Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen M.P, Leader – All Ceylon Makkal Congress Party has sent an official letter to
H.E. the President requesting him to appoint a special Independent
Presidential Commission in order to investigate on matters pertaining to false allegation made against him in connection wth the Wilpattu National reserve and Easter Sunday Attacks. This letter was sent on 05.12.2019. 05-12-2019
His Excellency Gotabaya Rajapakse
President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Presidential Secretariat,
Colombo 01
Your Excellency,
Appointment of a Presidential Comisssion to Investigate Allegations on Wilpattu National Forest Reserve and Easter Sunday Terrorist Bombings
I, with the All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC) and its supporters, wish to sincerely congratulate Your Excellency on the achievement of being elected as the seventh Executive President of Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka.
However, it is with deep disappointment and sorrow that I inform Your Excellency that certain groups of Sri Lankans are actively engaged in fanning communal flames and working for narrow political gains by leveling baseless and unfounded allegations against me – a leader of a recognized political party in Sri Lanka – among the general public using various electronic, print and social media outlets.
These groups were actively engaged in making such allegations against me when I was a Cabinet Minister in the previous government as well. Among the most prominent false allegations aimed at me were clearing the Wilpattu Forest Reserve to settle Muslim refugees and maintaining links with Easter Sunday bombing terrorist Sahran.
I wish to stress that these allegations too were baseless and unfounded, imaginary and false and are fabricated for narrow political gains.
Further, the Parliamentary Select Committee appointed to investigate me โamong others – on allegations that I maintained links with Easter Sunday bombers too cleared me of any wrongdoing after learning that Police and the former Inspector General of Policeโs report for the Speaker, had already cleared my name from such allegations.
However, these offending groups continue to re-enact these false allegations on me by wrongfully, repeatedly and freshly making the same accusations against me in the local mass media, thereby continuing to publicly harass and push me and my community towards a very unpleasant situation. I wish to stress that they are clearly attempting to destabilize our country by creating dissension on the lines of ethnicity, religion, and caste by their acts.
Further I wish to clearly stress and also call for Your Excellencyโs special attention to the fact that I had not destroyed any parts of Wilpattu Forest Reserve by abusing my powers. In 2009, the Muslim refugees displaced in 1990 received the opportunity to re-settle in their original lands and I am most appreciative and thankful to Your Excellency for your valuable support extended to those displaced Muslims and giving them the opportunity. The original lands where the refugees lived, being abandoned for thirty years, had turned to become forests. Thereafter these forest lands too were named as Forest Reserves by the Forest Department. However, understanding the reality of this natural change, the Task Force appointed by the then HE President Mahinda Rajapakse managed to identify original Muslim owned lands that later became jungles and methodically and legally took action to resettle them in such lands.
Through many public discourses, fora, discussions, and analyses the truth about Wilpattu was revealed with environmentalists too agreeing on the facts.
Despite such, baseless allegations continue to be leveled against this incident and I kindly urge Your Excellency to take necessary action to appoint an independent Presidential Commission to investigate and uncover the truth behind these false allegations and also to identify individuals responsible for destruction of Wilpattu, which is an invaluable resource that Sri Lanka has.
Further, even though all official investigations clearly proved that there had not been any links between me and the heinous terrorists behind the Easter Sunday bombings, I wish to sincerely urge Your Excellency that should another investigation is required on these attacks, then to kindly set up a special Presidential Commission and commence a special investigation as well.
Thank you,
Yours Faithfully,
Rishad Bathiudeen
Member of Parliament
Leader โ All Ceylon Makkal Congress