Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says introducing legislation against extremism is a priority for the government and new laws will be introduced to eliminate jihadism from the country.
Making a special statement after joining the Sunday Mass conducted by Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith in Colombo and the mass at the Saint Anthony’s church in Kochchikade yesterday, a week after the deadly suicide bombing killed 290 people, the Prime Minister said the anti-terrorism draft bill tabled in parliament last year should be debated and passed urgently.
He said during the week a number of facts about the attack have been uncovered and many of those who participated in the attack were identified and arrested.
“The
suspect in connection with the jihadist attacks should be identified and produced before the law promptly. The government, President, the cabinet and I have given the orders to end this jihadi terrorism. We do not expect another 30-year war,” he said.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said the operations against the terrorist activities commenced soon after the attacks on churches and hotels on last Sunday (April 21) and within a matter of hours, several suspects were arrested in Dematagoda. Three brave officers were killed in that operation. No other security officers were harmed or killed in the operations followed.
On Friday and Saturday, the security forces were able to capture the terrorists and their weapons from several houses in Sammanthurai, Ninthavur, Addalachchenai and Saindamuruthu areas. This was possible due to the support and information given by the Muslim community in the areas.
The Premier said a number of suspects have now been identified and commended the relevant units participated in the operations.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe expressed his gratitude on behalf of the country to all Security Forces who are engaged in the security of the country following the Easter Sunday attack.
“We have seven intelligence units. In the past three to four years, they have been working closely with foreign intelligence services. This time, we have built a relationship that had not previously been established. In addition, the CID conducted investigations and identified many of these suspects in the past week. We have also strengthened the CID. In addition, the police and armed forces have been deployed to arrest the suspects. The country should be thankful for all these units.”
He said that these attacks have been carried out by a small well-organized group. “They are not ordinary Muslims. It should be emphasized that these are groups who are misled and fanatical. They commenced the terror attacks with the killing of two police officers in Vavunathivu in Batticaloa on November 30 last year. After that they vandalized the Buddha statues in Mawanella and shot the Secretary of Minister Kabir Hashim. They had their training camp in Wanathavilluwa. We are working to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
It has been reported that there are teachers working in various education institutes without any visa for employment. The Muslim Religious Affairs Ministry and the Ministry of Home Affairs are taking measures to deport those persons. At the same time, the subject Ministry is to discuss with the Muslim community and decide on the various laws and measures to be submitted to the government.
“The support of the Muslim people should be appreciated. I request everyone not to harass them. We, as Sri Lankans, are working towards the eradication of terrorism, Jihad.”
“The Minister of Home Affairs, the State Minister of Defense and the Ministry of Defense will manage the entry to country and exit, importation of goods according to the plan we have approved. All the departments involved in it have joined. It is also expected to launch an information exchange program with Interpol. Reports have been received about its progress. The rest of the progress review work is expected to be completed soon.”
The Prime Minister went onto clarify the existing laws regarding the arrest of terrorists.
“Emergency laws have been implemented to ban the relevant terrorist groups. We do not have clauses dealing with terrorist activities outside Sri Lanka and those who are connected with terrorist groups in other countries. The penal code is limited to crimes in Sri Lanka. The Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979 is only limited to terrorist acts in the country. Later those in camps in South India have been included in the law. The second, third clauses clearly state that fact. We have acted according to the 1974 laws in England which were only dealt with Northern Ireland terrorism.”
“In order to fill this gap, we have included facts in the anti-terrorism draft bill. The third clause of the bill says, if any person threatens any ethnic group, if illegally influence Sri Lanka or a foreign government, or if causing harm to the territorial integrity or sovereignty of Sri Lanka or any other sovereign country, then that person commits a crime in Sri Lanka.
“The failure to get these laws passed in parliament prevented the arrest of these suspects before they could carry out these attacks. We presented this draft in Parliament in 2018. Now this draft is stuck in the relevant committee of the Parliament,” the Premier pointed out.
He urged the relevant parties to immediately take steps to bring the bill “out of the committee” to the parliament. “By delaying this, we lost the opportunity to take these terrorists under the law. We need to expedite this now.”
“We will bring in a number of new laws. The Jihadi terrorism should be eliminated quickly. This terrorism brought about problems not only for Christianity but also for the Muslim community according to our culture.”
“It should be clearly stated that they are an extremist group. They are not part of any religion. We take action to eliminate this extremism and prevent its spreading. They are now mostly arrested. Some have died. Now we have the ability to return to normalcy. The three armed forces and the police will inform the public. If so, we have restored ordinary life,” the Prime Minister said.
