President Maithripala Sirisena’s options to avoid testifying before the Select Committee of Parliament to look into the Easter Sunday attacks are bleak, the UNP lawmaker Hirunika Premachandra told Parliament yesterday.
According to MP Premachandra, President Sirisena in his capacity as the Minister of Defence is duty-bound to stand before the Select Committee and has no option to circumvent it.
“Personally he may not like it but he still has a duty to appear at the Select Committee for the sake of the families of those who died during the Easter Sunday attack.
The Prime Minister has expressed his willingness to testify before the SC. All the top officials who had already given testimonies before the SC were appointees of the President.
It is clear that President Sirisena is responsible for the failure to stop the attack based on what they said before the SC,” she charged.
“I think that the President did nothing to prevent the attacks. He would have had the impression that he could pass the blame on the Prime Minister and the Government. If that was his intention his plan has boomeranged. Our leaders too should have entered the National Security Council meeting forcefully. Now they should not complain that they were not allowed. It is an excuse we can’t accept from them,” she added. (FT)