SINCERITY IN RECONCILIATION

Dr. Jehan Perera deliberates over the long road to justice and accountability

The international quest for justice and accountability in Sri Lanka is continuing. When presenting its annual report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk noted: “In Sri Lanka, although the government has regrettably rejected aspects of the [UN Human Rights] Council’s (UNHRC’s) resolutions related to accountability, it has continu­ed to engage with our presence on the ground.”

He continued: “Sri Lanka has received a dozen visits by mandate holders in the past decade and I encourage the authorities to implement their recommendations.”

It seems that the change in Sri Lanka’s presidency has made no difference to the expectations of the international community and demands placed on the government.

The government’s position has been that it is continuing its focus on the long-term measures towards reconciliation and accounta­bility within the framework of the constitution, and it opposes international mechanisms that would erode national sovereignty.

Since the first UNHRC resolution was brought against Sri Lanka in 2009 soon after the civil war ended, successive governments have sought to defeat them. The government was successful the first time when Ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka led the Sri Lankan team in Geneva.

But when former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government failed to implement the promises it made, the tide turned and Sri Lanka was at the receiving end of more resolutions.

The only time that the Sri Lankan government sought to collaborate with the international community on the issue of UNHRC resolutions was when President Ranil Wickremesinghe was the prime minister. He led the government in 2015 and agreed to cosponsor the updated resolution.

And the government accepted a range of recommendations, which included vetting security forces personnel, removing those accused of human rights violations from the security forces and setting up special courts with international participation to look into questions of accountability.

During that period, the govern­ment made some attempts to deal with issues facing the people such as returning land to them and reducing the military’s role in civilian life. But the institu­tions it set up such as the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) soon lost credibility due to the limited nature of its work.

There was resistance within the government and larger society to probing the past because many continue to see the security forces as having performed a necessary service to the country by ending the war to preserve its unity and sovereignty.

The present government’s response to the pressure from the international community is to revive and strengthen the mechanisms already in place

The present government’s response to the pressure from the international community is to revive and strengthen the mechanisms already in place such as the Office on Missing Persons. Under new leadership, the OMP is building its capacity with support from the international community and civil society organisations.

Meanwhile, the government is continuing to return land to the people. This is accompanied by efforts to increase the role of the Office for Reparations in offering financial and symbolic compensation to families of the missing, and victims of human rights violations.

But the main instrument in the government’s arsenal appears to be the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The draft is to be shared with the diplomatic community soon. The minister of justice says that once the TRC draft receives parliamentary approval, it will be implemented by December.

Tamil leaders who have seen the document don’t believe that it will address the issue of ac­countability because it doesn’t include holding perpetrators of crimes accountable.

Such a level of accountability can’t be expected at this time when those leading the government have played key roles (both overtly and covertly) in suppressing insurrections in the past. It isn’t reasonable to expect leaders to indict themselves or pave the way for such indict­ments and prosecutions.

Any targeting of the security forces will also lead to a division in society and can result in the popular vote going against the government leadership. In 2019, former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa made the rejection of the cosponsored UNHRC resolution his battle cry and swept into power on ethnic majority Sinhalese votes.

The role of a TRC will now need to be accepted as being limited in scope whereby the truth will be ascertained in the context of what happened to the missing persons and addressing the accusation of genocide in the larger picture.

If national reconciliation is the goal, more needs to be done far more sincerely.