Filling the trust deficit

SRI LANKA’S journey for accountability took a serious turn this week after the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) called for a “hybrid court” to be set up with the involvement of international judges, prosecutors and lawyers. The Government now has the challenge of mustering up enough support among the UNHRC members to back its commitment to a credible domestic mechanism to minimise international involvement in the accountability process on 30 September.  

United Nations investigators detailed what they described as “egregious violations” by both sides in Sri Lanka’s brutal war. In a wide-ranging report issued in Geneva on Wednesday, a UN team concluded that Sri Lanka’s domestic justice system doesn’t have the capacity to handle prosecutions for war crimes and abuses including indiscriminate attacks on civilians, the torture and rape of detainees and extrajudicial killings. 

This creation of a solid legal framework to undertake accountability measures that will bridge the trust deficit between the Government and the Tamil community will be a massive task – a fact acknowledged by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera upon his return to Sri Lanka. Samaraweera, however, is optimistic this Government will empower the domestic legal system to competently handle such challenges. Parallel to the UNHRC sessions, the Sri Lankan Government also reached out to neighbour India and President Sirisena is scheduled to attend the United Nations General Assembly later this month to lobby for additional support for the proposed domestic mechanism.

Such a domestic framework will be hammered out in the next three months, according to the Foreign Minister, with implementation to kick off in January. The Government hopes to show results within 18 months and expects to carry out criminal investigations into specific instances of abuse provided sufficient evidence exists for prosecution.

UN investigators laid out a disturbing list of alleged abuses by the Government as well as the main Tamil insurgent group, the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam. The report says Tigers killed Tamil, Muslim and Sinhalese civilians through suicide bombings, mines and assassinations, as well as abducting children and adults and forcing them to serve as soldiers. Reports indicate that by the end of the conflict, the Tigers were increasingly recruiting children under the age of 15.

Investigators also alleged widespread use of torture by Sri Lankan security forces. Sri Lanka has responded to this by insisting it will implement strict regulations against torture among the armed forces and promote them for UN peace keeping missions overseas. The overarching target is to regain lost prestige to the armed forces.   

The UN Human Rights Council is to vote on the report and its recommendations on 30 September. It is possible the level of international involvement called for in Wednesday’s report could be scaled back, especially if Washington supports such a move. The next step will be to view the “collaborative resolution” discussed between the US and Sri Lankan Government that was touched on during a recent visit by an Assistant Secretary of State for the region Nisha Biswal. 

Colombo is presenting a brave but cordial front and believes its upgraded international relations since January will be enough to get it over the line and bring home a process that has the power to heal deep scars and build a united country.