Lanka heading towards authoritarianism

By Ranga Jayasuriya-Sunday, 01 Sep 2013

Navanethem Pillay, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, in what appeared to be a climb down from her previously stated position, where she had frequently called for an international investigation into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, said yesterday that a credible local investigation is possible, but warned that Sri Lanka is becoming increasingly authoritarian. "I noticed that the recent commission appointed by the President has highly respectable commissioners sitting in it. It is possible to appoint persons on whom the community has trust," she said when asked by Ceylon Today whether she believes that the government is in a position to conduct an independent impartial investigation, given its manifest tilt towards authoritarianism, which the High Commissioner herself referred to in her opening remarks delivered at the press conference held at the end of her week-long official tour in the island.

"I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing State, is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction," she said in her opening statement, which was a blunt critique of the government's human rights record.

She warned that in the absence of a comprehensive local process to hold into account the perpetrators of war crime, local and international calls for an international investigation would continue.

She said, the people of Mullativu whom she met, had been visited by the police prior to and after their meetings with the UN High Commissioner. Several people she met in Trincomalee had subsequently been questioned by the police after their meeting with Pillay. Several others, including two priests, journalists and human rights defenders had been intimidated.

"This type of surveillance and harassment appears to be getting worse in Sri Lanka, which is a country where critical voices are quite often attacked or even permanently silenced. Utterly unacceptable at any time, it is particularly extraordinary for such treatment to be meted out during a visit by a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights," she said.

She added the United Nations takes the issue of reprisals against people because they have talked to UN officials as an extremely serious matter, and 'I will be reporting those that take place in connection with this visit to the Human Rights Council.'

She noted that white van abductions reported in the South in recent times had been omitted from the scope of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry.

She added she was surprised the government was downplaying the recent surge on incitement of hatred and violence against religious minorities, including attacks on churches and mosques. She added that the government's response had been that those were isolated incidents, though evidence to the contrary is 'pouring' into her office.

She noted that freedom of expression was under a sustained assault in Sri Lanka, pointing out the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators of violence.

"More than 30 journalists are believed to have been killed since 2005, and several more – including the cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda – have disappeared. Many others have fled the country. Newspaper and TV offices have been vandalized or subjected to arson attacks – some, such as the Jaffna-based paper, Uthayan, on multiple occasions. With self-censorship fuelled by fear, journalists report that there are articles that they dare not write, and others, their editors dare not print," she pointed out.

She said she had called for the Right to Information Act to be adopted, similar to it being adopted in many of Sri Lanka's neighbouring in countries in the region.