An effort to grant public amnesty for soldiers with war crimes!

Oct 25, 2015

A senior government minister said that the government is in the search of any space available to give a public amnesty for the members of the army alleged for war crime charges under the domestic mechanism made by the Sri Lankan Government according to the unanimously passed Human rights proposal at the UNHRC.

During a function held in Colombo President Maithripala Sirisena said that he will not allow anybody to destroy the honor received by the war victory. He said that as the president, commander of the three armed forces, minister of defense and as the main public protector he would protect the honor of the army.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasignhe too has given an idea to create a “Compassion Council” for the group alleged with war crimes allegations.

Religious leaders are appointed to this compassion council and if any members of the security forces are proved with committing war crimes the compassion council would act to give an amnesty for those.

Meantime the government has decided to give legal aid to the groups who are charged with war crimes. Under this situation there is a very insignificant possibility to give punishment for the members of the security forces.

Provincial council and Palath Sabah deputy minister Karunarathna Paranavithana said there is no impediment to Sri Lanka from the Geneva proposal and some allegations are targeted individually and not commonly aimed at the army.

However political analysts pointed there is a greater risk of following a bad precedence when giving amnesty for an alleged member
of the army for violating human which would hinder the trust of the aggrieved people in the north kept with the current government.

Meantime if the current Good Governance in fear of Sinhala Buddhist
racist so called opinions and abstain establishing justice to the
affected party the country would face another defeat in political
terms.