Thursday, 27 March 2014 00:00
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As the hours ticked down to a vote on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) vote, President Mahinda Rajapaksa expanded the years of investigation under the Commission of Inquiry appointed to probe people who disappeared during the conflict.
Evidently the Government was reacting to the latest draft of the UNHRC resolution continuing to focus only on the last phase of the war. In doing so, many suicides bombings carried out by the LTTE as well as the involvement of India will continue to be kept out of the international context framed for Sri Lanka’s conflict.
The Government has maintained it is “grossly unfair” for the 1983-1990 period to be kept out of the discussion and now it has acted to counter it and perhaps in a sense show its international detractors that doubted domestic mechanisms are more far reaching than the proposed international ones. Incidentally the UNHRC resolution covers the same period as the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) did in its report.
While the specifics will be argued over, in its day it nonetheless is an immensely positive sign that issues long swept under the carpet are finally being directly addressed. Such constructive responses are essential for a sensitive assessment of the horrific carnage caused by a three decade war. In fact the push in this direction has also resulted in other favourable steps.
One such is the Government drafting legislation to grant a ‘certificate of absence’ to relatives of the missing who do not want to accept certificates of death for their loved ones. The certificate of absence — which has never before been issued in Sri Lanka but is used in several other countries with large numbers of missing people — will entitle the holder to the same rights enjoyed by the holder of a certificate of death.
The committee overseeing the implementation of the LLRC recommendations has given a proposal to the Ministry of Public Administration which will seek Cabinet approval. It will go through the draft stage and will be presented as a bill to Parliament.
The proposal first came from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) whose database puts the figure of missing at 16,000 from 1990. This includes about 4,500 Police and military personnel. Between 1 January 2008 and May 2009, the ICRC collected more than 3,000 cases.
Measures are also underway to strengthen witness protection laws, consider criminalising hate speech and other structural changes so that future conflicts will at least have the chance to be nipped in the bud.
The full measure of the Presidential commission can only be evaluated once its report is released and its implementation mechanism revealed. This commission should not run into the same criticism as the LLRC, namely that its implementation is far too time-consuming.
One must also keep in mind that Presidential commissions are often lacking in transparency, with reports being handed over without being released for public scrutiny. Moreover, the timeframe for the investigations, how charges are framed and whether cases will be filed and fast-tracked through Sri Lanka’s mired legal system is yet to be seen.
The road to justice and reconciliation is long, and in this instance, there are some hefty mountains to climb. The Sri Lankan Government will have to prove its sincerity in line with international standards to create believers on the global stage.
