Welikada Prison Riot Web of deception New eyewitness comes forward
BY Kavindya Chris Thomas and Ruwan Laknath Jayakody-2018-02-18
How and why were you incarcerated?
A: I was imprisoned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act as a political prisoner in 2007 together with fellow political prisoner W. Sudesh Nandimal Silva (another eyewitness to the riot and the first to publicly testify). We were arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Division. I was eventually released after being cleared of all charges in 2014.
What happened on the day of the incident?
A: On the morning of 9 November 2012 we saw Security Forces deployed outside the Welikada Prison gates. We thought it was a routine inspection. However, in the evening, a battalion of armed Special Task Force (STF) Officers entered Prison and commenced a search operation in the L Ward, ignoring the protests of the Prison Guard at the gate. Eventually the Prison Officials allowed them to carry on because they were told they were there on orders from senior Defence Officials. We were in the Temple Ward and heard that several hundred STF Officers had stormed the Chapel Ward. We learned that they were searching for drugs and mobile phones.
Prisoners and Prison Officials protested as this is against Sri Lankan and International Law. Then the STF assaulted the inmates as well as Prison Officials who attempted to intervene. The inmates fought back as they outnumbered the STF. We also heard that the STF were armed with a Court order.
This is why we believe that many of the Prison Officials were previously aware of the incursion which was obviously planned. The fight between the inmates and the STF escalated and the prisoners were forced to the back of the Chapel Ward, the doors locked and tear gas fired at them. We could hear the shouts and the screams of those inmates and we rushed there. We were also assaulted by STF, along with those who were pleading with the troops to stop the attack.
The distraught prisoners took bricks that had been brought for building construction and began a violent reprisal. They had surpassed their breaking point and the violence was inevitable.
The ferocity of the counter-attack by the inmates forced the STF and several Prison Officials to retreat. The officials were showered with rocks, bricks and stones thrown from the roof of the Prison complex. The former Superintendent of the Welikada Prison and incumbent Commissioner of Prisons (Supply), J.A. Gamini Jayasinghe tried to calm down the situation. But it was already too late.
STF Officers who retreated, fired tear gas canons from outside, and were only met with jeers and hoots. The inmates, including myself, who were out in the open within the Prison premises, quickly went into our wards.
Jayasinghe spoke to us, promised justice and urged the prisoners to assist in bringing this situation under control. It was Silva and I who brought the inmates together to listen to him. Since he wanted to talk to the STF Officers who were still firing tear gas at the complex, we let him go. However, he didn't come back for a long time.
I had two phones with me at the time, even though it was against regulations. It was one of the many luxuries we had because we were on good terms with most of the Prison Officials including Jayasinghe. When Jayasinghe didn't come back, I called him from one of these phones. He answered saying he cannot stop the Security Officers' assault, as they are here with orders from 'higher authorities.'
Then matters got worse and the situation escalated into a full-scale riot. A group of inmates broke into the Prison Armoury while another climbed the roof. Inmates grabbed weapons but they did not have the ammunition and that is why, although they had T56 Guns and Rifles, not a single weapon was fired that day.
By 6:00 p.m. the tear gas attack stopped and was replaced by the firing of weapons. By then, all the inmates were tired. We could have held the Prison for at least two days, but we were all very hungry and thirsty. This was also when some of the injured inmates were being escorted outside in a three-wheeler. They were not trying to escape but they were shot at nevertheless. By 8:00 p.m., the prisoners started shooting blanks into the air with the weapons they had acquired. Other prisoners broke into the Prison dispensary and helped themselves to the various drugs stored there. Others had started getting high on the narcotics that had been smuggled in.
Using the mobile phones, we notified the media, and others outside, of what was going on inside. I called Jayasinghe and told him that we were fed up and we wanted this to end. Our only demand was that the Security Forces do not enter the compound again. Jayasinghe told us to collect the weapons and hand them over to Chief Jailor, P.K.W. Kudabandara. He agreed to our conditions and said that he will inform the authorities outside. Since we had reached a decision, Silva, E. Thushara Chandana a.k.a. Kalu Thushara (Remand 4230) and I went outside the wards to collect the weapons that had been obtained from the armoury.
How many weapons were taken out of the armoury? Did you find them all?
A: I don't know how many weapons were stolen but we recovered almost all of them – some from the ground and others from the inmates – and handed them over to the Chief Jailor. When I called Jayasinghe to say that the weapons had been collected and were kept safe, he said that the STF wouldn't allow the Prison Officials in and warned us to return to our wards because the military was planning to storm the premises at midnight. Just before mid-night another barrage of bullets was fired into the Prison by the security forces demanding that the prisoners hand over any remaining weapons. However, by this time the prisoners did not have any weapons in their possession as they had handed everything over. When the military and the STF barged into the Prison, Kudabandara tried to safeguard the inmates but it didn't work.
What did the military and the STF do?
A: Once the inmates surrendered and the shooting stopped, the Prison Officials who ran in during the initial stages, Jayasinghe and several plain clothed officers entered the Prison and called out names of certain prisoners and gathered them one by one.
The officers who entered first asked the remaining Prison Officers to kneel down. All seven of them amidst protests followed the military orders. They were ragged (ordered to jump up and down, kneel and crawl on their bellies). And then they were instructed to find several inmates. They called out certain names and the Prison Officials pointed them out. First they looked for former Basnayake Nilame of the Vapikaramaya Temple in Galgamuwa in the Kurunegala District, Pathirage Harsha Manjushri Manikeerthi Perera a.k.a. Manjushri (R 662), who was incarcerated for his alleged involvement in the murder of two Buddhist monks at the Kotte Rajamaha Viharaya with a sword. We heard him being assaulted and dragged outside by the plain clothed officers. Earlier we were told that he was going to confess to his act, that the crime he was alleged to have committed was a political contract that went wrong. His body was found later that day. There were many such inmates whose names were read out of a list and were taken out.
We didn't see them being shot but we saw our Prison Officials witnessing the incident and we heard the gunshots.
Security personnel demanded to be shown where Kalu Thushara was hiding, at the time, he was under the desk that Silva and I were sitting on, but no one gave him up. We were sharing a cigarette when this Police Narcotics Bureau Officer called Rangajeewa came looking for Thushara (Attempts by Ceylon Today to obtain a contact number for Rangajeewa were unsuccessful).
And it was another Prison Official who saw him under the desk and dragged him out. Rangajeewa didn't recognize him at first until the Officer pointed him out. Thushara was kicked several times and dragged outside. He was begging not to be killed. We heard him crying and pleading for his life and for his child. His body was found shot and killed outside later that day.
Can you identify any of the Officers who were present that day?
A: Rangajeewa was present. We believe that he had a personal vendetta against the inmates on this 'kill list.' Most of the inmates had filed fundamental rights cases and petitions against him, prior to their killing.
I saw former Senior Deputy Inspector General of Police Anura Senanayake that day. He was the one who dropped weapons – weapons that were returned to the armoury – near the bodies of the 27 dead inmates in the early hours of 10 November 2012. We heard him ordering: "Hema ekatama weapons daanna (put a weapons near everybody)." (Silva has confirmed this story. However, when contacted by Ceylon Today, Senanayake was not available for a comment.)
Prison Officials and some of the Jailors who witnessed these murders have the responsibility of coming clean with the truth. But they are silent, as they are occupying higher places now, having climbed to the top of the Governmental hierarchy. I remember that on 10 November, many of the Prison Officials left the Prison in a hurry once everything ended. They told us that they had been summoned to the Defence Ministry for an urgent meeting. We could only guess what happened during that meeting because none of these individuals are prepared to speak the truth today.
What do you think is the ulterior motive behind this incident?
A: The primary goal of the incident, as we learned, was to kill Manjushri. He had told all of us what had happened and as to who had given him the contract. He was going to confess that he was politically contracted for this job by politicians and when it went wrong, he was taken out in the most extreme way possible.
Then there were the others in the kill list. Rangajeewa wanted to remove all the Court cases against him.
We believe that there was an attempt to take over the narcotics business from criminal gangs by someone powerful in political circles. Therefore, this was the best way to get rid of those who could not be controlled by the then hierarchy.
Therefore, this entire Welikada incident has layers and layers of agendas and motives overlapping each other. This whole operation was to kill two birds with one stone.
Why have you not come forward with this evidence?
A: When the Criminal Investigation Department initially took statements from me and all the other inmates, we were forced to say what the officials wanted.
When the new Government commenced its fresh inquiry in 2015, I tried to give evidence before the new Committee (the Committee of Inquiry into the Prison Incident 2012/C.I.P.I.). But a Prison Official called Madushanka who I believe had been tortured by certain military officers for leaking photographs to the media of the deceased prior to having had weapons being placed on their persons, gave false information about me to a popular radio programme, in an attempt at a cover-up and to deflect the blame. I was branded as a Sinhala Kotiya (Sinhalese sympathetic to the cause of the Tamil Tiger rebels) once again in that radio programme. I filed a Police complaint but nothing happened. Because of that, I didn't bother testifying before the Committee.
To be honest, I knew my testimony would be abused and manipulated to the advantage of a political agenda. It will be diluted beyond recognition and I will be yet another joker under unintentional servitude of the Government in power. I didn't want that to happen. However, if a just Court case into the Welikada incident is ever heard I will come there and give my testimony.
