Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

The Roman poet Decimus Junius Juvenalis in his seminal work, Satires, asks, “Who will guard the guards themselves?” This is now a pertinent question with regard to the security apparatus tasked with national security in Sri Lanka, especially the intelligence agencies. 

The police, military and intelligence arms of the Sri Lankan State being accused of numerous politically motivated crimes is nothing new. Yet last week, one of the finest detectives of this country made a startling revelation to the Supreme Court. Former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Director SSP (Rtd) Shani Abeysekera while filing a petition seeking to prevent his arrest makes chilling revelations that directly imply links between the Easter Sunday bombers and several state intelligence agencies. In addition, he claims serious interferences by the State Intelligence Service (SIS) and the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) into CID investigations into the terrorist group’s operations in the lead up to and the aftermath of the Easter attacks.

SSP Abeysekera’s petition directly links the individual known by the code name ‘Sonic-Sonic,’ as appeared in communications with an individual linked to the Easter Sunday bombers, to the State Intelligence Service (SIS). Further, SSP Abeysekera’s petition states that personnel from the DMI visited the house of the failed Taj Samudra bomber minutes before he detonated his explosives at a guesthouse and inquired into his whereabouts.

Personnel belonging to the military and intelligence units have been formally accused in courts of the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the enforced disappearance of Prageeth Eknaligoda and the murder of parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj. Either the accused have been exonerated by courts for the lack of evidence or the investigative and prosecutorial processes have stalled due to gross interference. 

As these columns have previously noted, for decades, the intelligence services have functioned largely as appendages that prop up the ruling regime. Intelligence officers serve as pollsters for the ruling party, run surveillance on Opposition politicians and dissidents, and in the very worst cases, they have violently avenged criticism and opposition to the rulers. Intelligence agencies operate in the shadows in Sri Lanka, beneficiaries of massive slush funds and unparalleled State resources without accountability or oversight. 

Parliament has no fiscal oversight of intelligence agencies and has no power to scrutinise their operations. This laissez-faire ensures these agencies and the officials that serve in them are ripe for exploitation and manipulation by those wielding political power, their loyalties swinging with each regime change. No Opposition politician will call for oversight of national intelligence services out of fear of being called out for seeking to expose national security operations – but also because the political services these agencies perform could become valuable when they attain power one day.

This needs to change. As a first step, there should be a transparent and credible investigation into the alleged involvement of intelligence agencies in the Easter Sunday attacks. The information revealed by SSP Shani Abeysekera is damning and cannot be swept under the carpet. If any of these charges made by SSP Abeysekera are false, he can be criminally prosecuted for perjury and contempt of court. There is therefore a great onus on those who were in charge of the relevant intelligence agencies to answer to these allegations.

The latest revelations by SSP Abeysekera must be a wakeup call to enact the necessary checks and balances that will be essential to reform the intelligence services and by extension the security apparatus in Sri Lanka. This is the norm in countries that claim to be democratic. The judicial and legislative supervision of these institutions and their activities is imperative to end the decades-long reign of terror by those who are tasked to protect the people and national security of Sri Lanka. Time has long passed to guard against the guardians.