Unravelling the Eknaligoda abduction

Questioned for three days about a book on the Rajapaksa family, the senior journalist who went missing on January 24, 2010 is presumed killed, but his family is still waiting for answers

by Hana Ibrahim

Eknaligoda - plus.google.com

Journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda’s youngest son, traumatised by the disappearance of his father in 2010, wrote a tear-jerkingly poignant letter, pleading, “If I can see my father just once more, even for a brief few minutes…Just to tell him I love him….”

Sadly, he may never get that opportunity, if the confessions of a Sergeant Major, who was arrested in Kurunegala on August 9, in connection with Eknaligoda’s disappearance, are fully investigated and proven. But finally having answers to what really happened to a loving father and husband, last seen on the night of January 24, 2010, may bring the needed closure, allowing the family to unplug the five-year long pause button on their lives, mourn the loss and, difficult as it is, move on.

“We need to mourn him. We need closure. But we also need some kind of proof that he is really dead,” says Sandhya Eknaligoda, who has been relentless in her quest to find out what happened to her husband, and hold those responsible for his disappearance accountable.

She still hasn’t given up the fight, nor the hope that Ekanligoda is alive. On August 13, 2015, four days after the arrest of the Sergeant Major and his confession that the journalist and political cartoonist was detained and questioned at the Girithale Army Camp, she wrote to President Maithripala Sirisena, the Inspector General of Police, N. K. Ilangakoon and the Elections Commissioner, Mahinda Deshapriya, urging that investigation be made transparent and the information be made public officially. She expressed concerns that undue influence may be used to sabotage the investigations to ensure the truth is kept suppressed and the actual perpetrators allowed to escape.

“I still have to fight,” she says, not quite certain what will happen next, but determined not to give up until justice has been meted out.

Simply disappeared

Eknaligoda, who was working for Lanka e News, disappeared around 8.00 p.m. on January 24, a few days ahead of the 2010 Presidential Election, which had the former Army Commander contesting against the then incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Eknaligoda was last seen getting into a three-wheeler from the vicinity of the Lanka e News office in Rajagiriya, and simply disappeared.

On that fateful day, when her husband failed to return home, Sandhya went to the police to report his disappearance. In a travesty that was to be repeated until January 8 this year, she was sent from pillar to post, with neither the police station closest to her home nor the station closest to his office, willing to accept her complaint.

The Eknaligoda family - sunandadeshapriya.wordpress

The police point blank refused to accept her husband’s disappearance as a bona fide case and all she received was silence from the then government. Sandhya says she tried through judicial channels, Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Commission and even appealed, in a poignant letter to First Lady, Shiranthi Rajapaksa, seeking help as a mother and wife of a former dissident herself, all to no avail. This apathetic response led both Sandhya and Rights groups that have championed her fight to believe the then government to be directly responsible for the journalist’s fate. This belief was further compounded when, at a meeting of United Nations Convention Against Torture in Geneva, Mohan Peiris, who was Attorney General at that time and went on to become Chief Justice later, dismissed the charges against the government and said Eknaligoda had sought asylum abroad. For seven months Sandhya demanded proof for such a statement. None was forthcoming. Eventually when questioned in the court later, he retracted the statement, claiming he did not remember who the source of his information was and that “only God knows” the whereabouts of the missing journalist.

Sergeant Major’s confession

Now more than five years later, there seems to be some kind of breakthrough, which as investigations continue, appears to validate Sandhya’s belief of the Rajapaksa regime’s culpability in her husband’s disappearance and possibly murder.

On August 7, 2015, the CID took into custody two former LTTE cadres for questioning over the Eknaligoda disappearance. Arrested from Vavuniya, the two former Tigers were identified as Kanapathipillai Suresh alias Satya Master and Sumathipalan Suresh alias Nagulan. According to CID sources, information gleaned from the two former LTTE cadres had led to several army officials being identified as being involved in the disappearance.

One of the prime suspects was identified as a Sergeant Major attached to the Army intelligence unit. Arrested in Kurunegala on August 9, he had in his confession to the CID, reportedly said that Eknaligoda was detained in the Girithale Army Camp and questioned for three days, pertaining to a book he wrote about the Rajapaksa family, ostensibly titled Pawul Gaha (Family Tree).

He had also confessed that Eknaligoda was abducted by two Tamil nationals attached to the intelligence division of the Girithale Camp, and that he had personally questioned the journalist for a period of three days. The primary questions, according to CID sources, had centred on the ‘Family Tree’ which they believed was about to go into print, and the ties that existed between Eknaligoda and the former Army Commander and current Field Marshall, Sarath Fonseka. The sergeant major had confessed that on the third day, a Major temporarily promoted to Colonel, who was acting as the second in command of the Camp, had appeared and taken Eknaligoda away, claiming “We have a trip to go with him’.

That was the last time anyone had seen Ekanligoda alive. What happened is left to conjecture.

Letter sent by Sandhya Eknaligoda to the President

However, CID sources, who do not wish to be identified, claim that it was the Commanding Officer of the Girithale Camp, a bona fide Colonel and a close ally of former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who had instructed the pseudo Colonel to take Eknaligoda away, most likely to his death.

The Rajapaka family tree

‘The Family Tree’ reportedly written by Eknaligoda, traced the number of Rajapaksas who had secured high powered government jobs, revealing their suitability and educational qualifications, or rather their unsuitability or lack of qualification for the jobs they held. Interestingly, sources reveal the proofs had gone missing before the book could be printed.

Sandhya who knew about the book and believes she still has the notes Eknaligoda made when doing research on the matter, says she told the Police about it during the initial stage of the investigations. She accepts the book could be the reason why her husband was abducted although it didn’t have any damning information the general public was not already aware of. However, she demands conformation as to who had given the orders to abduct him.“The CID should find out and take everyone involved into custody. The Army should not try to safeguard the officials involved,” she insists, demanding that the government be transparent in its investigation, make the information public and arrest the culprits and not allow any of them to leave the country.

“The truth as to why exactly my husband was abducted and remains disappeared has to come out,” says Sandhya, pointing out that his abduction and possible murder, were not things that happened in the heat of the moment, but something that was pre-planned and well executed.

She says has many questions about the abduction and believes the perpetrators had most probably used her husband’s weakness, his loyalty to his close friends, to get the information on what he was doing and then finally get to him. She feels betrayed by his friends, but says with conviction that the abductors would not have gotten any information out of Eknaligoda, no matter how they tortured him.

Ensure justice is done

Sandhya has always believed her husband to be alive, for to believe otherwise was to give up and allow the perpetrators to win and deny Eknaligoda justice. “My absolute faith is that my husband is alive. He is my courage. He always worked for justice and equality. He was never a violent person. He never believed in violence, he never promoted violence. He always worked for peace and unity. He was not only my husband. He was my best friend. So it’s my responsibility to make sure justice is done,” she says.

Sandhya, whose constant quest has been to keep Eknaligoda’s story alive in the local and international media, says she still needs to continue the fight, for confirmation - as to what exactly happened to him, who ordered his abduction, why specifically he was abducted, if they killed him, how they killed him and where the remains are – for accountability, for arrest of the suspects… For, if she gives up and accepts what Police or the Army, or for that matter the government wants her to accept, she would be handing victory to the perpetrators and denying justice not only for Eknaligoda, but for all the other husbands and sons who have involuntarily disappeared over the past few years.