A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Thiranjala Weerasinghe sj.- One Island Two Nations
?????????????????????????????????????????????????Tuesday, July 25, 2017
Reconciliation process is taken up by national champions
By Jehan Perera-July 24, 2017, 8:25 pm
By
signing into law the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) and by placing it
with the Ministry of National Integration and Reconciliation of which he
is also minister, President Maithripala Sirisena has sent a strong
message that he is committed to the national reconciliation process. The
UN Secretary-General commended the government for establishing the OMP
as "a significant milestone for all Sri Lankans still searching for the
truth about their missing loved ones" adding that "The United Nations
stands ready to support this process and the Secretary-General looks
forward to the OMP becoming operational as soon as possible, starting
with the appointment of independent commissioners."
The OMP has the best potential among the other institutions that feel
called upon to take a leading role in restoring to victims families a
sense of the battle of good and evil in this world. At least 20,000
complaints have been lodged have so far been lodged with the different
institutions that the government established on different occasions, the
last being the Paranagama Commission on missing persons. However,
dealing with this problem has been difficult. The manner in which the
law was originally passed in August 2016 was an indication of the
controversial nature of the problem of missing persons. The bill that
introduced the OMP to parliament was hotly debated. Those who opposed
the legislation saw consequences that would be detrimental to the
security forces and political leaders who were responsible for ending
the war.
There were and remain allegations that many who went missing
surrendered, or were surrendered by their families and others, to the
security forces. The original bill was approved by parliament whilst
opposition members were protesting on the floor of parliament and their
dissent was not recorded. In the rush to pass the law, an amendment that
had been proposed by the JVP, which was agreeable in principle to the
establishment of the OMP, failed to be incorporated into the law. This
amendment sought to take away the power of the OMP to enter into
agreements with outside agencies. It took ten months before this
amendment was finally brought before parliament and approved. It took
another month for the president to place his signature to operationalise
the law.
SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS
The president’s signing of the OMP law has coincided with several other
significant developments. There were a confluence of factors that
suggest that the government is getting itself positioned to engage in
constructive reconciliation and peacebuilding activities. The cabinet
reshuffle that saw the ministries of finance and foreign affairs being
exchanged between Ministers Ravi Karunanayake and Mangala Samaraweera
has worked well in terms of pushing forward the reconciliation process.
Even though the reshuffle may have taken place for other political
reasons, it has served to strengthen the reconciliation process in the
country.
Whether in power or out of power, Minister Samaraweera has had a long
track record of commitment to the national reconciliation process. As
Minister of Foreign Affairs, he was instrumental in bringing Sri Lanka
back into the international community as a country that accepts
international standards of human rights. He defended and explained the
co-signing of the UNHRC resolution of 201 as being in the country’s
national interests. Now as Minister of Finance and also of Media, he has
been empowered to take forward his reconciliation mission through both
the financial incentives at his disposal and also through the power of
mass communication. At the same time, the shift of Minister Karunanayake
to Foreign Affairs has brought to this position an efficient and
businesslike ethos whereby commitments made by the government and
timeframes that have been agreed to will be kept.
The manner in which the new Foreign Minister handled the criticism made
by the opposition with regard to the meetings held with detained former
LTTE cadre by the visiting UN Special Rapporteur on human rights Ben
Emmerson demonstrated a firm and effective approach. He pointed out that
the precedent of UN special rapporteurs meeting with detained former
LTTE combatants had been set by the previous government. Bolstering the
credibility of Minister Karunanayake’s observation has also been the
fact that during the war he was not known as soft on the LTTE was indeed
seen more as a hardliner in dealing with them. But as times have
changed, in the post-war period he has emerged as a champion of the
national reconciliation process.
ENDING IMPUNITY
Minister Karunayake has also announced that the Reparation Bill, which
is part of the Transitional Justice process aimed at compensating the
war affected, would be presented to Parliament soon. The purpose of the
Bill under formulation is to restore displaced persons to their original
positions where ever possible and also provide compensation to the
injured and dependents of the persons killed in the war. The
Transitional Justice process the government had undertaken comprises
four mechanisms, namely the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) which was
signed into law by President Maithripala Sirisena, a Truth and
Reconciliation commission, an Office of Reparations and a special court
for accountability purposes. The special court is the most contentious
of these four mechanisms.
The recent arrest and investigation of the former navy spokesperson on
the charge of being responsible for the disappearance of 11 Tamil
persons in 2008-09 during the end phase of the war is an indication that
existing laws can also be used to bring those who committed crimes
during the war period to justice. However, a special feature of war
crimes which are not in the Sri Lankan legal system is that they include
the concept of command responsibility. This enables the indictment of
those who were in effective control of armed personnel on the ground if
they knew about the human rights violations taking place and did not
intervene to stop them. The International Convention for the Protection
of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which the government has
ratified, is a means to achieve this end. Unfortunately, the government
decided to postpone the debate on the bill to incorporate this into
national law earlier this month following opposition protests that it
will expose Sri Lankan security forces personnel to international
tribunals.
However, the implementation of the convention against enforced
disappearances will be prospective, for future offences, and not for
past ones. Its incorporation into national law will protect citizens
from future violations. These are laws that are in the interests of all
people, whether they be Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim or students. While
there can be lawful arrests, persons must be held in lawful detention
centres and their arrest documented. This is to prevent torture, abuse
and extra judicial killings. It is to ensure that the "white van
culture" or a culture of illegal abductions and killings does not come
again. It is necessary that like the Office of Missing Persons, these
new laws are followed through. They give hope that Sri Lankan will move
faster in reaching national reconciliation and a level of human rights
protection that will reach international standards which will facilitate
the economic take-off that the country awaits.