Sinhala Silva’s LLRC report helps MR out of War Crimes for Now

By: Dr C P Thiagarajah

The 400 odd page report of the Sinhala chairman Silva’s, Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), was tabled by the Government of Sri Lanka in its Parliament on 16 December after many days of its much delayed release. The main aim of the majority Sinhala dominated government is to buy more time to heal the wrath of the human rights organisations and the UN that had been demanding an international inquiry into war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide of nearly 40000 ethnic Tamils following the release of the UN Expert Panel Report on Sri-Lanka war.

When the Silva commission was appointed about 18 months ago many HR organisations, humanists and the Tamils in Sri-Lanka and the Diaspora expressed dissatisfaction over the perpetrators of war crimes appointing a commission to investigate their own criminal actions. This action smacks of credibility as pointed by US ambassador in Colombo, Ms Patricia Butenis. She said in a diplomatic cable sent on 15 January last year (2010) that President Rajapaksa and the former army commander, Sarath Fonseka, were largely responsible for the war crimes. She went on “There seemed little hope of accountability given that there were no examples of a regime investigating its own troops for war crimes”. "In Sri Lanka this is further complicated by the fact that responsibility for many alleged crimes rests with the country's senior civilian and military leadership, including President Rajapaksa and his brothers and ex military commander Gen Fonseka,"     Fill Story>>>