Pivithuru Hela Urumaya Leader Udaya Gammanpila has stated that he will only handover his reports on the Easter Sunday attacks to the government if there is a guarantee that they will be made public. He emphasized that he is not prepared to submit the reports unless such a promise is made.
Speaking at a media briefing held at the Pivithuru Hela Urumaya party office yesterday (16), Gammanpila elaborated that he had already warned the President during a previous media conference that if the committee reports related to the Easter attacks, which have not yet been made public, are not released within the next seven days, he would make them public himself.
In response, government spokesperson Minister Vijitha Herath stated that the government would give him three days to handover the reports and would investigate how he obtained them. However, Gammanpila rejected this, questioning why the government, which had previously promised to release these reports while in opposition, is now hesitating to do so.
Gammanpila argued that the government must reveal why it is reluctant to disclose the reports, which were prepared with public funds. He stressed that citizens have the right to know the truth contained within these reports, as withholding them infringes on the people’s right to information and freedom of thought, as guaranteed by the Constitution.
He also refuted any attempts to intimidate him by labelling him as a criminal for retaining the reports. Gammanpila reiterated that if the government does not make a commitment to release the reports, he will not hand them over and vowed to publish them himself after seven days.
Gammanpila criticized the government for keeping these reports hidden, stating that it deprives the public of their right to access information prepared with their tax money. He argued that this secrecy is a violation of citizens’ rights and called upon Minister Herath to retract his statement, in which he implied that holding onto the reports is a serious crime.
