Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Post War Sri Lanka Under the Rajapaksa: Reconciliation's Two Lost Years

By Stephen Keim and Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne - posted Friday, 16 September 2011


The International Crisis Group (ICG) is known for its detailed on the ground research and its commitment to making impartial but fearless calls. Its conclusion, in its latest report on Sri Lanka, is that the more than two years since the end of the civil war has resulted in lost opportunities for reconciliation. The result is that the different groups that go to make up Sri Lankan society have less understanding of one another's concerns than they did two years ago with the result that the task of creating such understanding is becoming more difficult.

The ICG places most responsibility for this regrettable situation on the administration of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The report draws upon interviews conducted with members of Sri Lankan society from different regions and different ethnic groups. These interviews were mainly conducted in early 2011. However, the report draws on publicly available material much closer to its publication date of 18 July 2011 including the report of the Panel of Experts appointed by Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon dated 31 March 2011 which recommended the setting up of an international investigation into war crimes and found credible allegations of international crimes by both Sri Lankan defence forces and the LTTE.

Advertisement

The findings and recommendations of the ICG report reflect earlier observations by the ICG, itself, and other independent investigating bodies such as Amnesty International and Minority Rights Group International. The consensus of such groups is that the triumphalist approach and policies of the Rajapaksa dynasty and the tight rein that the family has taken on political force within Sri Lanka is making eventual reconciliation between the social and ethnic groups in Sri Lanka more difficult than at the conclusion of the civil war in 2009 and, perhaps, than at any other time.

The government's policies and approach is failing to solve the difficulties faced within any of the communities within Sri Lanka. This report makes a number of very important points which may not have been reflected as clearly in earlier reports. First, the Rajapaksa government is not only failing the Tamil community, the group who have most to lose and gain from the demise of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The government's policies are also continuing to fail the majority Sinhalese community as well. It is also failing the Muslim communities of Sri Lanka. One group that continues to be neglected are the Up-country or Hill-country Tamils, the descendants of indentured Indian farm workers who tend to live in the tea growing Central Highlands and who have chronically experienced disadvantage in terms of education, employment, health, poverty and lack of opportunity.

Another important matter that emerges from the report is the historical fact that the different communities of Sri Lanka have suffered at the hands of people from their own ethnic group as well as from people from other groups. Thus, government caused disappearances, a lack of a strong and independent judiciary and departures from the rule of law have affected members of the Sinhalese community as well as the minority ethnic groups. Two violent left wing revolts have also led to violence imposed by Sinhalese upon Sinhalese.

In the same way, the Tamil community have suffered from the actions of their fellow Tamils in the LTTE, in some ways more than other ethnic groups, through forced recruitments and assassinations as well as being used as human shields during the closing stages of the war.

There are also rivalries and resentment within the Muslim community in Sri Lanka including between the Muslims who were driven out of the north by the LTTE in the early 1990s and the Muslim communities among whom they found shelter but at some cost to those who sheltered them.

The report emphasises the need for accountability for past wrongs including the suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides during the closing stages of the Sri Lankan civil war. The report emphasizes, however, the need not to focus just on those closing months of the civil war. It is important, the report states, drawing upon the results of its interviews, to be cognisant that the crimes and need for accountability go back in history and include crimes by governments (including governments before the present one) upon citizens; Sinhalese upon Sinhalese and Tamil upon Tamil. To focus just upon the events of late 2008 and early 2009 has the potential to leave very many other crimes unaccounted for and would ignore many other simmering resentments within all of the various sub-communities that go to make up Sri Lanka.

Advertisement

The call for accountability faces a huge logical problem. The credible evidence that the Secretary-General's panel found of international crimes by Sri Lankan government forces points as much to senior government people such as the President and his defence minister brother as it does to the individual military commanders who may have ordered the shelling of civilians and hospitals or the sexual assault and summary execution of prisoners. The likelihood in those circumstances of a Sri Lankan government led by a member of the Rajapaksa family allowing a credible inquiry into those suspected crimes is zero to nil. However, to avoid appearing to pre-judge the situation, commentators, including the ICG, must continue to call for a credible domestic inquiry at the same time as suggesting that steps be taken to put in place an effective international inquiry. Due process and considerations of natural justice require no less.

Although the ICG continues to leave open the possibility of an effective domestic inquiry at some point, the report does urge the international community not to wait around for the results of the Claytons accountability mechanism set up by the government, the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (the LLRC). The report repeats much of the devastating analysis of the failings of the LLRC that the Secretary-General's panel published in its report. The creation of the LLRC repeats an old government tactic in Sri Lanka of seeking to appease by appointing an inquiry. Experience shows, however, that such inquiries seldom result either in informing the public or or effective accountability for the wrongs which they purport to investigate.

The ICG also comes up with a suggestion for structuring any international inquiry that would allow space for the unlikely possibility of a domestic inquiry while continuing to put pressure on a recalcitrant Sri Lankan government. The suggestion draws on the earlier analysis that the need for accountability extends beyond the closing months of the civil war to earlier periods of Sri Lankan modern history. The report suggests that the international inquiry should be sequenced and multi-staged. Were a genuine domestic accountability process to emerge that addresses some aspect of the recent past, the international inquiry could adjust its priorities and its programming so as not to impinge on those areas being covered by the domestic process.

The report is strong in its condemnation of the Rajapaksa's manipulation of election and democratic processes in Sri Lanka. The prosecution and persecution of General Sarath Fonseka, the Commander of the Army during the closing stages of the Civil War and, later, Chief of the Defence Staff, who broke with the government to run for president, has effectively intimidated anyone less powerful who might want to take on the President and his family. Power has been concentrated in ministries run by the President's brothers including Gotabaya receiving responsibility to oversee municipal councils in Colombo. The President's son, Namal Rajapaksa, has, since his election as an MP, been given governmental responsibilities and gets to run youth organisations associated with the governing party. The press has been intimidated into self-censorship including by assassinations and disappearances of journalists. The government, in any event, has mobilised state resources, including state owned media, to support its campaigning and image building. Since the election, constitutional changes have neutralised independent institutions and removed the few remaining checks on presidential power.

The criticism of the centralisation of power and the administration of areas in the north and south is equally strong and reflects reports by other agencies. The military presence in the north intimidates ordinary citizens who are likely to be stopped and investigated at any time. Since tens of thousands of the families are led by single women (whose husband have died in the war or who are still missing), they are particularly vulnerable to exploitation by members of the military. The military have taken opportunities away from small businesses by running their own wholesale and retail business operations. Local administration is dominated by the appointment of retired military officers close to the President to important positions in regional administration and elected local government is restricted in many crucial areas by the continued delay in allowing local elections to take place. A by-product is that Tamil public servants become increasingly isolated.

ICG reports always conclude with recommendations for the government of the country concerned; for international NGOs who deal with the government; and for the international community. Of the recommendations directed to the Sri Lankan government, several address the point made earlier that the need for accountability does not just relate to the closing months of the civil war. The report urges the government to release the reports of various commissions of inquiry that have been appointed and reported in the past. The report points out that there is information in these reports that could be made available, relatively easily, that would provide important information, to relatives of victims and survivors of past wrongs as to what happened and who was responsible. The recommendation is important for its recognition that the charade of the LLRC is part of the tradition of facades in which inquiries are appointed (when a government is under pressure) but are prevented from achieving from achieving their suggested purpose by either being nobbled in running or by having their reports suppressed.

The international community and NGOs are, essentially, urged to remain engaged but to avoid falling for the government's false narratives as to the past and the future. Despite the government's turning to non-western countries like China and Russia for material and diplomatic support, the report suggests that the government still requires the assistance of the west including Sri Lanka's powerful neighbour, India. Aid should be provided on condition that it is not manipulated to the government's ends and the international community should continue to challenge the government's narratives of convenience.

The ICG report is an important update on the situation in Sri Lanka. It confirms that the government of that country continues to use its centralised hold on power to advantage its leading figures rather than pursue reconciliation and a just accounting of past and present injustices. Although the ability of the outside world to change reality within Sri Lanka is, for the moment, limited, there is no excuse for ignoring that reality so as to become accomplices in perpetrating false narratives. Even as the ability to influence is limited, the need to take advantage of every opportunity to exert a positive influence becomes more urgent.

We are much indebted to groups like ICG who provide accurate, up to date, and well-researched information on human rights trouble spots. We are also indebted to their careful and detailed analysis.

We are particularly indebted in Australia where addiction to convenient narratives among our leading political figures is not unknown. Sri Lanka has particular relevance for Australia because dispossessed Sri Lankans are a major source of asylum seekers reaching Australian shores. It is tempting for our government to accept the narrative that all is well in post-civil war Sri Lanka including for minorities such as the Tamil community. The relevance has become more acute as our national security agencies, in escalating numbers, make secret assessments of proven refugees from Sri Lanka which result in those refugees being detained, potentially, for ever. Upon whose narrative are those security assessments being made?

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

11 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Authors

Stephen Keim has been a legal practitioner for 30 years, the last 23 of which have been as a barrister. He became a Senior Counsel for the State of Queensland in 2004. Stephen is book reviews editor for the Queensland Bar Association emagazine Hearsay. Stephen is President of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights and is also Chair of QPIX, a non-profit film production company that develops the skills of emerging film makers for their place in industry.

Dr Roshan DeSilva Wijeyeratne is senior lecturer in Law at Griffith University.

Other articles by these Authors

All articles by Stephen Keim
All articles by Roshan de Silva Wijeyeratne

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 11 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy