By Saman Indrajith
Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem told Parliament yesterday that all police officers present in Alutgama during the recent ethnic violence had surrendered their weapons to the Colombo Crimes Division (CCD) investigating the incidents to prove that shots had not been fired from their weapons.
The minister, responding to a series of questions raised by UNP and Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe, said that ten empty shells had been found by the crime scene investigating officers and CCD officers and some of the suspects who fired the shots had been arrested.
"There are many eyewitnesses who state that both deaths occurred due to gunfire. However, post mortem says the deaths were caused by lethal cut wounds. These contradictory statements have brought about many misgivings," he said.
Minister Hakeem said the matter was under investigation and the Magistrate had summoned the JMO who conducted the post mortem to ascertain his views on the matter prior to giving an order to exhume the bodies.
Wickremesinghe making a special statement alleged that there seemed to be a cover-up of the incidents at Alutgama.
Full text of Wickremesinghe’s statement: Two persons died as a result of the unfortunate events that took place in Aluthgama and Beruwala. Expressing our sympathy on those deaths, I wish to draw the attention of this House on a special matter.
There are many eye witnesses who state that the deaths occurred due to gun fire. However, post mortem states that the deaths were caused by lethal cut wounds.
These contradictory statements bring about many misgivings.
These misgivings are further confounded by the interview given by Rauff Hakeem, the Minister of Justice to a newspaper on 22nd June which states that,
"Although two people were shot dead in Welipitiya on Thursday, its inquiry and the post-mortem are strange. I can submit proof that bullets had been used at the spot where these people were wounded. I went to the spot. It is not the civilians who fired at them. But the post mortem report states that those two were dead due to lethal cut wounds. It is a very serious matter if even the medical reports are prepared fraudulently".
As the Minister of Justice himself states, it is a very serious matter if even the medical reports are prepared fraudulently.
I also wish to draw your attention on the Magistrate’s inquiry conducted on these killings. That inquiry had no representation from the Attorney General’s Department.
The Counsels appearing for the affected party drew the attention of the Court on an important matter where they stated that the Government Analyst had not yet been called to the locations. In particular, it is a methodology followed worldwide to summon the analysts to the locations destroyed by fire and determine their cause. However, in this instance, not only the Department of Government Analyst had not been called, but also the armed forces had been deployed to remove all the debris and renovate all such spots that caught fire so that every proof that would support such an inquiry would be rubbed out.
Therefore, the Magistrate has issued an order banning removal of debris around the spot concerning this case and the related renovations. However, I would like to bring to the notice of this House that the process of concealing proof is underway everywhere else.
Against this backdrop, I wish to ask the following questions from the Minister of Justice: Are there evidence available that bullets were used? What are the steps you have taken against the officer who did not prepare the post mortem report properly? Is not the state of the officers who perform their duties under your Ministry subject to influence and pressure from outside amount to a disparagement of the judicial system of this country? What are the steps you intend to take to prevent recurrence of such a situations in future? What was the reason for the Attorney General’s Department to distance itself from the magisterial inquiry? When the process of removing debris without an inquiry by the Department of Government Analyst was started, why did not the Ministry of Justice intervene to prevent it and summon the Government Analyst?
July 9, 2014 at 1:06 am | lanka C news
ලබන ජනවාරියේදී මෙරට සංචාරයක නිරත වීමට නියමිත ෆ්රැන්සිස් පාප් වහන්සේ මෙරට බෞද්ධ ජනතාවගෙන් සමාව අයැදිය යුතු යයි බොදු බල සේනා සංවිධානය පවසයි.
සංවිධානයේ මහ ලේකම් පූජ්ය ගලබොඩඅත්තේ ඤාණසාර හිමියන් විදෙස් මාධ්ය වෙත අදහස් දක්වමින් මේ බව සඳහන් කර ඇත.යටත් විජිත සමයේදී කතෝලිකයන් විසින් මෙරට භික්ෂූන් වහන්සේලා ඝාතනය කරමින් බෞද්ධ සිද්ධස්ථාන වනසමින් කල මහා අපරාධයට පාප් වහන්සේගේ මෙරට සංචාරය අතරතුරදී සමාව ගැනීම වැදගත් යයිද උන් වහන්සේ පෙන්වා දෙති.
යටත් විජිත සමයේදී මෙසේ විනාශ කල වෙනත් රටවල් වලින්ද මින් පෙර සිටි පාප්තුමන්ලාද සමාව ගෙන ඇතැයිද උන් වහන්සේ වැඩිදුරටත් පෙන්වා දෙති.
http://lankacnews.com/sinhala/news/118770/