by Ranga Jayasuriya-2013-05-12
Late last week, as pressure was mounting on the government over the detention of the Muslim politician, Azath Salley, powerful Defence Secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, plunged himself into the controversy.
He told our sister newspaper, Mawbima, that Salley was detained on a controversial detention order obtained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) as the detained politician had conspired to mobilize Sri Lankan Muslims to wage an armed struggle against the country.
He alleged Salley had held talks with a Tamil Nadu based group, to establish a joint front and that intelligence agencies had found incriminating evidence that Salley had held discussions with the Tamil Nadu group to mobilize the Tamil speaking Sri Lankan Muslims into the hands of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).
It is, however, not clear as to how canvassing support for the TNA, a coalition of Tamil political parties with a parliamentary representation, would amount to a crime. Notwithstanding those discrepancies, the Defence Secretary made it clear that he meant business and that he ‘would be awake to protect the country.’ What is also not clear was whether the Indian intelligence agencies were aware of those purported findings made by their Sri Lankan counterparts.
However, strange enough, not even 24 hours after Gotabhaya Rajapaksa made those damning revelations, Azath Salley was released on Friday, after President Mahinda Rajapaksa revoked his detention order. Having signed the official papers for the release of Salley, his one-time ally , the President enplaned to Uganda. The country is a recent African success story and a member of the Commonwealth. However, the mention of its name evokes a less salubrious individual, with whom the country was synonymous for all too long: Idi Amin, cannibalizing despot, who turned the country into a hellhole and decided the life and the death of his people.
Justification for release
The purported justification for the release of Salley was that he, in an affidavit submitted to the President, had denied advocating an armed struggle. He maintained that he had been misquoted by the Tamil Nadu magazine, Junior Vikatan and that the magazine had carried a correction subsequent to his request.
Following is an excerpt from the affidavit:
Mohamed Azath Sanoon Salley
Affidavit
I, Mohammed Azath Salley of 61/A Flower Road, Colombo 7, being a Muslim do hereby solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm as follows:
I am the affirmant above named.
I state that I gave an interview to the Junior Vikatan magazine published in India. I state that in the manner in which the interview was published I have been misquoted. Upon realizing this I requested them to publish a correction which has been republished.
As a Sri Lankan Muslim, I don’t advocate or support anyone to take up arms against the Republic of Sri Lanka as I am fully aware of the consequences and the costs of such a course of action as seen through the three decade war in Sri Lanka.
I have stood for and will continue to stand for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka and for the equal rights of all communities. If anyone is misled by the interview published in the Junior Vikatan or if anyone has been disturbed , I express my regrets.
I state that I attended a conference organized by the “ Popular Front of India” purely on the basis of an invitation extended to me by the said organization and I participated solely as an invitee for the first time. I had not prior knowledge of the said organization background and their motives.
As a patriotic citizen of the Republic of Sri Lanka and who supports the sovereignty of Sri Lanka I will not support anyone who makes statements against Sri Lanka or its national security and I condemn such actions and statements.
Salley’s release, as much as his arrest, was extraordinary. Neither could be described using the normal process of the rule of law. The arbitrariness of the incidents defines the Sri Lankan system. Salley was released after the submission of the affidavit. The affidavit alone, it appeared, served as the sufficient proof of Salley’s innocence against a series of earlier allegations levelled by the Defence Secretary and the purported findings of the intelligence services. It was the President’s discretionary powers that matters after all, both in his arrest and the release.
Govt. in a catch-22 situation
Salley’s arrest placed the government in a catch-22 situation. Its ministers themselves had been questioning the legality of the arrest. A major rebuke of the arrest came from none other than Justice Minister, Rauff Hakeem. Speaking in public, Hakeem described the arrest as illegal. In a meeting of the government parliamentarians, he complained that as the Justice Minister, he had been kept in the dark and that the arrest of Sally should have been handled by his ministry. The anger of Hakeem was directed at none other than the powerful presidential brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. Another Minister, Rishad Bathiudeen, had been lobbying for the release of Salley, behind the curtain.
The dilemma of the Muslim parliamentarians in the ruling party had been worst confounded by the sense of disenchantment of the Muslims that the government had been indifferent towards, if not culpable for the growing anti-Muslim propaganda.
Worst still, the international pressure also increased as some of the Western democracies and Islamic countries conveyed their concerns to their Sri Lankan counterparts.
It was a representative from the American Embassy in Colombo, who was first to visit Salley after his release from the detention.
The affidavit, which was submitted by detained Salley, provided a face-saving for the government to extricate itself from the situation. For Salley, who had already languished for eight days in CID custody, shifting between the fifth floor of the CID and the hospital, that was a fair enough bargain.
However, some other ministers are disappointed with the handling of the case, for different reasons.
The arrest thrust Salley into the limelight. “Earlier, my brother was known only in Sri Lanka. Now he is known internationally. I must thank Gotabhaya for that,” says Riyaz Salley, the brother of Azath.
And Minister Mervyn Silva quipped in a conversation with fellow government parliamentarians: “Meka hariyata car ekak ona ekata, geyak dunna wage wedak.” (This is like donating a house to a man who only wanted a car)
‘I’m more patriotic than the patriots’
Azath Salley, who was released from CID custody on Friday, describes his experience.
Q: Did you apologize to the President in order to get released?
A: No. Why should I? The government media are now saying that I apologized. All what I said was included in the affidavit.
Q: What did the CID ask from you?
A: They took a statement before I was released on Friday.
Q: Does that mean, they kept you in detention for eight days without questioning?
A: On the first day of my arrest, they asked some basic questions and wrote 13 pages. You know those basic questions like my name, mother’s name and how my forefathers came to Sri Lanka centuries ago, stuff like that. Nothing substantial. After that, I was started fasting and I was not in a position to give a statement. And they had to take a statement from me before I was released. So they took a statement on Friday.
Q: What did you tell them?
A: I told them the same thing that I wrote in the affidavit. I also told them to go and arrest Bodu Bala Sena Secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, because he had described 83 mosques in Akurana as Taliban bunkers. I told them (CID) to arrest him and get more information about the Taliban in Sri Lanka. I also told them to question Udaya Gammanpila, who had warned that the 1915 Muslim-Sinhala riots would happen soon. They (CID) should question him about those remarks, but the funny thing is that one who appeals for peace is in custody while those who fuel ethnic disharmony are roaming free.
Q: Did any government ministers visit you?
A: Yes, many
Q: Who are they?
A: Rajitha (Senaratne) and Rishad (Bathiudeen) came to see me in the hospital while I was in CID custody on the first day. But on the second day, Vasudeva Nanayakkara, S.B. Dissanayake, Tissa Attanayake and many others came, but they were not allowed to see me.
Q: Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has alleged that you had conspired to wage an armed struggle against the country…
A: Gotabhaya Rajapaksa should know I am a more patriotic Sri Lankan than him. I did not help Bodu Bala Sena. I am advocating that we, all communities, should be able to live in this country with equal rights.
