After Geneva What?

By Izeth Hussain -March 29, 2014 |

Izeth Hussain

At the moment of writing the vote has not yet been cast on a final anti-Sri Lankan US Resolution in Geneva. If no Resolution is adopted in favour of the immediate setting up of a mechanism for international investigations of alleged war crimes in the final phase of the war, and there are no Western moves for the imposition of sanctions against Sri Lanka, the SL Government can legitimately claim a triumph. At the time of the Cameron visit to Sri Lanka for CHOGM and in the ensuing months, it was widely and confidently anticipated – indeed it was widely assumed as a certainty – that there would be such action following on the adoption of a US Resolution. However the Government’s triumph would only be of a temporary and provisional order if, as is being anticipated at the moment of writing, the Resolution provides a reprieve of just one year: such action could be taken if at the end of the year the Government has not shown that it has got going with credible internal investigations into war crimes, and also taken effective action over a wide range of other matters.

How has this triumph – albeit of a temporary and provisional order – been achieved? I believe that the crux is the incompatibility between investigations into war crimes and movement towards a political solution and ethnic reconciliation. The Government took to emphasizing this incompatibility – an unanswerable point in my view – and has also managed to effect, or promote, changes of a radical order in the Draft Resolution. How can it be squared with any notion of equity that enquiries should be confined to war crimes perpetrated by one side only? Why should they be confined to the final phase of the war only? The British Foreign Secretary’s injudicious parallel with the case of Sierra Leone has led logically to the demand that India’s role in training, arming, and promoting the LTTE, as well as the crimes committed by the IPKF in Sri Lanka, be also investigated. I believe that it is very probable that these arguments have led to our being given a reprieve of one year. I feel that it is an achievement for which Foreign Minister G.L.Peiris should be given major credit.

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