2012: ‘Year of the Fire Brigade’ for Govt.

Western powers murmur but Sri Lanka yet to come up with roadmap for reconciliation and good governance
Positive features in LLRC report, but issue of accountability for military excesses not addressed, say international groups

By Our Political Editor

Sri Lanka ushers in another New Year in just six days, with some of the most difficult challenges staring in the face of the government.

Victoria Nuland: US State Department spokeswoman

Matters arising from the military defeat of Tiger guerrillas in May 2009 will no doubt be one of them. The end of the separatist war has rid the countrywide fear psychosis and brought about an unprecedented wave of development activity. Yet, the peace dividend arising from the victory is still to be declared. Both the government and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) are at loggerheads. Their dialogue is floundering and a proposed Parliamentary Select Committee has not got off the ground. Hence, the formulation of any political package to address whatever 'Tamil grievances' there are has not emerged so far. The question is whether it will in 2012.

Last Tuesday, the TNA called upon "the international community to acknowledge the consistent failure of the domestic accountability mechanisms in Sri Lanka and take steps to establish an international mechanism for accountability." The appeal came in a statement which said that the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) "has dramatically failed the victims of the conflict." It charged that the Commission has granted "immunity to civilian and military leaders responsible for devising the policies that led directly to the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity." Full Story>>>