“Prabath Bulathwatte‘s reactivation in a prominent post will not only pose a serious threat to and have a chilling effect on those army officers and other witnesses who had the righteousness to speak up against Mr. Bulathwatte’s alleged wrongdoing,” says Lasantha Wickematunge’s daughter, Ahimsa Wickrematunge.
Prabath Bulathwatte‘s reinstatement was announced on May 11 by Army Chief Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake in an interview with news broadcaster Ada Derana.
Ahimsa
“I can share what I told Army Commander Mahesh Senanayake. Major Prabhath Bulathwatte has been credibly accused by the CID of running a death squad from within one of the most elite units in the army. Reports filed in court indicate that several of his colleagues in Military Intelligence and many civilians have courageously come forward to provide the police with evidence against him, commenting on Bulathwatte’s reinstatement Ahimsa told Colombo Telegraph.
“His reactivation in a prominent post will not only pose a serious threat to and have a chilling effect on those army officers and other witnesses who had the righteousness to speak up against Mr. Bulathwatte’s alleged wrongdoing. It will also send the wrong message to the dozens or hundreds of capable, military intelligence officers whose efforts were dedicated to winning the war against the LTTE or otherwise protecting Sri Lanka while Mr. Bulathwatte was allegedly occupied with terrorising journalists at the direction of powerful masters for political reasons,” she said.
“Especially in this time of crisis, Sri Lanka’s security forces desperately need capable and professional officers with a track record of going above and beyond to serve their country and not settling personal vendettas. I am confident that the army’s intelligence corps has many such officers to choose from, and need not be cowed by those who want to see Mr. Bulathwatte and his alleged political masters legitimised and going free,” Ahimsa further said.
Last month Ahimsa filed a civil case in a U.S. court against former Sri Lankan Secretary to the Ministry of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa, alleging that Rajapaksa operated a clandestine military intelligence unit known as the “Tripoli Platoon” that was responsible for her father’s assassination as well was attacks on Deputy editor of Nation Keith Noyahr and Rivira weekly editor Upali Tennakoon.
Related posts:
Sri Lankan Army Reinstates Official Suspected In Lasantha Murder And Other Attacks: Rights Groups Condemn
Jagath Siriwardana / May 18, 2019
What is this blind love between GR and MS
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Eagle Eye / May 18, 2019
Nathan,
“Country lifted its head due to minorities “
—
BS! Racist Demala politicians who encouraged Demala people to think that they are ‘Demala people OF Sri Lanka’ and not ‘Demala people IN Sri Lanka’ ruined this country after British left. If Demala people accepted that they have to live as citizens of Sri Lanka with native Sinhalayo, the racist separatist Demala politicians might not have got the opportunity to promote their dreamland ‘Tamil Eelam’ in Sinhale. The separatist mindset of racist Demala politicians was the main cause for the rift between native Sinhalyo and Demala people who came from Hindusthan and settled down in Sinhale. Demala people should reject Wellala politicians who continue to talk about Separate State/Federal System and learn to live with native Sinhalayo. Although Wellala politicians discourage Demala people learning Sinhala, they should ignore that and learn Sinhala instead of asking Native Sinhalayo to learn Demala which is a ridiculous idea of ‘Chaura Rejina’. Be realistic!
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Champa / May 18, 2019
There was a move since 2015 to remove all talented prominent officers from the Army. Many were sent on retirement. Some others were sent to jail.
I vehemently opposed to the title of the article. “Death squad leader”??? There is nothing against Prabhath Bulathwatta.
The slave government has given a pledge to LTTE diaspora to dismantle Sri Lanka’s Intelligence Service. That the only reason they are in jail. All the cases were fabricated.
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Nandamal bahubutha / May 21, 2019
Champa, How deep did he dive
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D.E.M.O KRAZY / May 18, 2019
Sri Lanka seem to have a knack of appointing convicted criminals and murderers to high positions in Govt & Military, and Sadly able to Justify i
It doesn’t take a Rocket Scientist to figure out why!
This is a sure way of taking the country to where the politicians want us to be ….. a failed state!!
BLESSING AND SUPPORT FROM ALL THE IGNORANT.
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Nathan / May 18, 2019
Moda Blind, the moment you stupid man talk of ”Sinhala” there is more to reply you. You are totally blind and no insight into o reality. When DS cheated Tamils at independence all hopes of co-existence gone. He complelty somersaulted, that is nothing new in your singhaley. Tamils wanted to live together and that is why agreed to westminster type democracy trusting singalas but your repeated and inherent betrayal proved otherwise. Tamils did not study the real Sinhale history properly then. Moda Blind, Muslims coexisted with you and they even helped your Sinhale army to defeat VP and then what did you good do to them? Your handler and contributor MR betrayed Muslims too. The moda thambiyas too have to learn through bad experience. You ran away after Premadasa so you don’t have proper information except rumours and gossip and racist bluffs. You guys have inherent irisiyawa, so no way any productive race can co-exist. Are you not ashamed to talk about your low grade media wise standardisation simply because you can’t compete. Moda Blind please do not open your mouth. First get some good reference about Sinhale history instead of referring to kumarodaya written by people of your caliber in order to mislead your Sinhala youngsters. You can see them along with yellow robed thugs running around looting, torching and destroying the belongings of unarmed innocent people in the name of Sinhale Buddhism. How many riots you guys had and how many times you looted from minority and yet still no progress and the fellows who had free uni education are running away. First tell me why did you ru. Away. Though it is GROBR yet let me know.
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K.Pillai / May 18, 2019
{“Lasantha’s Daughter Slams Army Reinstatement Of Death Squad Leader”}
The reinstatement of Prabath Bulathwatte was announced on May 11 by Army Chief Lt. Gen. Mahesh Senanayake in an interview with news broadcaster Ada Derana.
This is a challenge to the Commander-in-Chief “Dare….dare?………….Stop this”
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Ralph / May 18, 2019
Assuming that the Army commander is right in saying that the soldier adjusted the strap, how does he condone this soldier not using his rifle to chase away the mob. Or is it that these guys have been given toy guns?
Either the Army Commander is downright stupid or he is in the same mould of his political bosses – a racist to the core.
They planned it very well. Removed all the small weapons from Muslim homes and then gave the signal to the rowdies to attack.
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Pon Kulendiren / May 18, 2019
Ahimsa your father will never get justice in Sri Lanka. The same case for Thajudeen.Sri Lanka is Mafia country A Mafia leader is trying to become the President. He went to the US to get training from an Italian mafia group in New York
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appubaba / May 19, 2019
Pon Kulendiren / May 18, 2019
This has lot to do with lanken culture. Those who become lawyers and judges are also not coming out of the country. All of them are SRILANKENS. That means, not doing the job properly, leaving high criminals to roam in the city as is the case today, is just normal to lanken style of serving justice.
Interchangiably, SLFP and UNP have governed this country.
JVP has not done it yet, but I have no hope also about the governing nature of JVP since they are also from SL.
All in all, so long lankens lead anything, serving justice though promised, would just be an eternal dream.
I kept hope on Ranil Wickramasinge, but he coul dno tdo much during th elast 4 years, becuase the man got elected by their powers, none other than President Sirsena stood against them.
As for me, Sirisen is the pain here.
He has stood all along whatever being achieved towards justice in this country.
JVPrs are well at screaming, but theirs is no practical in this country, since people too are highly corrupted and corruption supporters. No matter what education level you would have obtained, almost entire structure in THIS country is highly corrupted.
Basta.
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Manel Fonseka / May 19, 2019
Dear Sarojini & Tamil from the north
The absence of social media wasn’t the only reason for the apparent lack of response to the abduction & murder of Richard. There was also a very different atmosphere then from what we have at the moment, with the insurgency & govt death squads. One never knew which side one might have angered – terrible tension, especially for those of us who cared about what was happening. There wasn’t quite the same freedom of the press we have now, however, limited it might seem. Few people spoke out. His mother & some others did pursue the fight for justice but things were so bad it was 15 years before the case came to trial & by then, I think, Manorani had died.
On 23 Jan 1990, Richard & I read poetry by Anne Ranasinghe at a recital in the Goethe Institute. (In case you don’t know, Anne was a German Jewess, most of whose family perished at Auschwitz). One poem Richard read, in his marvellous voice, was ‘On Finding the Grave of My Grandparents in Germany.’ It ends with the lines: “It is the end of an odyssey, the never again falls over me / The shadow of God falls over me / As I stand at the gate of eternity.”
Whenever he read this at rehearsals, in that tension-filled period, I was filled with a sense of foreboding. On 11 Feb 1990, there was an article by him in the Sunday Island: ‘Manifesto for an Alternative Society,’ part of a debate about Jatika Chintanaya. Only then did I realize Richard was a leftist. In the prevailing situation, some of the things he had written seemed to me to be unnecessarily provocative. Ten years later, however, it is very difficult to experience or understand the impact his article made then. (cont.)
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Manel Fonseka / May 19, 2019
We lived between two terrors in those days – the state & the JVP/DJV. I felt I had begun to comprehend how so many people were silent in Nazi Germany. A similar silence, for the most part, reigned here. Some of us were able to express our concern & condemnation & make appeals through the medium of groups we worked in; few spoke out as individuals. I, who had grown up in post-war Europe, with a strong sense of guilt for what happened to the Jews (& others) in Germany, had never understood how most people stood by silently while such crimes were committed. In the late ‘80s here, however, I began to feel that many of us, over time, had assented tacitly or actively to innumerable little acts of state injustice, illegality & undermining of democratic processes, & suddenly, or so it seemed, we were confronted by a monster that was now impossible to grapple with, & to whose development we had all contributed. By the time we recognized it for what it was, it was too late to destroy or even control.
Why Richard chose to write in quite that vein at that particular time, was beyond me. He could still have made his points without certain declarations. Later, when I learnt he was about to go abroad & write a book about the situation, based on considerable knowledge gathered from travelling widely in the country & meeting people of varying political opinions, including the JVP leadership, I was even more puzzled. He needed to keep a low profile if he wanted to leave safely with such a purpose.
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Manel Fonseka / May 19, 2019
On 15 Feb I went to the film, ‘The Lost Honour of Katherina Blum’, in which an investigative journalist is shot. It ends with a funeral oration at his grave. As I left the cinema I ran into Richard: ‘Richard, I didn’t know you were a Marxist until I saw yr article on Sunday? But is this really a time to write so provocatively?’ His reply seemed tinged with scorn for me: ‘Some of us have to stand up.’
That was the last time I saw him. On the 19th, in the relative peace of Sigiriya, I opened a newspaper & read of his abduction & ‘disappearance’. The ‘shadow’ had fallen over him.
Later, whenever Anne asked me to read that poem at a recital, I was unable to, but I wrote something for Richard four days after his cremation, & a short article to the press 10 years later.
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Manel Fonseka / May 19, 2019
To Catch the Conscience
This breaking of a young and vibrant life
Can be no act of God.
So then what meaning in this play of ours?
Do wanton ones dispose of us in sport?
We are not toys
Our severing is no game
And I – an unbeliever – need a theme.
I’ll find it yet
And trace a young man’s part,
The villain know, who had the lion’s heart.
He could have kept the cover of the mime,
Or lulled us with the glory of his voice.
Instead, compassion forced him write the lines
Of tragedy, his last and greatest part.
We see the skull – for we are much possessed –
As molten fingers ravel back the skin.
And each one knows the time has long since passed
When we, with confidence, can say: “this is the last.”
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Thassim / May 19, 2019
President Trump is getting ready to pardon several (mostly ) white Christian US military personnel found guilty of war crimes or are charged wnd under investigation forbear crimes including murder of unarmed civilians.
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punchinilame / May 20, 2019
Quoted from Observer article 19-05-19 on BALUWATTEs come back, which record is
a must for this protest from the family>
We are on operation. At this particular time I need a batsman who can bat now. I don’t want a baller. I don’t want a fielder now. I have very limited overs to play. For you.
Q: He is facing charges because he has done it.
A: That is what you think. It’s like this. If a soldier has done something wrong it is the people who have given the orders. So I request kindly from all of you to go and find out who gave the orders to him. Not the person. In today’s context whenever a soldier takes an action I am responsible. I have the army commander and my staff here. I have a very strong team. We take the leadership, this leadership is responsible to the actions. What he does within the law. So during that time if something had happened that is their problem.
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Thiagarajah Venugopal / May 21, 2019
We are all to familiar with the death squads in Jaffna supervised by the TULF and trained armed by the TN Government the killing field from 1970 to 1983 in Jaffna ‘Tamil on Tamil’ not recorded/punished yet the beneficiaries are sitting in the parliament after all the debacle.
I fully sympathise with this young lady looking for her fathers killers and her anger with the politicians and the officials. Infect we Tamils are all too familiar with this emotions the Institutionalised nature of the killings that took place in Jaffna the GOSL had no power to stop then……..the cast system none of this elected could not address yet set out to save my Language at the expense of Mother Lankan Children……..mind boggling conman.
I guess the difference is India helped to put down the 1971 JVP uprising at the same time allowed the TN to do the opposite?? then assisted GOSL with the final phase of the war? we are all living with the blunder after blunder.
1977 elections a disaster to the Nation……….from North to South and East to West. The election results were null and void because they were never the free elections in the first place the world took no notice at that time……no mandate then for separatism for sure and no mandate could be possible by the traumatised people for federalism either now yet we discuss and drag on something not related to the people..my people.
I really feel for this Young lady and hope she find ways to cope as we have all done the same..is hard.
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Soam / May 24, 2019
It is sad and real irony that Ahimsa, is not going to get a fair & proper hearing in the case of her father’s kidnapping & murder. Sri Lanka has become a land of lawlessness and corrupt / inept leadership has been the main driver. Only Sri Lankan can make this change. Will they ever wake from the slumber?
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