The Sunday Times: Sri Lanka: Monday, November 27, 2017.
Sri Lanka’s
Right to Information (RTI) Commission has ordered the release of key
documentation relating to the ‘missing’ findings of the Commission of Inquiry
Report into the death of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress founder and Minister M.H.M.
Ashraff and fourteen others on September 16, 2000 in a Sri Lanka Air Force
(SLAF) Mi-17 helicopter crash.
The report of
the one-man Commission of Inquiry constituting Former Justice L.K.G.
Weerasekera had been appointed by the then President Chandrika Kumaratunga to
probe the crash. His report has been ‘missing’ after the relevant files were
sent by the Presidential Secretariat to the National Archives in 2007. As the
RTI Commission inquiry conducted on Monday revealed, the report was also
‘missing’ in the files forwarded to the National Archives by the Secretary of
the Commission of Inquiry in 2002.
The
Commission released Extracts of Pages 69, 70 and 71 of the report relating to
the recommendation of Rs. 8 million to be paid as compensation to certain
parties. These were the only available pages of the report in the 2007 file.
The released information also included a minute made on the file by the
Presidential Secretariat claiming that the crash was not due to a willful act
or an explosion or any explosive device. The crash was attributed to act or
acts of omission, lack of due diligence and duty of care amounting to
negligence on the part of the crew.
In their
ruling, the RTI Commission Chairman Mahinda Gammampila and Commission members
Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, S.G. Punchihewa and Selvy Thiruchandran, directed
the release of information citing the overriding public interest attaching to a
report of a statutory commission. (http://www.rticommission.lk/web/images/pdf/Basheer%20Segudawood.pdf
).
Commenting on
the submission by the National Archives Director General Nadeera Rupesinghe
that these were confidential records under the Archives law, the Commission
referred to Section 4 of the RTI Act which gave priority to the RTI Act ‘in the
event of any inconsistency or conflict between the provisions of this Act and
such other written law.’ It was observed that the Public Authorities in
question had not raised a specific exemption under the RTI Act itself in respect
of not disclosing the Report except to say that the Report was ‘missing.’
The
Commission also called for the release of the ‘list of documents’ that were
contained in the file sent by the Secretary to the Commission of Inquiry to the
Department of National Archives on 24.01.2002. The documents themselves were
considerable in number and stored in boxes kept in the Archives.
The RTI
Commission pointed out that the Department of the National Archives was the
custodian of ‘all records’ of Commissions of Inquiry under the Commissions of
Inquiry Act (1948) read with Section 11 of the National Archives Law (1973).
The Report of
such a Commission would constitute a primary ‘record’ under and in terms of the
said law. Hence the Department may properly call upon the depositing body or
individual (effectively the Secretary of such a Commission) to inquire if the
Report had been sent to the Department in accordance with the law.
Accordingly,
the National Archives was directed to ascertain from the Secretary of the
Commission of Inquiry as to whether the Report of the said Commission had been
handed over to the Department in 2002. It was also directed to check the actual
contents of the relevant boxes where the original documents were stored in the
National Archives and to ascertain if the Commission of Inquiry Report is
contained in those papers.
The Order was
issued following a Right to Information appeal filed by former Minister Basheer
Segu Dawood to the RTI Commission after his information request under the RTI
Act was declined by the Presidential Secretariat earlier this year on the basis
that all available files had been sent to the National Archives and that the
Report was ‘missing’. It is unclear as to when the Report had ‘disappeared.’ As
informed by the National Archives on being noticed to appear before the RTI
Commission with all available files in its custody on Monday; the notation of
the documents received at the time did not contain a reference to the actual
Report.
The files
also included reference to President Chandrika Kumaratunga promising that she
would publish the report as a Sessional Paper. However, the report was not
published and was not made available even informally to the public leading to
controversy surrounding the reasons for the crash which, Air Force sources
stated, had occurred despite no indication of bad weather in the area.
The RTI Commission
inquiry on this issue will continue.
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