Rajapaksa Regime’s Deceptions And Sri Lanka’s International Obligations

By Chandra Kumarage -July 1, 2014 

Chandra Kumarage

‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive.’ Walter Scott, Marmion.

‘When one with honeyed words but evil mind persuades the mob, great woes befall the State,’ Euripedes, Orestes.

The government of Sri Lanka has again used Parliament to adopt a resolution rejecting the appointment by the OHCHR to probe the human rights violations including war crimes alleged to have been committed by the Armed forces of the GOSL during the last phase of the war with the LTTE in April-May 2009.

The resolution states, ‘To demonstrate its commitment to protecting democracy and human rights and protect the people’s democratic rights and human rights, the government will undertake to conduct impartial investigations into the following incidents and submit a report to Parliament within three months and bring those responsible for the incidents to justice.’

On the face of it is very clear that the whole resolution is irrelevant in the context of the powers of the President and the cabinet. No resolutions in Parliament are necessary to conduct impartial investigations. The investigating arm of the Sri Lanka police is quite capable of conducting such investigations. Furthermore, the President has power to appoint Presidential Commission of Inquiry under the Presidential Commission of Inquiry Act. There have been many such Commission inquiries but the whole world knows about the outcome of those inquiries. What this resolution is endevouring in the final analysis is the same thing — to appoint a panel or commission of inquiry. In fact President Rajapaksa promised in the joint statement with Ban Ki-moon the UNSG in May 2009 to hold such an inquiry to probe all human rights and humanitarian law violations alleged to have been committed during the war with the LTTE. The government first appointed the LLRC and was not able to convince the international community, as it failed even to fully implement the recommendations of that LLRC. Then it appointed a military commission of inquiry ex-parte which cleared the armed forces of any violations of the law. The government was requested many a time thereafter by the international community to probe the alleged violations through a transparent and impartial inquiry. What the government did right through was hedging and deceiving the international community. Now the international community is saying in Neitzsche’s words , “I am not upset that you lied to me, I am upset that from now I can’t believe you.”Deception is the brand name of the government of the Rajapaksa brothers, and professorG.L. Pieris is its brand ambassador. Deception, it must be said, has a short life span which could bring disaster at the end. Their latest product under that brand name is this parliamentary resolution.                                                      Read More