Sri Lanka: Committee blames spy chief for failures over Easter attacks

A Sri Lankan parliamentary committee, in its report on Easter suicide bombing in April, held the country’s spy chief primarily responsible for the intelligence failure. The findings of the parliamentary select committee (PSC) pointed to multiple levels of failures which led to the deaths of 259 people in the attacks. 

'Attacks could have been prevented'

The committee, in the report released on October 24, said that the Chief of State Intelligence Service (SIS), Nilantha Jayawardena, was slow in sharing the information with other agencies. The committee noted that attacks could have been prevented if the matter was discussed in a meeting held on April 9. It also held the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the then Minister of Defence (MoD) responsible for not following up on 'whether the President and the Prime Minister were informed of the intelligence received'.

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The politicisation of the intelligence sector

“This failure by the SIS has resulted in hundreds of deaths, many more injured and immeasurable devastation to Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans and that must not be treated lightly,” the report read.

The report also lamented the increasing politicisation of the security and intelligence sector. It said that the secretary of the Ministry of Defence, the highest civilian individual in the security apparatus, should have been in regular contact with the President and able to communicate with the Prime Minister in case the President was unavailable. 

“Since the constitutional crisis of 2018, the access by the Secretary, MOD to the President was limited. Testimony indicates that the President had regular contact with the Director, SIS than the Secretary, MOD,” said the cross-party committee.

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Committee wants a new framework

Citing the testimonies, the committee said that there was a lack of vision, expertise and preparedness within the security and intelligence apparatus. The committee has called for a new framework and structural reform claiming that the current framework is not a viable model amidst evolving security challenges. It recommended a prompt introduction of structural and legal reforms to combat new and existing security challenges.

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