documentary team that he was not in Sri Lanka but in Malaysia in 2018 and India in 2019. Did Channel Four make the effort that they are bound by their professional code of conduct to verify and validate the information provided by an asylum seeker? How much of the documentary was influenced by the conspiracy theory that is based on rumour, conjecture, and personal and political interests? In addition to addressing online falsehoods and manipulations, the Sri Lankan government should create strategic communication capabilities. When an attack of the scale, intensity and magnitude of the Easter Sunday Attacks takes place, weaknesses, gaps and loopholes will be exploited by those who have either political or personal interests to spread information that is inaccurate or information that is deliberately falsified. So in addition to having a robust legal policy framework, that will deter fake news, it will give the government the teeth to investigate and prosecute those who fabricate information. When there is information that is not true, governments should have the responsibility to set the record straight. Opinions are shaped by the media. Today we have mainstream media and social media. The government should have the capability to respond effectively to set the record straight. After the 9/11 attack on the United States, there were attacks all over the world. The Easter Sunday Attacks were a continuation of that trend. Religious fanatics attacking targets worldwide. The Easter Sunday Attacks is the world’s second worst international act of terrorism, in terms of the numbers that were killed, maimed and injured. The Easter Sunday Attack in Sri Lanka is now established as the second worst attack after the 9/11 attack on America. The Easter Sunday Attack is one of the most investigated attacks. Why do I say that? There are three fact-finding reports. One is the Presidential Commission inquiring into the Easter Sunday Attacks. Second is the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on National Security which provided a response framework for the Easter Sunday Attack. Third is a Select Committee of Parliament to look into and Report to Parliament on the Terrorist Attacks that took place in different places in Sri Lanka on 21st April 2019. Other than that, the Sri Lankan CID and the Counter Terrorism Division of the Sri Lankan Police investigated this attack. We also had more than a dozen foreign law enforcement agencies that came to Sri Lanka. They included the FBI, the leading law enforcement agency in the world. They interviewed the suspects and examined their phones and their laptops. They produced an indictment, and three members of Zahran’s group, the Islamic State Sri Lanka Branch, had been indicted in the United States. The Australian Federal Police had a MOU with the Sri Lankan police, and a team of their officers came and investigated the attack. The International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), visited the attack sites, examined the devices that were recovered and interviewed the suspects. So the Easter Sunday Attack was one of the most investigated attacks in the world.
Q. Why did they target Gotabaya Rajapaksa? Because he has no inclination to come back to politics?
A. Though the title of the documentary is Easter Attacks, only 1/3 of the BBC documentary is on the Easter Sunday Attacks. It is mostly an attack against former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. It is very clear to anyone reviewing this documentary that its objective is not to give a balanced view of what happened. For example, many incidents took place before the attack mounted by the Islamic State Sri Lanka branch led by Zahran. These were the Buddhist/Hindu/Christian statues that were broken in Mawanella. In Wanathawilluwa, an ISIS training camp was raided and a very significant amount of precursor material to make explosives was recovered. That was investigated by the CID. Before that, the National Thowheeth Jama’ath led by Zahran attacked the mainstream Muslims – the local and traditional Muslims known as the Sufi Muslims. So I think the Easter Sunday Attacks documentary by Channel 4, has not given comprehensive coverage of the attacks. It diverted and its objective was to present Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa as war criminals and implicate them in the Easter Sunday Attacks. There is an entire body of evidence that includes the three fact-finding reports, the investigative reports by the Sri Lankan and foreign law enforcement agencies, and Zahran’s own video where he says – “I am mounting this attack to please Allah”, and the video released officially by ISIS Amaq news agency where Abu Bakr al Baghdadi the then ISIS leader claims responsibility for the attacks.
The Sri Lankan military ended a 30-year civil war in 2009. Since then until 2019, there has been no terrorist attack except 16 attempts by the LTTE to revive. These attempts were disrupted by the Sri Lankan police and other government entities. Sri Lanka was totally at peace from 2009 to 2019. In 2019 Sri Lanka suffered the Easter Sunday Attacks. The Sri Lankan security forces had developed mastery of the physical battle space. It could fight in land, air and sea. But since 2009, the battle space has largely shifted to the information space. So the LTTE propaganda by its international network that had hitherto engaged in propaganda fundraising and procuring weapons, this international network of the LTTE has engaged largely in three types of activities now – lobbying, litigation and lawmaking. The LTTE international network is largely operating overseas trying to portray that there was a genocide in Sri Lanka and there were systematic atrocities and war crimes and human rights violations. But if you look at Sri Lanka, if at all there were systematic killings, it was by the LTTE. The LTTE expelled 72,000 Muslims or 14,400 Muslim families from the North to the South and tens of thousands of Muslims and Sinhalese ethnically cleansed from the East. But the LTTE network that engaged in supporting the terrorist campaign in Sri Lanka is today masquerading as human rights activists around the world. And they are applying sufficient pressure on media organizations and the UN. And it is high time for Sri Lanka to at least now, to create a foreign intelligence agency, because most of the threats are now coming from outside. Muslim extremism came to Sri Lanka from overseas. The government of Sri Lanka should expand Sri Lankan foreign service. We must double the strength of our foreign service officials. Sri Lanka should create a very powerful information service, like the Americans or what India has created to rebut these online falsehoods and manipulations. If we learn the right lessons from the Channel 4 documentary, then the government of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan citizens can build a stronger and better Sri Lanka, that is more secure and stable than ever before.
Q. Don’t you think that the video does not have a basis because in 2018, SLPP won a majority of the local government elections in the country? They were on a winning track. So, they had no reason to organize such an attack?
A. If you look at the election, the SLPP won the entire country in the 2018 LG election. Rajapaksas had no reason to orchestrate such an attack to win the presidential election in 2019. They won 231 local government bodies, and all the other political parties in Sri Lanka won only 107. So 231 from a total of 338. It very clearly demonstrated that there was absolutely no necessity for anyone to stage a terrorist attack to bring SLPP to power because the local government polls that were conducted before the Easter Sunday Attack clearly demonstrated that. Because the Sirisena/ Wickremesinghe government was very unpopular. There was absolutely no necessity for anyone to orchestrate the Easter Sunday Attacks. If anyone sees Zahran’s video and knows the violent incidents carried out by Muslim extremists that preceded the Easter Sunday Attacks and the global trend of attacks by Muslim extremist organizations, it is very clear that the Easter Sunday Attacks was not conducted by anyone connected with the government.
Ishara Jayawardane and Dinuli Francisco
