SRI LANKA: PRIME MINISTER EXPRESSES REGRET FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 COLOMBO 000824

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/INS AND PM
MCC FOR S GROFF, D TETER, D NASSIRY AND E BURKE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/11/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PHUM MOPS CE
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: PRIME MINISTER EXPRESSES REGRET FOR
TAMIL DEPORTATIONS

REF: A. COLOMBO 809


B. COLOMBO 820

C. COLOMBO 805

Classified By: Ambassador Robert O. Blake, Jr., for reasons 1.4(b,d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Over the weekend, Prime Minister Ratnasiri
Wickremanayake publicly expressed "regret" for the
deportation of Tamils from Colombo lodges and hostels. On
Saturday June 9, approximately 160 Tamils who were forcibly
deported from Colombo to Vavuniya returned to Colombo on the
same police buses that took them away two days earlier. What
happened to approximately two hundred other Tamils internally
deported on June 7 remains unclear. President Rajapaksa
asked Police Chief Victor Perera to investigate who was
responsible for the deportations. (Note: the Ministry of
Defense, which is overseen by the President's brother,
Gothabaya Rajapaksa, issued the verbal order to carry out the
removals.) Perera reiterated his claim that the Tamils left
voluntarily. Embassy received a report that police officials
went to at least one Tamil lodge to extract an affidavit from
the owner that the occupants left at their own request. As
embarrassing as the episode proved for the government, in
Embassy's view there is a positive side to it, in that Sri
Lanka's political and civil society institutions finally
stepped up to their responsibilities. Parliamentarians,
non-governmental organizations, media outlets and the
judicial system combined to thwart the attempt by hard-liners
within the administration to expel non-Colombo based Tamils.
This demonstrated that Sri Lanka's democratic institutions
can still provide a check to unbridled executive power. END
SUMMARY.

SOME TAMIL DEPORTEES ALLOWED TO RETURN TO COLOMBO
-------------- --------------


2. (C) At approximately 6:30 a.m. Saturday, June 9, two
buses carrying roughly 160 Tamils arrived in Colombo from
Vavuniya, returning just 48 hours after being loaded onto
police buses for forcible removal (ref A). However, about
two hundred other Tamils who were also rounded up on June 6
and 7 from Colombo lodges and hostels remain unaccounted for,
including some who remained behind in Vavuniya, and others
who were transported to Trincomalee. The GSL has not yet
indicated whether they will also be allowed to return to
Colombo in accordance with the Supreme Court's order.

GSL APOLOGIZES FOR TAMIL DEPORTATIONS AND ABUSES
-------------- ---


3. (C) On Sunday, June 10, Prime Minister Ratnasiri
Wickremanayake held a press conference with Ministry of
Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella and military spokesman
Prasad Samarasinghe in which the Prime Minister stated in
reference to the deportations: "It was a big mistake. As
the government we express our regrets to the Tamil
community." Rambukwella was uncharacteristically quiet
during the press conference, perhaps not wishing to be
questioned about his statements the previous day to the
effect that the Tamils left voluntarily and with gratitude
toward the government for providing free transportation (ref
B). Wickremanayake expressed no caveats in his apology,
stating, "We accept the responsibility, and the government
must take the responsibility for all actions of officials,
whether they are good or bad." Wickremanayake also
apologized for the two Tamil Red Cross employees killed on
June 1 (ref C) and the discovery of nine bodies of abducted
Tamils in Wennapuwa on Friday June 8, stating that, "The
government should take responsibility for all of these."

COLOMBO 00000824 002 OF 002



POLICE FEELING THE HEAT, ATTEMPT TO COVER THEIR TRACKS
-------------- --------------


4. (C) On Saturday June 9, President Rajapaksa publicly
requested Police Chief Victor Perera to investigate who was
responsible for issuing the order to round up Tamils and
transport them outside Colombo. As has been widely
reported, however, the order came directly from the
President's brother, Gothabaya Rajapaksa following a National
Security Council meeting (ref B). Perera, perhaps
understanding that Gothabaya was not going to take the blame
for the blunder, reiterated the Government's now discredited
explanation that all of the Tamils left voluntarily. Embassy
contacts reported to us on June 10 that police officers
returned to one of the Tamil lodges, Angel Inn (strictly
protect),and forced the owner to sign an affidavit stating
that those Tamils staying in his lodge left "at their own
request."

DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS SHOW SIGNS OF LIFE
--------------


5. (C) COMMENT: The entrenched "culture of impunity" in
Sri Lanka has flourished under the Rajapaksa administration.
However, this time, traditional democratic checks on
executive power sprang to life and forced the government into
a painful retraction. Even the Sinhalese chauvinist Marxist
Janatha Vimukthi Peranuna (JVP) aligned with the main
opposition party, the United National Party and the main
Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance, to condemn the
deportations. Moderate members of the ruling coalition
refused to publicly support the Government, or even
threatened to withdraw from the coalition if the deportations
continued. The government-owned Daily News and its
vernacular versions were the only major newspapers supporting
the official rationale that Tamils left voluntarily.
Virtually all other media outlets lambasted the government
and provided ample space to critics of the move. Civil
society leaders mobilized activists in Sri Lanka and
internationally to apply pressure. The Supreme Court, once
thought to be nothing more than a rubber-stamp for the
administration's nationalist policies, stayed the Ministry of
Defense order on the grounds that it violated the Sri Lanka
Constitution. The combined pressure forced the government to
backtrack almost immediately and issue an unequivocal
admission of error and apology. The democratic voices'
success will likely embolden administration critics in the
future, and will make the government think twice before
applying such coercive methods in such a public way again.
BLAKE