It has been revealed that the failure to prevent violent incidents across the country on May 09 is a considerable fault of the police and the armed forces.
This is stated in the report issued by the committee appointed by former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to investigate the related incidents. This report was handed over to President Ranil Wickramasinghe on the 8th.
The other members of this committee which was appointed by Former Navy Commander, Admiral of the Fleet Wasantha Karnagoda, are former Air Force Commander, Marshal of the Air Force Roshan Gunathilake and former Army Commander General Daya Ratnayake.
The committee says that the intelligence agencies had provided sufficient information regarding the attack on Mr. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s house in Mirihane on March 31st and the riots on May 09th, but the police and the armed forces have not acted properly. It has been observed that instructions had been given to higher officials to control the protesters, but those officials have not issued orders to their subordinates to take necessary measures.
The report has been prepared based on the evidence of police and military intelligence officers and the committee reports on 03 major faults.
The committee says that the reluctance of security forces members to carry out orders such as the use of batons, shooting in the air, shooting below the knee, lack of proper coordination between intelligence agencies and the lack of operational coordination between security agencies are very serious deficiencies.
The committee pointed out that due to various reasons such as prosecution of security forces members involved in incidents like the Rathupaswala incident, taking action against security forces members in Sri Lanka in front of international organizations such as the United Nations Human Rights Council, security forces members are reluctant to take necessary measures in civil conflicts.
