Sri Lanka’s hoodwinking commissions

The Batalanda Commission report invites us to delve into the tales of many commissions of inquiry

The “Commission of Inquiry into the Establishment and maintenance of Places of Unlawful Detention and Torture Chambers at the Batalanda Housing Scheme,” commonly known as Batalanda Commission is making headlines these days, eclipsing almost everything in the country.

This happened after former President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s foolhardy decision to be interviewed by Mehdi Hasan in the latter’s famous ‘Head to Head’ programme on Al Jazeera. The interview was aired on March 6. 
Although those who were born after 1980s might not evince much interest in this matter, elders who were born before that would visualise a terrifying picture of a torture chamber when they hear the word “Batalanda” despite most of them having not seen the place. 

Following this interview that was aired, the National People’s Power (NPP) government has tabled the Batalanda Commission report in Parliament which had been compiled 27 years ago. Thereafter, Wickremesinghe made a statement denying allegation levelled against him but making allegations of killing against the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). However, his claim that the JVP took up arms after the Indo – Sri Lanka accord was signed is misleading.

It happened on the wake of the highly fraudulent referendum conducted by the United National Party (UNP) government in 1982. The leader of the JVP Rohana Wijeweera challenged the results of the referendum in the Supreme Court in 1983 and the government hit back with the proscription of the JVP and two other parties falsely claiming that they were behind the anti-Tamil pogrom or the “Black July” in the same year. After three years of unsuccessful agitations to get the ban on them which deprived them of democratic politics lifted, the JVP took up arms. That was their second insurrection. 

During the fighting between the rebels and the armed forces backed by various vigilante groups, it was said that the Deshapremi Janatha Vyaparaya (DJV) led by the JVP had killed about 7000 people while the armed forces and the vigilante groups are said to have killed over 60,000.  In the process it was said that thousands of rebels as well as innocent men and women were killed in torture chambers including the one in Batalanda. 

The fate of the Batalanda Commission report for the past 27 years invites us to delve into the tales of Sri Lanka’s dozens of commissions of inquiry appointed by successive governments, particularly on specific incidents and human rights violations, starting from the commission on assassination of Prime Minister S.W.R.D.Bandaranaike by his wife Sirimavo in 1963.  

Lists of these failed commissions have been compiled by various local as well as international entities. The Law and Society Trust had compiled a book titled ‘A Legacy to remember; Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry; 1963- 2002. In 2009, Amnesty International also published another lengthy report, on the matter “Twenty Years of Make Believe – Sri Lanka’s Commissions of Inquiry.” 

The number of commissions appointed on the disappeared persons since 1990 alone is ten, according to international human rights organisations. The first such commission was appointed by President Ranasinghe Premadasa who was accused of most number of disappearances during the JVP’s second insurrection. 
His successor D.B.Wijetunga replaced that commission with another. Then Chandrika Kumaratunga who came to power in 1994 on a pledge to mete out justice to those disappeared during the previous regime appointed three zonal commissions and a national commission. None of these commissions were instrumental in finding a single missing person. Kumaratunga specifically appointed the Batalanda Commission, as the torture chamber in Batalanda was a huge issue at the 1994 Parliamentary and Presidential elections. Yet, she swept the report of the commission under the carpet. 

During and after the war, President Mahinda Rajapaksa also appointed several commissions. When his government was under heavy international pressure in 2006, he appointed the Udalagama commission to inquire into 15 specific cases which had drawn international attention. He also appointed the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in 2011 and the Paranagama Commission on missing persons in 2013. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed a commission to review all past commissions on human rights in 2021 followed by Ranil Wickemesinghe who also appointed two commissions on Easter Sunday terrorist attacks. All these failed commissions reminds us a statement made by Human Rights Watch some time back. It said, “Every time the international community raises the issue of accountability, Sri Lanka establishes a commission that takes a long time to achieve nothing.”

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