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Shuffle and scuffle in spy apparatus
Top-level changes in the country's intelligence services, as revealed in these columns last week, will take effect from tomorrow. Deputy Inspector General of Police, Keerthi Gajanayake, will take over as Director General of the Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DII), the country's premier intelligence agency. A former Director of the CID, he has undergone training in intelligence at Britain's MI 5.

The present Director General of DII, Felix Alles, DIG will move to Police Headquarters as Staff DIG, the position held by Mr. Gajanayake. Several other top-level changes in both the DII and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are on the cards. Some of the senior officers, among those who are likely to be affected by the changes, are to make representations to the Police Commission not to heed demands for transfers on political grounds.

However, an insider at Police Commission says that changes were being made only on grounds of merit and other criteria. He says that the purpose of setting up the Commission was to avoid any forms of political interference. Merril Gunaratne, a retired DIG continues to function as Defence Advisor to the Ministry of Defence.

Insiders say he has offered to continue his services, which includes overall responsibility for all the state intelligence agencies. However, a change from January 1, next year, is not being ruled out. Meanwhile former Defence Secretary, Austin Fernando, had been accommodated at the Prime Minister's office on an assignment.

Retired officer did not know
After 69 witnesses testified during a four-month period at their offices in the Bandaranaike Memorial International Confernce Hall (BMICH), the one man Presidential Commission of Inquiry's report on the Athurugiriya Army Safe House fiasco was released to the media on Thursday.

The Commission headed by former Appeal Court Judge D. Jayawickrema submitted a 202-page report (with annexure). What has been made public is only 29 pages titled 'FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS ONLY."

The findings (Chapter Four) deal with answers to the terms of reference of the Commission. The very first one was - whether there was any information given by any personnel of the Armed Forces disclosing the existence of a Safe House at Athurugiriya.

The findings begin with an interesting paragraph. This is what it says:
"The existence of a Safe House operated by the Sri Lanka Army at No 844 Millennium City, Athurugiriya is beyond any doubt. Except a retired Lieutenant Colonel, Jayavi Fernando, all other witnesses including the Army Commander and other officers, the Inspector General of Police and the other senior Police Officers who gave evidence as witnesses before this Commission accepted that this was a legally maintained Safe House by the Sri Lanka Army. Even Jayavi Fernando expressed the view that there was an Army sub-unit at this house and this was not a safe house…."

It is not clear why the Commission chose to single out only Lt. Col. Jayavi Fernando. Is it because only he believed there was no LRRPs or a Safe House? Naturally, as the Commission said, he is a retired Lieutenant Colonel and would not have known about the secret operations.

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