Activists, wife of missing scribe condemn President’s speech

• Activists claim remarks will hinder Ekneligoda disappearance probe
• Sandhya Ekneligoda says she wants nothing except justice from the Government 
• Prageeth Ekneligoda, abducted in January 2010 has been missing for 2344 days 
• Wickremabahu says military cover up of Ekneligoda disappearance happened after Jan 8. 

By Dharisha Bastians 

President Maithripala Sirisena continued to be under fire from groups that strongly supported his presidential bid, over his controversial outburst last week questioning the integrity of Government anti-corruption agencies. 

Activist Sandhya Ekneligoda, wife of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda who has been missing since January 2010, said the President’s remarks would seriously hinder the investigation into her husband’s disappearance. 

During his widely-publicised speech at a military function last Wednesday (12), President Sirisena also expressed his displeasure about eight military intelligence personnel being held in custody for 16 months in a high profile case, a clear reference to the Prageeth Ekneligoda disappearance case. “I keep asking about these officers in prison. If they have done something wrong they should be prosecuted. Either prosecute them or release them,” President Sirisena demanded in his speech. 

The wife of the disappeared journalist said the President was outraged about military personnel being held in custody for 16 months. “I have been searching for justice for Prageeth for 82 months. It has been 2,344 days since my husband disappeared,” Sandhya Ekneligoda told reporters at a news conference in Colombo yesterday. 

Ekneligoda charged that the military intelligence officials in custody were not spending their time in a prison cell either. “They are in the prison hospital. So all of them have been given special treatment. And the military continues to block the CID investigation into Prageeth’s disappearance,” she added. 

President Sirisena and the common opposition had used her widely in its election campaigns in 2015, Sandhya Ekneligoda told journalists, holding up the election propaganda leaflets. “I want nothing from this Government. I am only asking for justice,” she said in an emotional appeal. 

Also addressing the media briefing, Leftist leader Wickremabahu Karunaratne said it was remarkable that the alleged military-led cover up of the crime to disappear the journalist had happened after presidential elections on 8 January 2015. 

Karunaratne said that the Sirisena administration had used Prageeth’s disappearance in their campaign to take power, but were abandoning the project to deliver justice to his family now. 

“With his speech, the President has created a huge fear psychosis – the investigators pursuing these high profile cases are scared now,” Karunaratne charged. 

The Left leader said that it was ironic that the President had opposed the prosecution of former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa on charges of defrauding the state. “This is the man who terrorised the country and used the military to pursue political opponents. Who should be prosecuted, if not him?” Karunaratne charged. 

Secretary of the Ceylon Teachers Union and activist Joseph Stalin also flayed the President for his controversial remarks, saying the speech had raised grave fears that Sri Lanka was on the cusp of a counter-revolution. 

Stalin said that in his speech, President Sirisena was calling for special treatment for certain people, when all citizens in Sri Lanka are supposed to be equal before the law. “This is against the principles of Yahapalanaya,” he said. 

Stalin said that if this was how the Government was going to conduct its affairs, activists and civil society movements that mobilised support for Sirisena in the run up to elections last year, would have no option but to pursue their journey for justice separately. 

The Prageeth Ekneligoda disappearance case was one of several high profile investigations that were reopened after the defeat of President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January 2015. The Criminal Investigations Department which is conducting the probe has repeatedly complained to court that the military was refusing to cooperate with their efforts to obtain documents and record evidence in the Ekneligoda investigations. 

The Homagama Magistrate inquiring into the Habeaus Corpus petition filed by the missing journalist’s wife, vowed to issue notice on the Army Commander if the military continued to obstruct investigations into the journalist’s disappearance.