Batalanda report to the parliamentary table ..

The leaked report that came to the fore with the Al Jazeera press conference has reached the hands of all members of the parliament. In that discussion, Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe was directly questioned about the Batalanda report, but the former president rejected the report stating that it was not a tabled report in the parliament.   

According to this, the commission report should be made public, the report should be forwarded to the Attorney General, a presidential committee should be appointed to take further decisions on the commission reports, and Minister Wimal said that he is ready to hold a two-way debate.

Human rights organizations accuse Wickremesinghe of crimes against humanity in the late 1980s, particularly involving the notorious Batalanda torture camp.  Their warrant is based on the 'principle of universal jurisdiction', a legal principle that allows courts in some countries, including the UK, to prosecute individuals for serious international crimes such as torture.

The allegations against Wickremesinghe stem from his role as a senior minister in the then United National Party (UNP)-led government.  Wickremesinghe has denied direct involvement, but testimonies and reports from survivors, including former police officers, tell a different story.In particular, Douglas Peiris, a retired police officer who was the head of the CSU, has filed an affidavit in court accusing Mr. Wickramasinghe of overseeing and facilitating battalion operations.  Peiris claims that Wickremesinghe gave clear orders, which resulted in the disappearance of over 3,000 youths, many of them innocent.

The Batalanda Detention Centre, located in the Byagama constituency near Colombo, became notorious during the 1987–89 Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurgency in Sri Lanka.  It was reportedly used by the Sri Lanka Police's Counter-Terrorism Unit (CSU) to detain, interrogate and torture people suspected of involvement in a violent insurgency against the government.

The battalion detention center was notorious for systematic torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.  Survivors and witnesses describe painful conditions, which include:

* Subjecting detainees to physical and mental torture.

 * Killing secretly and disposing of corpses secretly.

* Information about the detainees was denied to the families of the detainees and many never got to see the ship.

However, the evidence against him continues to mount.  Human rights activists argue that as a senior government figure, Wickremesinghe cannot be absolved of responsibility for atrocities committed under his administration.  His failure to act against the battalion's operations makes him complicit.