U.N. Urges Sri Lanka to Speed Up War Reconciliation

Human rights council commends government on progress but highlights shortcomings

A Sri Lankan ethnic Tamil woman recently held a picture of her missing son in Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka. PHOTO: BUDDHIKA WEERASINGHE/GETTY IMAGES

By UDITHA JAYASINGHE-June 29, 2016

COLOMBO—Sri Lanka must accelerate a judicial process to assess allegations of war crimes as it seeks reconciliation following its 27-year civil war, the United Nations’ Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said.

Speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, Mr. Hussein said the government has made encouraging progress on reconciliation but that it needs to develop a witness-protection program and seek the involvement of foreign judges and other international expertise in the judicial process that was promised last year.

It must also move faster in processing people detained during and after the war as well as to limit military power and help people displaced by the conflict return home, Mr. Hussein said.

Sri Lanka’s civil war against separatist group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ended in 2009. In the last and most violent phase of the conflict, 40,000 civilians were estimated to have died. A U.N. report last year said there were indications that war crimes were committed by both sides.

Ahead of Wednesday’s Human Rights Council session, President Maithripala Sirisena ruled out the participation of foreign judges in the inquiry but said it would be impartial. This month the government for the first time acknowledged that at least 65,000 people were missing from the whole war.

“We have strategies and plans to deal with the more serious and controversial issue of setting up a judicial mechanism with international assistance,” Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said in response to the Human Rights Council report. “I can assure you that the mechanism that is finally set up will be one which has the confidence of the stakeholders, especially the victims, with fair trial and due process guarantees.”

He added, “I urge all of you to support our journey with patience and perseverance.”

The U.N., rights activists and families of the disappeared, including those allegedly abducted by paramilitary or state-supported groups, have campaigned to find out what happened to the missing. Embracing the Tamil community and dealing with the legacy of war, they say, are critical to preventing a resurgence of ethnic violence.

Delivering an annual report on Sri Lanka following a visit to the country last year, Mr. Hussein urged members of the Human Rights Council to give Sri Lanka time to show more progress.

He raised concerns over the slow progress on releasing land held by the military and failure to abolish the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act under which at least 250 people, mostly Tamil, are held as prisoners.

Mr. Hussein has previously praised Sri Lanka’s current government for taking positive steps toward reconciliation and democratic freedoms since former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was voted out of office in January 2015.

Mr. Rajapaksa is credited with ending the war, but critics say he failed to foster reconciliation with the minority Tamil population or credibly investigate war-crime allegations.

Mr. Sirisena’s government has “consolidated its position, creating a political environment conducive to reforms,” but governance reform and transitional justice had lagged behind, Mr. Hussein said.

The Human Rights Council report said “military engagement in commercial activities, including farming and tourism” were of concern and that aggressive campaigns in social media “stoke nationalism against ethnic, religious and other minorities.”