The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka continues to withhold the publication of its report on the seven-years-old violence unleashed by state-sponsored Sinhala Buddhist mobs targeting Muslims in the tourist city of Kandy and its suburbs.
At least twice last year, senior officials of the Commission had told victims and the media that the findings of its investigation would be published ‘within the next few months’.
Continuing failure to deliver
Following the release of the documentary “Six Years since Digana Anti-Muslim Riots: Whither Justice?” in July last year, based on credible accounts exposing complicity of state-sponsored political thugs and security forces in the violence unleashed against Muslims in the up-country, Commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), Dr. Gehan Gunatilleke had told the media that the relevant report would be published within the next few months.
However, in December, in response to a written query by M.I.M. Musadiq, a journalist from the area, the Commission said that it would work towards publishing the report in January 2025.
Evidence concealed for seven years
Following the violence unleashed against Muslims in Kandy and suburbs, a high-level investigative team headed by the then Chairperson of the Commission, Dr. Deepika Udagama, summoned diverse parties, including affected Muslims, to the Kandy Postal Complex auditorium to obtain evidence, pledging to deliver justice to victims.
The public including Muslim victims, emphasizes that written, oral, photographic and video evidence was provided to the commission about gangs that physically and mentally abused the Muslim community in the area, burned down properties, and the security forces, including the Police Special Task Force (STF), who provided protection and cover to those gangs.
During the tenure of Dr. Deepika Udagama, the commission told the media on several occasions that the investigation report would be published “in the future”.
After Professor Udagamage, retired Judge Rohini Marasinghe became the Chairperson of the Commission and no specific explanation was given during her two-year tenure regarding the delay in making the relevant investigation report public.
The Commission had failed to publish the report under the current Chairperson, retired Supreme Court Judge L.T.B. Dehideniya, despite multiple pledges.
Rights that enjoyed by others, but denied for Muslims
Senior officials of the commission have cited various reasons, most of which were technical, for the delay in publishing the HRCSL report no Kandy anti-Muslim violence.
The main ones were corrections, publishing it in three languages simultaneously, and the review of the report by successive chairpersons and the board of commissioners.
However, over the past seven years, HRCSL has published several reports. Most of them were based on case studies and field investigations.
But surprisingly, technical and administrative issues that did not affect any of those reports seem to have hindered the investigation report on the violence unleashed on Muslims.
Cover up to protect security forces and high-level political connections?
Later, the Parliament was also provided evidence that the violence of several days in March 2018 was carried out under the protection of the Police Special Task Force by politically sponsored thugs, Sinhala extremist outfits including Mahason Force, and groups called in from outside.
It has also been documented in Parliamentary Committee reports that the police and security forces did not play an effective role in suppressing the violence.
The report of the Parliamentary Special Committee of Experts, “To Ensure National and Religious Coexistence in Sri Lanka” established in 2019 under the chairmanship of former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, states the following regarding anti-Muslim violence:
“The Police Department has shown inexcusable delays in enforcing the law in relation to the recent incidents in the Kalutara, Galle, Ampara and Kandy districts, as well as the Attorney General’s Department has failed to prosecute those responsible for the violence.”
Top posts for those who led the mob
The Senior Deputy Inspector General in charge of the central province, S.M. Wickremesinghe, who was accused of having prior knowledge about the violence and protecting perpetrators, was later appointed as the Ombudsman to investigate public complaints and grievances.
Later, he was also appointed as a member of the “Presidential Commission to Investigate All Forms of Property Damage and Loss of Life, Including Arson, Robbery, and Murders in the Island” by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa between March 31, 2022 and May 15 of the same year.
This appointment took place at a time when the individuals who led the Kandy anti-Muslim attack and the Buddhist monks themselves were publicly claiming the DIG’s involvement in the attack.
Watch the documentary from a year ago about the unpublished report of the HRCSL investigation into the Digana attack here.