PMD reiterates President’s stance against international probe over Easter attack

• Expresses concern on Catholic media’s call for international probe 
• Claims Head of CBCS Bishop Harold Anthony Perera has informed Public Security Minister that Easter attack Commission report is yet under review 
• Says President is prepared to discuss with Bishop Perera and representatives of CBCS thereafter 
• Bishop Perera maintains stance of Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and CBCS on conducting an international probe remains same 

The President’s Media Division (PMD) issued a statement yesterday expressing its concerns about an editorial in the Sinhala-language Catholic newspaper ‘Gnanartha Pradeepaya’ on 8 October which called for an international investigation into the Easter Sunday attack.  According to the PMD, on 20 April the Public Security Minister Tiran Alles handed over the comprehensive Presidential Commission report on the Easter Attack, consisting of 88 volumes and 48,909 pages, to the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCS), Bishop Harold Anthony Perera at the latter’s request.

The PMD claimed that in a recent telephone conversation between Minister Tiran Alles and Bishop Harold Anthony Perera, the Bishop indicated that he is currently engaged in a personal review of the report.

“Following the review President Ranil Wickremesinghe is prepared to engage in a discussion with representatives from the CBCS,” it said. 

“We cannot endorse international investigations into Sri Lanka’s domestic matters. There are no provisions in the Sri Lankan Constitution or any other law to allow for such investigations. Therefore, conducting such inquiries is deemed illegal,” the PMD added. 

It also said a committee led by a retired Supreme Court judge has been appointed to investigate and report on the Channel 4 television program.

The PMD statement was seemingly issued in response to the CBCS’s criticism of President Ranil Wickremesinghe earlier this week.

The criticism arose from remarks made by President Wickremesinghe during a recent interview with the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle, where he implied a division within the Catholic Church leadership regarding an international investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

Wickremesinghe lashed out during the interview telling Deutsche Welle he was “only dealing with the Bishops’ conference” and not with Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith of Colombo, who has been demanding an international probe. He questioned if the interviewer had sought the opinion of the CBCS, implying that he would get a different response if he had.

“You take a piece of paper from the cardinal and you are holding it over me. Have you spoken to the Bishop’s conference? You have no right to ask me this question” Wickremesinghe said. 

However, Bishop Harold Anthony Perera of Kurunegala has maintained that the stand of Cardinal Ranjith and the bishops on the issue is the same.