23 January 2015
Sri Lanka’s new president, Maithripala Sirisena, has promised to break from the Rajapaksa regime’s rule with a 100 day plan of widely welcomed reforms that will ensure good governance, rule of law and judicial independence. However the new government is yet to address the country’s most significant issue in Sri Lanka – that of accountability and justice for wartime mass atrocities in which tens of thousands of Tamils died in the cataclysmic end of the war, and the rights abuses during and after the war.
As the surprise at the sudden collapse of the Rajapaksa regime begins to fade, focus is again on this issue, not least as the landmark UN inquiry launched in March 2014 is to report in two months at the next session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Mr Sirisena made it clear during his election campaign and in his manifesto that he would not allow any Sri Lankan citizen who fought against the LTTE to be handed over to face international justice. Instead, vowing to clean up Sri Lanka’s image on the international stage, Mr Sirisena promised a domestic inquiry into any allegations of war crimes.However, calls on the new government to reverse the Rajapaksa government’s defiance of international demands and to comply with the UN inquiry began as soon as Mr Sirisena took office. While congratulating the new president on his electoral win, the UK and Canadian governments pointedly called on him to cooperate with the inquiry.[more]
