Irrational Presidential pardon

 Isn’t there any consideration given to the victims of the bomb blast and their families who have gone through so much suffering from trauma during the last 27 years because of the premeditated acts of the aforementioned two criminals?

• Why? Why? Why? What is the rationale?

By Senehe Perera

I was an employee of the Central Bank on 31 January 1996, and I still vividly remember the trauma caused as a result of the terrorist bomb attack on the Central Bank building by LTTE terrorists which claimed the lives of 91 civilians and injured 1,500 and caused irreparable loss to the Central Bank. 41 CBSL officers were dead, 8 CBSL officers were totally blinded, 11 CBSL officials were partially paralysed, and a few 100 were seriously injured.

Here is the news item that appeared in the Hindu News Paper when the punishment was given, after the criminal case.

Quote: “SRI LANKA – The leader of the Tamil Tiger rebels Velupillai Prabhakaran has been sentenced to 200 years imprisonment today (Thursday) along with three other “LTTE cadres” by the Colombo High Court in connection with the attack on the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in 1996. Colombo High Court Judge, Sarath Ambepitiya, gave this ruling while delivering the judgment on the Central Bank Bomb attack on 31 January 1996, where nearly 100 people were killed and over a thousand injured.” Unquote

One of the persons who was totally blinded by this attack who was a vivacious female and a leading dancer of the Chithrasena Group, as well as a Legal Officer of the Central Bank namely Nayanatara Gunasekara who at present lives in the UK, arrived in Sri Lanka on a holiday with her son Shaluka who has to devote his full (space) time to look after the incapacitated mother and I was to meet her yesterday after many years.

My shock upon seeing her cannot be described. Blinded in both eyes. I shudder even now at the enormity of it. I had almost forgotten!

She has suffered immeasurably just as many others had, injured in the infamous Central Bank bomb blast! And many others had paid the ultimate price in gruesome death. Dr. A.G.M. Zuhair an economist who held the post of Superintendent of the Public Debt Department of the Central Bank is another unfortunate victim who was totally blinded.

Who maims and kills like this and gets away?

Meanwhile last week we learnt that the mastermind bomber of the Central Bank has been granted a Presidential pardon.

I reproduce below sordid latest details about the Presidential Pardon granted to the culprits of the bomb attack extracted from different news items obtained from the internet.

“Former militant Selliah Navaratnam, who was serving a 200-year prison sentence for his involvement in the 1996 Central Bank bombing, has received a Presidential pardon from President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The pardon, effective from last Tuesday (18), was granted for his good behavior in prison.

The suicide bombing attack carried out at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) claimed the lives of 91 civilians and injured one thousand five hundred others.

The bombing is considered one of the deadliest and most devastating attacks carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Accordingly, former LTTE member Selliah Navaratnam who had been sentenced to 200 years in prison, and S. Shanmugarajah, who was sentenced to life in prison have been pardoned and released from prison on Tuesday (July 18), according to the Department of Prisons. Selliah Navaratnam is currently 69 years old, while Shanmugarajah is aged 56.”

And so, punishment duly meted out as we imagined has fizzled out into thin air.

As with all Presidential pardons, from the release of the convicted Murderer of Mirusavil of a group of civilians including a five-year-old child by cutting their throats and pushing them into a well, to this present one, the key factor is political expediency.

Whatever benefits the ruling regime shall always be the deciding factor in these pardons whatever the crime has been.

Mr. President are these only two persons referred to above who displayed good behaviour in prison in the recent past?

Isn’t there any consideration given to the victims of the bomb blast and their families who have gone through so much suffering from trauma during the last 27 years because of the premeditated acts of the aforementioned two criminals?

Shouldn’t the public interest activists comment on this irrational decision?