Sri Lanka: Does President Sirisena seriously think about justice for Lankan Tamils?

Sirisena knows that Rajapaksa is likely concerned now about protecting himself and his family from criminal prosecution as well. Ensuring that his eldest son Namal Rajapaksa, who is also a member of parliament and stays politically active is probably a priority for the former president too.

by Dr. Abdul Ruff

( January 29, 2016, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Criminals, howsoever big or tall they may be, should be held responsible for their actions and accountable for their crimes. Punishment is absolutely necessary to place accountability on those who committed the crimes.

Sri Lankan constitution, old or new, does not state that the rulers are above law and they should not be punished for their crimes, even if the charges are proved beyond doubts. In fact in no country a Constitution specifies that the rulers should also be punished if involved in criminal operations, directly or otherwise. So much so all corrupt leaders and rulers do not expect any punishment for their illegal interference with the nation’s resources, thereby creating grave inequalities in the society. Countries like India have become a safe haven for corrupt people for all such illegal operations day in and day out.

Proper punishments for serious crimes make a society healthy. However, punishment for the criminal or corrupt rulers does not happen as a usual phenomenon as governments make all out efforts to save the rulers and top leaders, former and incumbent.

Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena’s election last January to presidency gave rise to hopes for all sections of the island nation, especially the Tamils and Muslims as major minorities who have very high expectations from the new president they happily elected.

Elections in January when Sirisena defeated the increasingly authoritarian Mahinda Rajapaksa in his quest to win an unprecedented third term and August parliamentary polls, combined with the recently passed UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution on Sri Lanka, have presented the country with some real hopes for better treatment of minorities even if not given them any preferential treatment in jobs and other domains.

Upon assuming office, President Maithripala Sirisena declared reconciliation with Tamils as his main premises of governance and he promised proper action on former president’s war crimes. However, he did not undertake steps to realize his stated objectives. Recently he said the year 2016 will be the year of building of the economy of the country. He said a lot of programs will be implemented this year to bring about prosperous lives to all people in this country. The government has entered into the program to bring about prosperous lives to the people by doing required political reforms and saving the people from poverty,” Sirisena said. However, he did not refer to UN probe into war crimes.

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                       

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