SPOTLIGHT

Taking the law into her own hands a la CBK

By Frederica Jansz

Furious with sleuths from the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) for continuing to investigate charges against her former strongman of the Presidential Security Division (PSD), President Chandrika Kumaratunga in an angry missive to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has complained bitterly, that the CID is putting her life in danger.

Her letter to the police chief follows after Kumaratunga threatened senior police officer and Director, Ministerial Security Division (MSD) with death for initiating an inquiry with the assistance of the CID against the former PSD Director for having “lost” a T 56 gun together with ammunition and two rounds of magazines. Jayasinghe was earlier Director, Prime Minister’s Security Division when Sirimavo Bandaranaike was prime minister. 

Taking the law into her own hands, Kumaratunga is also now refusing to allow any statements to be recorded from PSD personnel. As a result, the CID cannot conclude their investigation into this issue. We learn that the sleuths may now seek court action and the advice of the Attorney General to be able to record the statements of the relevant PSD personnel.

The investigation is all but over except for the recording of the statement of the officer in charge of the PSD armoury, which the President is preventing.

And since the T 56 weapon costs more than Rs. 5,000, its loss tantamounts to an offence against public property, which is non bailable.  

On October 10, 2002, Kumaratunga wrote to IGP, T. E. Anandarajah accusing the CID of harassing officers of the PSD as well as SP Nihal Karunaratne, her former PSD Director, who is at present interdicted from service.

“As you are aware 84 officers and other rankers of the PSD have been arrested, interrogated incessantly and harassed in many ways by the police, especially by the CID, on six different false allegations,” Kumaratunga writes.

Complaining that this is despite the fact she has spoken about this matter to Anandarajah and his predecessor Lucky Kodituwakku on many occasions, Kumaratunga charges that the investigations by the CID “has demoralised the PSD very seriously and put my security at great risk.”

She adds that as a result, the PSD has been unable to carry on their duties of protecting the head of state in the efficient and professional manner in which they did for seven years. “This is entirely due to the persistent and totally unjustified harassment of PSD personnel by the police,” Kumaratunga states.

She has further accused the police of wilfully weakening her security since December 5, 2001 and that the IGP and those in the police force are responsible for the organised campaign of harassment of the PSD “with the clear intent of weakening my security to the point of putting my life in danger.”

With regard to SP Nihal Karunaratne, Kumaratunga writes that “this officer has been remanded on one trumped up charge and arrested and interrogated on two other charges within a period of three months since the change of government.”

She adds that on October 10, this year, Karunaratne was summoned to the CID on a new charge of a purported disappearance of one of “the few weapons issued for my security while I was chief minister, eight years ago.”  Kumaratunga charges that the manner in which this has occurred is improper and irregular and goes against all accepted practices in the police force.

She has chided the IGP, asserting that if some weapon is missing, according to accepted practice in the police, the officer in charge of the subject who in this case is SSP Jayantha Jayasinghe of the MSD, should have first informed the IGP and thereafter the IGP should have called for a report from the relevant officers.

She says that without doing any of these, SSP Jayasinghe has arrested and interrogated SP Nihal Karunaratne.

Kumaratunga has instructed the IGP to carry out a full inquiry into why SSP Jayasinghe has acted in this manner, a report of which she demands she wants presented to her by October 17.

Seek permission

Kumaratunga has further ordered the IGP to inform all officials presently engaged in and any others liable to be recruited into the “campaign of harassment against the PSD” that no officer nor other ranker serving in the PSD could hereafter be summoned by any branch of the police for investigation without seeking her permission to do so.

“Please note any officer or other ranker serving in the PSD, also includes SP Nihal Karunaratne and the other personnel of the PSD, even though they are at present interdicted on trumped up charges,” she states.

The fact of the matter is that, on October 3, SSP Jayasinghe did seek approval from the IGP to conduct an inquiry into the loss of a T 56 weapon, No: 28039240 with 100 rounds of ammunition and two magazines.

He informed the IGP on this day in writing that the above weapon had been taken charge of by ex-Director, PSD, Nihal Karunaratne on August 15, 1994 during the period when he was the personal security officer to the Western Province chief minister  — who was at the time Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. 

Interestingly, the weapon had been taken a day before the general elections that year, which was held on August 16, 1994.

SSP Jayasinghe notes that according to the registers maintained at the MSD, Karunaratne had signed for and taken charge of this particular gun.  Now however, the PSD OIC, Administration, S. M. Y. Seneviratne has stated that this weapon cannot be traced. 

Seneviratne’s letter is dated October 2, 2002 and addressed to SSP Jayantha Jayasinghe.

No action taken

Even the Issue Order which should have been sent soon after Karunaratne took the weapon in 1994, was sent out only this year. The reason being that the late DIG S. E. P. Jayasuriya who was in charge of the MSD from 1994 to the year 2000 did not take any action regarding the loss of this gun.

These details have now surfaced in a departmental inquiry.  The gun is due to the officer in charge of the armoury.  The lapses on the part of the various police officers is now being blamed on the dead DIG Jayasuriya.

Karunaratne meanwhile, in his statement to the CID on this matter has said that he handed over the T 56 in question to two police constables who were part of the security contingent of the then Western Province Chief Minister, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

The two PCs have denied Karunaratne’s claim, stating he never handed over the weapon to either of them.

SSP Jayasinghe meanwhile, followed normal police procedure and reported this matter to the IGP, who thereafter differed the issue to the CID for an independent investigation.

The CID has now reported the matter to court under Section 392 of the Penal Code. The sleuths are also seeking the AG’s advice as this offence comes under the misappropriation of government property, which is a non-bailable offence.

The inquiry is now near completion but the CID is being prevented from concluding the case as Kumaratunga is refusing to allow any statements to be recorded from the PSD.

A senior police officer divulged that usually only a service revolver and not a T 56 weapon should have been issued to an officer of Karunaratne’s rank.  Why a T 56 gun was given to him by the MSD is not clear.  It is also his bounden duty to return the weapon if he had taken it, after interdiction.

It is a well known fact that apart from the underworld figure Baddegana Sanjeewa being part of the PSD, Kumaratunga during her tenure as chief minister also had many security officers who were not part of her official security.

IGP Anandarajah meanwhile, did give SSP Jayasinghe permission to go ahead and initiate an investigation together with the CID and find what had happened to the gun in question. 

Contrary to Kumaratunga’s letter to the IGP on October 10, where she has charged that SSP Jayasinghe acted against police practice and did not even inform the IGP that he was beginning an investigation into this issue together with the CID, is just one more lie uttered by the President.

Signed letter

Anandarajah in fact signed the letter written to him by SSP Jayasinghe seeking permission — authorising the MSD Director to proceed with an inquiry after seeking the assistance of the CID.

Thus, Kumaratunga’s charge that SSP Jayasinghe has taken the law into his own hands, bypassed the office of the IGP and instructed Director CID Lionel Gunatilleke to investigate this matter is another false assumption on the part of the President.

In fact, it is Kumaratunga who is attempting to take the law into her own hands by ordering the IGP to first seek her permission before the police proceed with questioning any officer attached to the PSD, even those who have been interdicted as in the case of SP Nihal Karunaratne. 

SSP Jayasinghe after all functioned according to police practice by first bringing this matter to the notice of the IGP and thereafter requesting the CID Director to conduct an investigation.

Death threat

The Sunday Leader has already highlighted how Kumaratunga in a fit of rage, telephoned SSP Jayasinghe who was at the time in the company of the IGP, and threatened him with death.  

Shrieking at him that he is low down “scum” who is now licking the ba..side of the UNP, Kumaratunga vowed to take revenge against the hapless police officer. “I know what you have done.  I am the President of the country.  Mama paligannawa, paligannawa, paligannawamai,” she shouted angrily in a voice bordering on hysteria.

Needless to say, despite Kumaratunga’s accusations, SSP Jayasinghe has never arrested or even spoken to SP Karunaratne on this matter or any other.

After all, at the time the gun was taken by Karunaratne, Kumaratunga was the Western Province chief minister and a day later elected prime minister.  If this weapon is now missing, surely as the leader of a democratic nation, Kumaratunga should allow the law enforcement authority of this country to carry out an inquiry according to normal police practice.

Why, should any member of the PSD be above the law? By alluding to a possible threat on her life as a result of 84 PSD officers being under investigation by the police — Kumaratunga appears to be abusing her executive powers in order to make a mockery of the laws that govern this country.

Sri Lanka after all, is not yet a banana republic — so much so, that the police chief is forced to sit mute, while a senior colleague and fellow officer is threatened with death by no lesser personage than the President of this country — all because he is carrying out his duty.

The twist in this tale, which Kumaratunga appears to have lost sight of is that, it is not SSP Jayasinghe who took this weapon and now cannot account for its whereabouts. If, SP Karunaratne has signed and taken this weapon in 1994, then he should be in a position to explain what he did with it and where the gun is lying now. After all, it cannot be easy to lose a T 56 weapon and what pray, was the 100 rounds of ammunition used for?

It will be interesting to see if Kumaratunga will use her executive powers to take the Interior Ministry and the police under her ‘wing’ in order that she may call the shots — berate and threaten police officers as she forces them to be pawns in an increasingly ugly game of political skulduggery.

Back to a nose-dive

By Amantha Perera

The perfect description about the economic fortunes in the coming months ahead came ironically from Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapakse. “It is going to be utter chaos now,” he observed soon after the Supreme Court judgement  was delivered to President’s House and the political sparing between the two main political parties threatened to break out into an all out battle.

When the country’s political situation continuously deteriorated from the Provincial Council election for the North-Western Province in January 1998, the economy took a tumble, at the end rolling down the pallama. When the PA lost its grip on power in December 2001, GDP growth had receded to minus levels. Once again the economy seems set to become the first and the worst victim of the political uncertainty that is gripping the nation.

A sign of things to come was the manner in which the Colombo Stock Market reacted to the news — within the first 10 minutes of trading the All Share Price Index (ASPI) fell by 17 points and the sensitive Milanka Price Index by 43 the points. Brokers attributed the steep falls to selling pressure across the board. When trading finished on Friday, the ASPI had lost 5% within the last two days of trading. The ASPI lost 29 points on Friday while the Milanka lost 59.91 points.

Ironically, selling pressure was more pronounced on Friday. The ASPI lost almost 3.5% during the three hours of trading.

Sell orders kept mounting with the news setting in that a battle royale was in the making. The only thing  allowed the brokering firms to float was a turnover of above Rs. 100 million.

Even big time government funds had pulled out of the market and were waiting till the market picked up, that too to sell. “May be next year,” was the target of  one fund manager.

“It is time to wait and see,” was the reaction of an economic analysts attached to a leading stock broker. Since there is only two months to go for the year, everyone including market investors as well as entrepreneurs foreign as well as local, will adopt this attitude.

In September analysts were talking of minor snags like the Kotmale Hydro Power Project and the abduction of soldiers, by Friday opinion had changed dramatically. They were talking of  “really deep sh..”

The coming two months would also clear the air as to which way the political ‘tug of war’ is heading. November would see the budget being presented and after December President Chandrika Kumaratunga gets the power to dissolve parliament at her discretion.

GDP of 2 to 3%

Since it is just two months to go, the chances of this year’s economic forecasts being affected by the present political bickering is limited. Most analysts are of the view that the country would be able to achieve a GDP growth rate of between 2 to 3%.

However, the crisis could not have come at a worse time. September was taken as a month by many when some sort of stability came into the economy.

The stock market that has been plagued by the ‘yo-yo syndrome’ due to profit taking settled down somewhat, and the peace talks created the much needed positive impetus.

The peace dividend had just begun to deliver. In August, tourist arrivals compared with August 2001, recorded an upward swing of 126%. Leaving allowance for  the fact that August 2001 got hit by the LTTE attack on the airport,  nevertheless, at least things were moving. Tourist arrivals for the first eight months of the year were down only by 10%.

The joint appeal made by the LTTE and the government delegation that the country was in dire need of assistance too looked to be reaping the benefits.

On Thursday (17) the World Bank announced that it was granting a loan of Rs. 3100 million to assist the rehabilitation of 800,000 displaced personnel.

More such funding is expected. However, all is not rosy especially on the economic front. While providing the funds the World Bank Country Head Peter Harrold reminded that loan utilisation was poor in the country and it needed to be addressed.

Exports, imports decline

Poor loan utilisation is but one minor snag plaguing the economy. Both exports and imports showed declines during the first six months for this year.

Export  earnings on dollar terms declined by 17%, “industrial sector, which contributes 75% of total exports, declined 20.1%. This was mainly attributed to the poor performance of  textiles and apparels (contributing an average 70% to total industrial exports), which declined 21.9% largely due to loss of demand,” C. T. Smith Stockbrokers said in their monthly analysis for September. Almost all export sectors had recorded declines in the first half of this year.

On the import side, investment goods and intermediate goods had declined while obviously imports of defence items too had gone down.

Despite the good signs a lot needs to be healed, and the possibility of another economic calamity is not that far away. The Supreme Court judgment more or less, squashed any illusions of a stable government.

Tourism may get hit due to the Bali blasts. Already Petroleum products including gas are taking the upward route due to global prices. And if the US plays cowboy in Iraq, Sri Lanka would be playing the part of collateral damage.

The government is looking for hard cash through the privatisation programme, but the entire opposition is taking to the streets against it. Now with so much to gain, such campaigns run the risk of being hijacked to put the government under even more pressure.

The JVP has already said that they would bring the dreaded ‘deshapremis’ out on to the streets to topple the government, hardly the words of encouragement for an economy that is wooing George Soros.

And at the end of the day, this political crisis can end in several dooms- day scenarios. Elections filled with violence and costing the country more than Rs. 600 million and bringing the economy to a halt, an eunuch of a minority government, breakdown of the peace process....the predictions can be chilling indeed.

The real effects of the present crisis will be felt next year. The longer it persists the worse the results. Even by the most optimistic standards, the country would have to begin from square one, if not further back, all over again in 2003.