1995 – The PA Government And The Continuing Vacuum
Rajan Hoole
The 1990s: The Culture of Untruth and a Perilous Vacuum Part 5
Chandrika Kumaratunga’s PA government was elected to power on good intentions. We mentioned the movements for the disappeared, which directly and indirectly played a major role in creating the wave which swept the PA to victory. During that period justice for the disappeared became almost a cult slogan with which one could not afford to disagree in public. With the approach of the parliamentary elections fixed for 16th August ’94, it became common for leading PA (SLFP, LSSP and CP) politicians to breeze into sites of mass graves and commence digging for remains before the glare of publicity guaranteed by crowds and video cameras. After her victory, presidential commissions were appointed by Chandrika Kumaratunge in keeping with her election pledge to go into human rights abuses.
Most of the presidential commissions submitted reports by early 1998. A large number of security personnel responsible for abuses were identified but any action against persons of rank appeared to hinge on political expediency. Cases where hearings commenced in the normal courts
against key officers remain stalled. Finally, all those who voted for the PA expecting a new and benign state culture with justice for the victims of abuses have been left to feel cheated. They had not voted UNP because it was clearly hostile to any inquiry into abuses and offered no hope of reform. The PA government’s failure in this respect has several grave consequences. The bulk of the 23,000 victims killed during the JVP era (as recorded by the disappearance commissions) came from poor and underprivileged rural homes. The PA’s failure gives these people the strong message that they do not count, the Law and the democratic process do not work for them and, as compared with those of the urban elite, their lives do not matter. Read More
