Rev. Dhambara Amila Thero and Arjuna Ranathunge, Member of Parliament request HE the President !!!
Ms. Chandrika Bandaranayke Kumaratunga,
The President,
President’s House,
Sri Lanka.
Your Excellency,
Report of Presidential Commission on the great betrayal of Athurigiriya
The UNP government which came to power at the General Election of 5th December, 2001 carried out the greatest betrayal against this country even before it had been in office for three months.
Fictitious accusations were brought up against the special Army unit belonging to Army Intelligence sector that was centered in a house in Millennium City complex, the personnel were arrested, revealed to tiger terrorists and were betrayed. As soon as this crime was committed Your Excellency, as the President, appointed a Presidential Commission to probe this matter. We believe it was a correct decision taken by your Excellency at that moment.
By now this Commission has forwarded its report. We of the Patriotic National Movement (PNM) too studied this report. We believe that the facts found in the report to be true.
According to the report of this Commission Kulasiri Udugampola, ASP and his brother Lt. Col. Padmasiri Udugampola, by supplying necessary information, were directly involved in raiding the aforesaid house. These individuals acted to raid this house setting forth false allegations, revealed the safe house and the personnel attached to it with the knowledge and approval of Ranil Wickremasinghe, the Prime Minister, John Amaratunga, former Minister of Interior, Charithe Ratwatte, the present secretary of the Ministry of Finance and former president of the UNP. They as well as the former IGP failing to take any action to prevent the raid confirms this. It is also revealed that the former Minister of Interior and his secretary Lal Ratnayake were the individuals who specially acted to interpret this betrayal as a “conspiracy to assassinate the PM” and gave it immense publicity.
The Commission has found out all these details after recording evidence from all parties relevant to this incident. The conclusion the Commission has come at basing on these evidence is that many individuals of the government including the Prime Minister are responsible for this act.
We know that patriots of all nationalities – Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim – were engaged in this special team of the Army Intelligence Unit. It is evident that they were dedicated fighters of the Motherland, who penetrated deep into areas forcefully occupied by separatist tiger terrorists and successfully carried out attacks against selected targets and important terrorist leaders. In deed this unit, with its successes, terrorized the terrorists. It is apparent that one of the matters of the secret agreement Mr. Rail Wickremasinghe had with tiger organization before the General Election was to expose this special Army unit and destroy it. Accordingly, after Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe came to power he employed a treacherous police officer and several others to fulfill the promise he had given to tiger terrorists. It is none other than this great betrayal of Athurugiriya.
Your Excellency,
This treacherous betrayal cannot be compared with any other in our history. The betrayal by “Thambi Mudiyanse”, a forefather of former President late Mr. J.R.Jayawardene, of handing over Sri Wickrema Rajasinghe, the king of Kande Udarata, our last kingdom to the British may be a lesser comparison to it. The patriotic team of the Army intelligence, who fought resolutely for the defense of the Motherland against tiger terrorists, the real enemies of the Motherland, should be considered real heroes and should be admired. But what actually happened was these Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim patriots were implicated with the murders of Udathalawinna, accused of a conspiracy to assassinate the PM, exposed, scoffed at, arrested and betrayed to the separatist tiger terrorists. It is hard to believe that an act like this could be done by anyone with an iota of affection to the country and the people. We consider this as a deplorable, unwarranted and a criminal treachery.
Neither the government nor anyone has come to their aid.
Taking all these into consideration we, of the Patriotic National Movement, would like to make two requests from your Excellency.
- We earnestly request your Excellency as the Executive President of the country as well as the Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior to take immediate steps to arrest all those responsible for this great Athurugiriya betrayal including Premier Ranil Wickremasinghe and all those UNP members who are involved in this crime with him, Kulasiri Udugampola, ASP, Col. Padmasiri Udugampola, Col. D.G.Dissanayake and others of the Police and the Army who are involved, bring them before courts and punish them according to the law of the country. We also would like to point out that Your Excellency should see to it that the destiny of the other commission reports in history such as the “Batalanda commission report” would not happen to this report.
- We would like to request from your Excellency to allocate from either the Presidential fund or from any other source monies to build houses to the families of those Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim members of Army Intelligence Unit who were murdered by tiger terrorists as a result of this great betrayal, to grant their families a monthly allowance or a total amount and take necessary steps for their security. Also, we believe that your Excellency would take action to protect and grant the needful to all those members of that special unit who are in dire straits.
Your Excellency,
It is you who can make this great betrayal of Athurugiriya the one and the final one of its kind. It is evident that it is our responsibility that this type of betrayals does not occur again. The most important of this is to bring all those involved in the betrayal before the law without considering any designation. The whole Nation expects that your Excellency would fulfill this request as you are the Leader of the State, Minister of Defense and Minister of Interior. We wish your Excellency strength to fulfill this great expectation of our people.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
Rev. Elle Gunawanshe Thero.
Rev. Dhambara Amila Thero.
Prof. Chandana Abeyratne
Wimal Weerawanse, Member of Parliament
Arjuna Ranathunge, Member of Parliament
Piyal Parakrama, Environmentalist
Cyril Wickremage, Cinema Artist
16.12.2003
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