Much To Be Done For Victims Of Conflict Still Seeking Justice

• Transitional Justice

by Camelia Nathaniel-Sunday, April 24, 2016

Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri and Dr. Jehan Perera

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Although the government under President Mahinda Rajapaksa promised a domestic investigation into allegations of atrocities, until 2015 no credible mechanism of justice was carried out. For over five years since the end of the war, those affected were still seeking justice as they were unable to put a closure to their suffering.

However, the present government has made relatively greater strides in terms of accountability. President  Sirisena has indicated a willingness to seek the truth regarding past atrocities, stating that a domestic process will be initiated to investigate war crimes. The government also invited the UN officials to visit the country and in March-April 2015 the UN Special Rapporteur on Truth, Justice, Reparations and Non-recurrence  of  violence  visited  Sri  Lanka.

The Sirisena government  also allowed  the  UN Working  Group  on  Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) to visit in August 2015 and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also visited the country.

The concept of transitional justice has influenced the legal, social and political discourse of societies undergoing fundamental social change, and that of the international community. In order to get over the bitterness of war, where mass atrocities have taken place and engage in a path of reconciliation, the country should engage in a process of judicial and non-judicial justice for past crimes, peace, a democratic society and an established rule of law. The United Nations (UN) definition of transitional justice states that the full set of processes and mechanisms associated with a societys attempts to come to terms with a legacy of large-scale past abuse, is required in order to secure accountability, serve justice and achieve reconciliation.

Identifying the importance of the formal legal processes, and accountability for serious crimes also extends beyond investigation and prosecution. In order to achieve the goal of reconciliation truth and justice to those affected should be foremost and this should be a locally supported, participatory, transitional justice process established in accordance with international standards not only guaranteeing the rights of the victims, but giving them the assurance that such situations violations would not recur. According to social activist and leading academic Dr. Nirmal Ranjith Devasiri there is still much to be done.

There are a lot of things to be done especially to address the concerns of the Tamil society. There are some improvements especially where the military is present in the north and east but when it comes to the issues of these allegations of war crimes I dont think there is an improvement or progress. Actually this war crime allegation is a very tricky thing and I also think there are certain political motivations behind these allegations because some of them are highly objective allegations.

Those who promote these war crime allegations are also interested parties in the political agendas. But you cannot forget the fact that it is a very traumatic experience for the ordinary people in the north and east especially the Tamils. So whatever the legal definitions are for the war crimes, the bottom line is that the people in the north and east have lost their loved ones, their properties and so on, because they were subjected to highly unfortunate circumstances.

So, there is a need from their side to know what happened to their children, parents and loved ones and so on and that is a genuine concern. I mean you can’t always point your figure at the Tamil Diaspora and other Tamil nationals with certain political agendas. Ofcourse in certain instances you can argue that there are certain political interests but at the same time you cant forget the fact that there is a genuine concern from the ordinary people.

“So you have to address not just the concerns of the parties with political agendas but genuine concerns of the ordinary people. I have seen a number of studies done in the post war period where people have expressed their dissatisfaction over what has happened. They are not fully satisfied with the situation. Therefore I think there are alot of things to be done to improve the situation especially the human rights situation and the security situation from the point of view of the ordinary Tamil people. I am not talking about the Tamil political parties but about the ordinary Tamil people,” he added.

Meanwhile also expressing his views on transitional justice and reconciliation Executive Director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, Dr. Jehan Perera told The Sunday Leader that presently the government has initiated a process of national consultation on the issue of reconciliation and transitional justice and has given civil society the space to engage in these consultations.

“So it is after these consultations that the government hopes to finalise the mechanisms that it has in mind to implement the reforms that are necessary in the area of accountability, institutional reform and truth seeking. Hence I would say that the salient and most relevant feature at the moment is that the government is expecting the civil society to take the leadership in this process and has given them the space to take the leadership. The government is probably not taking the leadership itself because this is a controversial area and the government prefers the civil society to take the lead and test the waters and introduce these ideas to people and thereafter when the time comes for implementation the government will then step forward and take the lead,” he added.

Transitional justice, especially holding perpetrators accountable for alleged wartime abuses, is without question the most controversial, politically difficult, and significant component of Sri Lanka’s reform agenda. Accordingly, the United States and its allies should pressure Colombo about this aspect of reforms specifically, in order to promote lasting peace in what remains a divided, post-war country.

Unfortunately, the bulk of the new government’s reform agenda remains incomplete and there are no guarantees that Colombo will be able to follow through on all of the promises it has made, including creating a new, more inclusive constitution, implementing a comprehensive transitional justice package, and meaningfully dealing with high-level corruption.

Dr. Perera further went on to say that even though the transitional justice process and the reform process is being criticised for being slow, nevertheless the general environment for the ethnic and religious minorities is better than it has ever been since the 1950’s. “So we must also keep that in mind that even though the issues of dealing with the past and tackling the issue  of accountability is slow, the general environment for the ethnic and religious minorities is better than it has ever been in our living memory. That credit must be given to the government,” he said.

Further expressing his views on the reconciliation process and the pace and manner in which the government is handling it, he said that he is quite satisfied because the environment in which the different religious and ethnic groups and communities are living, is a positive one. It is one, he said,  where there is no fear and which every group has the sense that they will be protected by the government and the rule of law will prevail for them if there is an injustice against them. So that, said Dr. Perera, is the biggest improvement which overshadows the slow pace of dealing with some of the problems of the past.

When asked if incidents of the past should be left behind and the country should march forward instead of dwelling in the past, he said that the past has to be dealt with because we need to know the truth about the past.

“Unless we know the truth about the past we cannot take the corrective actions for the future. We also have several examples of having ignored the past and tried to pick ourselves up from where we had fallen and move forward without dealing with the past. We did it in 1971, we did it in 1988-89 but it did not serve our country well. We must learn that we cannot ignore the past from our own experiences. We need to deal with it even though it is difficult and painful and learn from those mistakes. The people must know what happened and then we resolve that, it never happens again,” he said.