The Hon. Mujibur Rahuman

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, the previous Member spoke about the Easter attacks. He does not know that the two main officers investigating the Easter attacks under their Government today were originally appointed during the Yahapalana Government: one was the former Director of the CID and the other a former DIG. If so, remove them too. Do not lecture us while keeping them. They were the ones who received the intelligence that bombs would go off—not us. Now those officers are “good” and the Yahapalana Government is “bad”? Do not bring childish arguments.

¶ 02 Next: about the 11 hours. Yesterday, the President held a press briefing and said, “On February 26 three ships were to arrive; the Iranian Government requested permission.” He said this. When was the Iranian ship attacked near Galle sea limits? In the early hours of March 4. That is six days later. Why was a decision not taken for six days? If you had been in the Opposition today, you would have even revealed the submarine’s colour and who pressed its button. The people on the vessel near Panadura were rescued yesterday on the President’s orders—that is good; we do not condemn it; we demanded it from the start. One of your MPs yesterday called our statements “vile”—then what the President did is also “vile”? We only said: rescue those on the ship. We did not say join Iran to fire missiles at America. We said allow our craft to approach and rescue the crew. But from the 26th to the 4th no decision was taken. If the decision had been taken earlier, more than a hundred lives at Galle could have been saved. If the Navy had been sent sooner to the ship anchored in Galle waters, those sailors too could have been saved. Still, we thank the President that at least now he acted with compassion.

¶ 03 Further, I state responsibly: senior officials of the Iranian Embassy confirmed that the three ships came to Sri Lanka at the request of the Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy. Ask the Navy Commander whether such an invitation was extended. If the Government did not know and the Navy Commander invited them, investigate that.

¶ 04 You also said the Government is in a neutral position—that is, in the middle. But the UAE President’s media office released: “UAE President receives phone call from President of Sri Lanka condemning Iranian attacks.” So how is that a neutral position? You did not condemn the killing of 165 children, nor the assassination of a State leader. On both counts you remained silent.

¶ 05 The JVP, especially when in Opposition, always stood against injustices by powerful nations—at Lipton Circus and before the US Embassy. I have video clips: Ministers today—Vijitha Herath, Bimal Ratnayake, Nalinda Jayatissa—stood there. I too stood in those protests against such injustices. That political movement is today behaving impotently. We did not ask you to join Iran to attack America or Israel. We said that our leaders have always taken principled stands against injustices. This is not the first war involving Iran—there were wars with Iraq, Syria, Libya; yesterday Israel attacked Qatar. Our former leaders always took policy decisions. In Opposition you were anti-imperialist; we believed that once in power you would stand more strongly against injustices on oppressed peoples. Understand this. We are not trying to topple the Government; there is a political issue here—understand what it is. If you cannot even condemn strikes on Iran, the killing of 165 children, or the assassination of a head of state, then what was your decades-long political campaign?

¶ 06 Thank you.