For decades, investigative journalist Nandana Weerarathne has wielded his pen to uncover Sri Lanka’s darkest and most horrifying chapters, including the burning of the Jaffna Public Library and more recently, the Easter Sunday terror attack. Throughout his career, he has faced significant personal danger, being one of the few journalists to bravely speak out about the infamous torture chambers at Batalanda.
His decades-long struggle was, perhaps for the first time, vindicated when the Government tabled the Batalanda report in Parliament this week, nearly 27 years after it was handed to former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga by the Commission of Inquiry to investigate the creation and operation of unlawful detention and torture chambers at the Batalanda Housing Scheme in the late 1980s.
Exposing atrocities
At a press conference on Thursday, Weerarathne asserted that he had fulfilled his duty as a journalist by exposing the atrocities linked to the Batalanda detention centre and now it was the Government’s turn to do so.
He said that if the National People’s Power (NPP) Government led by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the party that suffered the most at the hands of the State at the time is truly committed to dismantling the criminal state and fostering peace, it must investigate the allegations in the report and implement the recommendations of the Batalanda Commission. “They need not delay this. This must be done,” he said.
Weerarathne also responded to claims by President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had told Al Jazeera that the report had not been tabled in Parliament. “If Wickremesinghe tells Al Jazeera the report has not been tabled, is it then our fault? As journalists, we have done our duty,” he said, adding that their investigations were never influenced by the political affiliations of those involved.
Investigative journalist
Nandana Weerarathne
Recalling the challenges of exposing the atrocities at the time, he said the revelations had been published in the Ravaya newspaper, which had a circulation of just 150,000. “No other media outlet dared support us,” he said. “Instead, the newspaper with the largest circulation merely published responses to the allegations we had made”, he added.
Kumaratunga’s inaction
Weerarathne also accused former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga of failing to take action despite campaigning on a promise to hold perpetrators accountable—including those responsible for the assassination of her husband, popular politician and actor Vijaya Kumaratunga. “Instead, she took the Batalanda report and locked it inside a trunk at the Horagolla Walawwa, only to take it out again during the 1999 Presidential election. She merely used it to instill fear against her main but weak opponent,” he alleged.
According to Weerarathne, one of the most serious aspects of the Batalanda Commission’s findings was the statement made by Christopher Vincent Fernando, then-Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s Batalanda bungalow caretaker. This testimony, given in camera, was omitted from the final report. The Commission’s own notes indicate that the omission was meant to ensure Wickremesinghe’s future protection.
Weerarathne believes this decision was allegedly made at Kumaratunga’s behest.
Horrors of Batalanda
Describing the grim reality of Batalanda, Weerarathne said that it was not an ordinary detention centre. “It was a place where even policemen were killed by their own,” he said, referring to the murder of Sapugaskanda Crime OIC Rohitha Priyadarshana. He expressed dissatisfaction with the Government’s continued silence, saying that even now, there had been no meaningful response.
He said that it was not just JVP cadres who were victims of the torture chambers; even United National Party (UNP) supporters were abducted and held to ransom by ASP Douglas Peiris. “It was like a separate criminal state. But this was just one such branch—there were almost 100 torture centres across Sri Lanka,” he said.
A university turned torture camp
Weerarathne also disclosed details of his latest investigation—into a detention and torture camp allegedly housed within the University of Colombo during the same period. He said that former Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka had once been detained there but had managed to escape alive. “But not even he speaks about it today, because he is now part of the State machinery,” he said.
According to Weerarathne, the University of Colombo may be the only university in the world to have housed a torture chamber. “Only one or two survived it,” he said.
Holding the State accountable
When asked whether action should also be taken against deaths at the hands of the insurgents back then, Weerarathne maintained that his priority was justice for the people. “The main thing is that torture chambers were maintained solely by the Government. These were State-sponsored torture centres. These must be investigated first,” he said. He also accused the Government at the time of being the first to unleash terror, even going so far as to seek Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) support to suppress the South.
Now, he said, the current NPP Government cannot shirk its responsibility to deliver justice. He said that since 1994, those aligned with the current Government, including those who have held ministerial positions, have remained silent on the matter, despite the sacrifices made by journalists and activists to expose the truth.
