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Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Monday, August 28, 2017
Lag in establishing war crimes court International Community disappointed!
BY SULOCHANA RAMIAH MOHAN -2017-08-27
Chargé d'Affaires of the Delegation of the European Union to Sri Lanka
and the Maldives Paul Godfrey said, he does not see any moves in the
immediate future by Sri Lanka to establish a Special Court or a judicial
mechanism and that the international community is 'disappointed' that
the Government has not shown progress going into 18 months now after the
resolution was tabled.
"I was hopeful when the Office of the Missing Persons Bill was passed in August last year that we would have taken further steps by now, both to see that the Office is up and operational along with other steps such as the Truth Commission and the Office on Reparations being set up, but yet, these still seem to be on the 'drawing board'. We hope the Government will soon make clear their plans and once we receive the plans......then we can look at it in detail," he said.
Although the EU is not a formal member of the UN Council, he noted that many EU member States are in the UN Council and they (EU) support the text of the UN resolution.
Even on the special court and foreign judges to hear the alleged war crimes, the top diplomat said the language of Commonwealth judges came from the Government of Sri Lanka.
"What we see is that there is a certain degree of scepticism about the changes and a certain degree of resistance in some quarters to the changes proposed. It's up to the senior leaders of the country to reassert their control of these areas and show that progress continues, and if necessary, people who are blocking those processes are removed from their positions."
Sri Lanka has been given time by the UNHRC till March 2019 to fulfil its co-sponsored commitments.
"I think it would be reasonable to want to see by March 2018 that the basic building blocks are put in place for the process to be successful by the deadline of March 2019. There is still quite a lot of work to do before that process can be judged to be on track.
At this point, you cannot have 100% confidence that Sri Lanka will be able to deliver its commitment by March 2019," he added.
"I think more straightforward areas such as land returns, the Constitution, resettlement of IDPs, repealing of the PTA implementation of various international conventions and human rights standards are areas that are actually the way forward and not so difficult to implement.
"We as the international community are waiting for the government to bring forth a proposal and I think we are disappointed that we haven't seen more progress in this area already."
Sri Lanka co-sponsoring the resolution was probably the single most important gesture that demonstrates to the international community at least, that this government is going to make a break with rather narrow nationalistic policies that had been pursued by the previous administration and clearly there is a political game to be played with the national interests put forward by the former President and the people who support his way of thinking, he noted.
He added that the misrepresentation of transitional justice by certain politicians is a worry and is actually a pernicious practice.
"I was hopeful when the Office of the Missing Persons Bill was passed in August last year that we would have taken further steps by now, both to see that the Office is up and operational along with other steps such as the Truth Commission and the Office on Reparations being set up, but yet, these still seem to be on the 'drawing board'. We hope the Government will soon make clear their plans and once we receive the plans......then we can look at it in detail," he said.
Although the EU is not a formal member of the UN Council, he noted that many EU member States are in the UN Council and they (EU) support the text of the UN resolution.
Even on the special court and foreign judges to hear the alleged war crimes, the top diplomat said the language of Commonwealth judges came from the Government of Sri Lanka.
"What we see is that there is a certain degree of scepticism about the changes and a certain degree of resistance in some quarters to the changes proposed. It's up to the senior leaders of the country to reassert their control of these areas and show that progress continues, and if necessary, people who are blocking those processes are removed from their positions."
Sri Lanka has been given time by the UNHRC till March 2019 to fulfil its co-sponsored commitments.
"I think it would be reasonable to want to see by March 2018 that the basic building blocks are put in place for the process to be successful by the deadline of March 2019. There is still quite a lot of work to do before that process can be judged to be on track.
At this point, you cannot have 100% confidence that Sri Lanka will be able to deliver its commitment by March 2019," he added.
"I think more straightforward areas such as land returns, the Constitution, resettlement of IDPs, repealing of the PTA implementation of various international conventions and human rights standards are areas that are actually the way forward and not so difficult to implement.
"We as the international community are waiting for the government to bring forth a proposal and I think we are disappointed that we haven't seen more progress in this area already."
Sri Lanka co-sponsoring the resolution was probably the single most important gesture that demonstrates to the international community at least, that this government is going to make a break with rather narrow nationalistic policies that had been pursued by the previous administration and clearly there is a political game to be played with the national interests put forward by the former President and the people who support his way of thinking, he noted.
He added that the misrepresentation of transitional justice by certain politicians is a worry and is actually a pernicious practice.
