Somebody has to be responsible – CBK

…. but Tamils are more concerned about their future

by Zacki Jabbar-February 15, 2017, 9:56 pm 

Former President Chandrika Kumaratunga says that somebody would have to be held responsible for crimes committed during the last stages of the war that ended in May 2009, but the Tamils were more concerned about their future.

The near three decade long separatist conflict waged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, ended with its defeat by government forces on May 19, 2009.

Tamils allege that over 40,000 civilians in the North were killed by the previous Rajapaksa regime, during the closing stages of the war.

Kumaratunga who is the current Chairperson of the Office For National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) told a meeting with the Foreign Correspondents’ Association at her office in Colombo on Tuesday evening, that it was the Tamil diaspora that kept harping on a war crimes probe. "I am not saying that an investigation into the alleged atrocities is not relevant, but Tamils in the North and East are more concerned about the future well being of those among the living."

She emphasised that the immediate priority, which the international community too agreed with, was to establish a National Policy on Reconciliation for which a new Constitution was necessary.

Accountability was only one aspect of the reconciliation process. Reparations would commence, no sooner the Missing Persons Commission was established, Kumaratunga said.

She explained that the National Policy on Reconciliation formulated by ONUR and approved by Cabinet, encompassed a political solution to the ethnic issue, economic, transitional and social justice.

Obtaining approval at a referendum for the proposed new constitution would not be easy with extremist forces such as the Bodu Bala Sena and the group of parliamentarians led by former President Mahinda Rajpaksa hell bent on opposing even the good that the government did, Kumaratunga said adding "but not all Buddhist monks are horrid."

Responding to a question she pointed out that there was " no need for foreign judges, if our judiciary can do it properly. It is more important to enact a new constitution than get down judges from abroad."