Minister Bimal Rathnayake Submits the Pattalanda Report in Parliament
A long-suppressed report, concealed in the dark corridors of the Presidential Secretariat for 25 years, has finally come to light, revealed Minister and Leader of the House, Bimal Rathnayake, in Parliament today.
This report not only exposes the brutal atrocities committed by those who stripped the nation of its sovereignty but also serves as irrefutable evidence of how the country was systematically dismantled over generations to serve political agendas, he stated.
Minister Rathnayake made this revelation while presenting the Pattalanda Commission Report on the Pattalanda Massacre Camp in Parliament today.
Historical Wrongs and Political Repression
Expanding on the findings, the Minister stated:
•In 1988, the United National Party (UNP) government, which came to power with a 6/5 majority, imposed an Executive Presidential system without a public referendum.
•After coming to power in 1977, the same government unleashed widespread violence against Tamil civilians and opposition political parties.
•In 1978, just a year into its rule, it introduced draconian laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), launching an era of severe anti-democratic repression.
•In 1980, the government crushed a massive trade union strike, leaving hundreds of thousands of public sector employees jobless.
•In 1981, it orchestrated the blatant rigging of the Jaffna Development Council elections and set fire to the Jaffna Library, one of Asia’s largest repositories of Tamil literature.
•Instead of conducting the scheduled parliamentary elections, the government held a fraudulent referendum, one of the most corrupt elections in Sri Lanka’s history, extending its rule for six more years through a stolen mandate.
The Darkest Chapter: Black July and Its Aftermath
The Minister further highlighted how this period saw the ruthless suppression of trade unions, journalists, student organizations, and religious leaders. The government, he said, orchestrated the anti-Tamil pogrom of Black July in 1983, a state-sponsored genocide that laid the foundation for a three-decade-long civil war.
Following Black July, the UNP-led administration used the riots as a pretext to ban leftist parties, including the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The judiciary, under government influence, even dismissed the petition filed by JVP leader Rohana Wijeweera against the fraudulent referendum.
Despite relentless efforts by these oppressive regimes to rewrite history and suppress the truth, Minister Rathnayake asserted that a new era of public consciousness began on September 21 of last year, marking a turning point in reclaiming the nation’s true history.
Global Attention on the Pattalanda Massacre
The Minister emphasized that the Presidential Commission’s report on the Pattalanda Massacre Camp, a war crime committed during the 1987–1990 period, has now gained both national and international attention.
A police constable and another individual have been arrested for allegedly assisting suspended Senior DIG Deshabandu Tennakoon in evading arrest, the Police Media Division confirmed.
Sarith N. Silva, the creator of the popular YouTube channel Wild Cook Book, has achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first Sri Lankan to surpass 10 million subscribers on YouTube.
U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, paid a visit to the headquarters of the United National Party (UNP), Sri Kotha, today for a crucial discussion with the party’s leadership.
