{"id":75309,"date":"2021-12-09T01:29:17","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T05:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=75309"},"modified":"2021-12-09T23:34:34","modified_gmt":"2021-12-10T03:34:34","slug":"ex-navy-chief-wasantha-karannagoda-who-was-previously-indicted-as-14th-accused-in-abduction-and-conspiracy-to-murder-11-youths-is-appointed-northwestern-province-governor-by-president-rajapaksa-vic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=75309","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Navy Chief Wasantha Karannagoda Who Was Previously Indicted as 14th Accused in Abduction and Conspiracy to Murder 11 Youths is Appointed NorthWestern Province Governor by President Rajapaksa; Victims\u2019 families call the Controversial ppointment \u201cyet another blow\u201d to their 12 year-long fight for justice."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday appointed a former Navy chief, previously accused of abduction and conspiracy to murder, as Governor to the North Western Province, delivering what victims\u2019 families called \u201cyet another blow\u201d to their 12 year-long fight for justice.<\/p>\n

This is Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s second controversial appointment in recent months. In October, he chose a reactionary Buddhist monk Galagodaaththe Gnanasara, earlier convicted for contempt of court, and accused of inciting violence against Muslims, to chair a panel on key legal reforms.<\/p>\n

A photograph released by the Presidential Media Division on Thursday showed Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karannagoda, dressed in a suit and palms held together, bowing to Mr. Rajapaksa, as he was sworn in to the most powerful office in Sri Lanka\u2019s provincial administrative structure, as the President\u2019s representative. All nine provinces in Sri Lanka are currently under their respective Governors\u2019 rule, after the elected provincial councils lapsed in 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Mr. Karannagoda rendered \u201ca great service to the Motherland during the humanitarian operation as the Commander of the Navy,\u201d a statement from the President\u2019s office said, of the man named 14th accused in a gruesome case now commonly referred to as \u201cNavy 11\u201d case.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In the years 2008 and 2009, 11 youth \u2014 most of them in their late teens and coming from Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim families \u2014 went missing across different suburbs around Colombo.<\/p>\n

Though the youth were forcibly disappeared in the last two years of the civil war, investigators said they were abductions for ransom, and that the case was not directly related to the war in the way scores of enforced disappearances of Tamils from that time are.<\/p>\n

With witness accounts and the body of evidence \u2014 gathered by police\u2019s Criminal Investigation Department \u2014 pointing to the apparent involvement of a team of naval officers, the Attorney General\u2019s Department, in November 2019 indicted over a dozen high-ranking naval officers on charges of abducting and conspiring to murder the 11 young men.<\/p>\n

The list of suspects, of high-ranking naval officers, included Mr. Karannagoda, who was Navy Commander at the time of the abductions. The evidence submitted to court outlined grim details of the abduction linked to a ransom racket, detention in an underground cell in the eastern Trincomalee district, and witness accounts that led investigators to infer that the boys had been killed, and their bodies disposed in the sea, according to local media reports of the court proceedings.<\/p>\n

Activists and lawyers consider the case \u201cemblematic\u201d of the alleged criminal conduct of military during civil war years. It also drew notice for the rare progress made by way of evidence gathering and prosecution in court.
\nHowever, in a puzzling U-turn this August, the AG\u2019s Department said it had decided not to proceed with the charges against the admiral.<\/p>\n

Short-lived hopes<\/strong><\/p>\n

After giving families some reason for hope by serving indictments \u2014 on 667 charges \u2014 in the high-profile case, the AG\u2019s decision to spare one suspect alone of the grave charges drew wide attention. Including from the UN Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet, who expressed concern over developments in judicial proceedings \u201cin a number of emblematic human rights cases\u201d in Sri Lanka. \u201cThey include the Attorney General\u2019s decision not to proceed with charges against former Navy commander Wasantha Karannagoda in the case of the enforced disappearances of 11 men in 2008 and 2009,\u201d she told the Human Rights Council in September this year.<\/p>\n

From the families\u2019 perspective, the AG\u2019s decision delivered \u201ca severe blow\u201d to the case. They challenged it at Sri Lanka\u2019s Court of Appeal, which subsequently dismissed their petition on grounds that the AG\u2019s department had the discretion to drop charges against a suspect.<\/p>\n

Asked about the AG\u2019s decision \u2014 that was reiterated in court this October \u2014 Sri Lanka\u2019s Justice Minister Ali Sabry said the government \u201cdoes not interfere\u201d with the Attorney General\u2019s Department that will \u201conly act on merits\u201d of a case. \u201cOur sympathies are with the families. The perpetrators will be brought to justice,\u201d he told The Hindu then.<\/p>\n

Even as hearings on the original case are set to continue \u2014 the charges against the other 13 officers remain and the admiral is yet to be acquitted \u2014 victims\u2019 families are appalled at Thursday\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

‘Completely unfair’<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is completely unfair,\u201d said Jamaldeen Jenifer Weerasinghe, mother of Mohammed Dilan Jamaldeen, one of the 11 disappeared youth. \u201cThe admiral was the navy commander when my son was abducted. He certainly knows what happened to him and the others. That is why he was named a suspect. How could they give him a post like this?\u201d she asked, terming the development \u201canother huge blow\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms. Weerasinghe, 61, does not miss a single agitation by families of the disappeared in the south \u2014 thousands of youth went missing during the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna armed insurrections in the 1970s and 1980s \u2014 held periodically outside the Supreme Court and elsewhere. Rights watchdog Amnesty International has said Sri Lanka has the world\u2019s second highest number of enforced disappearances with a backlog of 60,000 to 1 lakh since the 1980s. Just like their Tamil counterparts in the north, protesting for years demanding answers about their missing loved ones, the mothers of the 11 youth, too, have not got any closure.<\/p>\n

Refusing to accept what the police have inferred from evidence, Ameenathul Jiffriya Sabreen, mother of another of the missing youth Mohammed Sajith, firmly believes her son is alive somewhere. \u201cI am running to different courts for 12 years now, I am ageing, I am forgetting details of what happened that day,\u201d she told The Hindu, after a recent court hearing. Speaking of her son with tears rolling down, Ms. Sabreen said he \u201cis a gem\u201d, looks like [Tamil actor] Suriya, with his hair \u201cneatly combed\u201d to one side. \u201cAll I want is to have my son back. After that, I won\u2019t think about these cases, or who held the boys this long. I don\u2019t want anyone punished. I just want my son.\u201d <\/p>\n

The President\u2019s appointment of the admiral as Governor also adds to the list of military men given civilian positions in recent years. Since 2020, Mr. Rajapaksa has appointed at least 28 serving or former military and intelligence personnel to key administrative posts, the UN Human Rights Chief Bachelet noted in a report early this year.<\/p>\n

Mr. Karannagoda\u2019s appointment is \u201ca double whammy\u201d, according to human rights lawyer Bhavani Fonseka from the Colomb-based NGO Centre for Policy Alternatives. \u201cIt further entrenches impunity and militarisation,\u201d she said, adding: \u201cIt is also a clear indication of the government\u2019s complete disdain for political accountability and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is only consistent with the emphatic pledge made by President Rajapaksa, a former military man, to protect \u201cwar heroes\u201d at any cost, although some of them face serious allegations of war crimes. Mr. Rajapaksa translated the promise to action about four months after his election, when he pardoned Sunil Ratnayake, a soldier who was on death row for killing eight Tamil civilians, including a five-year-old and two teenagers, in 2000 during the civil war. <\/p>\n

But Dilan\u2019s parents \u2014 Jenifer Weerasinghe and her husband Mervyn Premalal Weerasinghe \u2014 do not feel secure despite their military affiliation. \u201cMy husband is also a retired army man \u2014 he was at the Sinha Regiment; he too served our country. Why is the President not taking care of us?\u201d she asked, speaking at a recent event to mark disappearances, barely hiding her rage.<\/p>\n

Thursday’s development could be a setback, but the struggle is not over, Ms. Weerasinghe said. \u201cI am ready to go to Geneva or anywhere else to fight for justice. I will not give up. This struggle will not end unless justice is served.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu <\/em> <\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday appointed a former Navy chief, previously accused of abduction and conspiracy to murder, as Governor to the North Western Province, delivering what victims\u2019 families called \u201cyet another blow\u201d to their 12 year-long fight for justice. This is Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s second controversial appointment in recent months. In October, …<\/p>\n

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