Colombo Correspondent, March 8, 2019
The Sri Lankan President and Prime Minister are following different ideologies with regard to pledges made by it to the UN Human Right s Council (UNHRC) to investigate alleged war-time atrocities.
The island nation’s President Maithripala Sirisena announced that he did not want to “re-open old wounds” and would formally request the UNHRC to reconsider the 2015 resolution which Sri Lanka co-sponsored on itself, agreeing to investigate its alleged war time atrocities. It is significant that this co-sponsoring took place under the watch of President Maithripala Sirisena who took over as President in January 2015 after contesting for the Presidency from the current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP).
Meanwhile, in polar opposite to President Sirisena’s decision to go back on the 2015 pledge made under his rule, is Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision to go ahead with the implementation of the co-sponsored UNHRC resolution of 2015 and freshly co-sponsor yet another resolution specifying what has been achieved by his government for post war reconciliation since 2015 to now and requesting more time to implement the non achieved commitments. In 2017 Sri Lanka requested and obtained a two years extension to implement the pledges of 2015 and that time frame expires in March this year.
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Lankan critics point out that, similarly as in 2015, the co-sponsoring of the 2015 UNHCR resolution and the current stand by Premier Wickremesinghe is tantamount to agreeing with international allegations that Sri Lanka committed ‘war crimes’ in its elimination of the LTTE which used Tamil civilians in their protection as human shields against Air Force attacks and shot at Tamil civilians fleeing LTTE control areas. Observers point out that the Sri Lankan government has never presented a logical and factual defence of its armed forces and not even used to full capacity an impartial report by Lord Naseby, a leading Conservative member of the British House of Lords and former Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons who made it clear that no ‘genocide’ of Tamils or ‘war crimes’ took place. Naseby who is Chairman of the all-party British-Sri Lanka group had gone into an extensive investigation on Sri Lanka’s final phase of the war in 2009 where much of the international allegations are based on. Based on highly confidential information he came to the conclusion that no ‘war crimes’ ever took place and based on statistical evidence such as census reports concluded that the number of casualties could be around 7,000 and not 40,000 civilian casualties as claimed by the West.
Sri Lanka also has proven that it has no clear plan to deal with concerns of the Tamils and an attempt to usher in a new constitution to bring about an increase power devolution to Sri Lanka’s provinces, including the Tamil majority North remains caught in stalemate because of protests by Sinhala politicians and some Tamil nationalists who feel it is not sufficient for a long term political solution. Other issues such as the freeing of imprisoned LTTE cadres on consideration that they are political prisoners and not terrorists, the release of all Northern civilian lands held by the military and investigating the cases of those missing in war are aspects not sufficiently acted upon by the government. Because of this the Tamil civilians of Sri Lanka are forced to seek succor from the international community and the UNHRC.
Meanwhile the stance of President Sirisena at the 2015 UN General Assembly was different to his categorical stand now for the UN to ‘forget the past.’ In 2015 President Sirisena was even seen as boasting on public platforms in Sri Lanka that unlike in the regime of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa that he has obtained recognition and respect for Sri Lanka from the international community by ushering in human rights based values.
In contrast Sirisena told the media at his residence this week that he would ask the UN ‘not to dig the past’ and ‘re-open old wounds.’
‘Let us forget the past and ensure that we all live in peace,” Sirisena said while analysts point out that Sri Lanka’s problem is that the much sought after ‘home grown solution’ to its war and peace saga has never occurred for the past ten years.
The President meanwhile is sending a three member team to Geneva to present his case to the UNHRC. Senior SLFP politicians, Dr. Sarath Amunugama and Mahinda Samarsinghe as well as Governor of the Tamil-majority Northern Province Dr.Suren Raghavan will be representing the President.
In comparison, there will also be Sri Lankan officials who will be representing the stand of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP government. The UNP government press release that contradicted President Sirisena’s stand revealed as follows. “Sri Lanka will continue to demonstrate its commitment and determination towards a steady and long-lasting reconciliation process through a co-sponsored resolution, and will seek an extension of the timeline of resolution 30/1 of October 01, 2015, through a co-sponsored roll-over resolution at the ongoing 40th session of the UN Human Rights Council.”
It further said that this initiative will ‘further attest to Sri Lanka’s ownership of the implementation process and to its continued policy of constructive engagement and dialogue with the UN and bilateral partners.”
“With the withdrawal of the US from the Human Rights Council, UK has taken the lead in the core group on Sri Lanka in the Council, with Canada and Germany joining the core group. Therefore, Sri Lanka will join hands with the core group leader UK in co-sponsoring this roll-over resolution,” the statement said adding that this strategy ‘will prevent international war crimes allegations being continuously leveled against Sri Lankans through strengthened ownership of the implementation process.’
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Therefore in essence, while the three-member team of the President is to carry his request to the international community to not interfere in the country’s reconciliation process, the Prime Minister’s team will communicate that the government agrees to carry out the 2015 resolution.
Meanwhile former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) last week called on the Government to take measures to protect the Sri Lankan military at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions. SLPP Chairman Prof. G.L. Peiris stated that the measures taken by the Government to defend the military were insufficient, with inadequate attention to highlight the atrocities committed by the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE).