Backpedalling on peace?

Could President-elect Donald Trump’s unclear foreign policy give opportunities for countries like Sri Lanka? It would seem the Government is banking on such a possibility as demonstrated by President Maithripala Sirisena who has requested Trump to pressure the UN Human Rights Council to drop war crimes allegations against the country’s troops. 

Sirisena’s office said Sunday he had sent a “special message” to President-Elect Trump seeking US intervention at the council, where Sri Lanka faces censure for wartime atrocities. “I sent a special message to Donald Trump asking him to support us at the (Council),” the President said. “I am asking him to help completely clear my country (of war crimes allegations) and allow us to start afresh.”

Sirisena said he was making a similar appeal to the incoming UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, even though there has been no indication of the UN changing its stance on Sri Lanka. In fact when outgoing UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visited Sri Lanka several months ago he called on the Government to fast-track its commitments made before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). 

Civil society, rights activists and moderates on all sides of the ethnic issue will be concerned that the President’s call to reduce pressure from UNHRC could be construed as a stepping back by the Government on its reconciliation commitments. The Government, already under fire for insufficient stakeholder consultation and the establishment of a truth seeking mechanism, which was initially expected to be implemented by the end of the year, together with rising hate speech in the country, is finding it hard going. 

Political fault lines are deepening as seen when Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) member and Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, Nimal Siripala de Silva, recently went on record insisting that his party would reject any attempt to establish a federal system within a new Constitution. 

Political analysts are expecting a backlash of nationalism as the months tick down for a possible referendum on the new Constitution though it is still early days. Local Government elections, once announced, could exacerbate the already tense situation as Joint Opposition members would likely pounce on the pending Constitution as a major cornerstone of their campaign. 

Previous outings at elections have proved the pro-Rajapaksa faction would not fight shy of throwing reconciliation under the juggernaut of political expediency as long as it gives them an opening to voters.    

   

The challenges are many but one of the key reasons for President Sirisena’s victory last January was his pledge to foster reconciliation and address long standing grievances of minorities. 

Unfortunately, one of those bleeding wounds is disappearances where thousands of families are still awaiting news of their loved ones, and many of these are likely to have links to the military. As part of this the Government would also have to deliver on legal and institutional reforms including repealing of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and reconstituting certain military and police functions, especially on detainee practices.  

The modes of all these issues and more have to be resolved through domestic solutions, grown with the assistance and support of international experts. Reconciliation was always going to be a hard road but the Government cannot use US political change to roll back its promises to its own people, for otherwise Sri Lanka will never be truly at peace.