Hybrid war crimes probe: No political

will even for own domestic probe

by Kusal Perera - on 09/17/2015

Dont judge us on broken promises of the past government. Foreign

Minister Mangala Samaraweera told the 30 Session of the UN Human Rights
Council in Geneva on 14 September. This is a different government with a
political will to solve issues, was the gist of his statement made. If this was
made to an audience here, it would not be anything less than a joke. After
all, forming of the new government was all about breaking the promise of a
decent, reasonably small cabinet of ministers. Most in the huge new cabinet
of ministers and in the bandwagon of State and deputy ministers are from
the previous Rajapaksa government that minister Samaraweera wants to
dissociate from.
Lets also not forget that this new regime led by both President Sirisena and
PM Wickramsinghe with no deviation from Rajapaksa have pledged the
Sinhala Buddhist voter, they will not compromise with and would uphold the

Unitary character of the State with the oft repeated promise, not to let
down the security forces that played a heroic role in uniting the country.
Lets also not forget PM Wickramsinghe created parliamentary history by
presenting the 19A drafts only in English language violating the very
Constitution that says Sinhala and Tamil are official languages of this
country. Wickramsinghe in fact forced a minority Tamil MP to sit in
parliament by shouting at him, You shut up and sit when he rose to ask
for his right to have the draft in Tamil. That speaks volumes of how the
government will be led by this duo, the President and the PM.
Since January 08 presidential elections the period under two of them
heading the State and the government up until the August 17
parliamentary elections, saw no serious indication for improvement of civil
life in the North and the East. That was even noted in the Report made
public by HC for HR Prince Zeid on 16 September, Wednesday. It said,
Local civil society sources recorded 26 cases of harassment and
intimidation by military and intelligence services in the North and East
during the period January to August 2015. This highlights the reality that
the structures and institutional cultures that created the repressive
environment of the past remain in place and will require much more
fundamental security sector reform.[page 05/para 15 emphasis added]
Therefore despite what the US and its allies would want to compromise on
with this new government, the two most crucial and important issues for us
here are, (i) what political commitment will there be in a government that is
more Rajapaksa still than MS & RW and (ii) how practical will the
application of the domestic investigating mechanism be with no change in
the political ideology of both the government and the State that yet
remains a Sinhala State as much as it was under Rajapaksa.

It is in such political context the promise of a domestic investigation into

war crimes, crimes against humanity and accountability is promised in
Geneva. On transparency and accountability, lets stress on the fact that no
details of this proposal were given to and discussed even in the parliament
here in Sri Lanka before minister Samaraweera laid it out in Geneva.
Wonder how many in the cabinet of ministers were privy to the outline of
thate proposal presented by minister Samaraweera. That the Sinhala media
too spins this issue on a very rabidly racist platform is quite evident from
the cartoon that appeared the day before (Sept.15) in the Sinhala daily
Divayina.
Though very much less and wholly Sri Lankan than the Hybrid mechanism
proposed in the Report, it is still extremely difficult for the SirisenaWickramasinghe government to carry the largesse minister Samaraweera
left on the floor of the UNHRC sessions although local English media termed
his speech a landmark statement and as soothing. His promises that
are too many for a government that plays hide and seek on the issue of
reconciliation and a political solution for long standing Tamil grievances, this
seem like Santa on Christmas night stuck with too heavy a load for
Rudolph the reindeer to pull along. According to the official foreign
ministry website he has promised strengthening the national HR
commission in line with Paris Principles, signing and ratifying the
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearances without delay, disengagement of the military from
commercial activities, investigate and punish in future those in security
forces responsible for torture, rape, sexual violence and other human rights
violations, review and repeal PTA but replace it with anti-terrorism
legislation in line with contemporary international practices, review Victim
and Witness Protection Act enacted this year and a whole lot more.

While these by themselves are too much in the clouds and too farfetched
for this government that lacks a political will and confidence to tell the
Sinhala voter as to how it would solve issues of war related crimes and
accountability, there is no mention what so ever about how the North-East
would be de militarised, how the complicated land issues and disputes
would be approached for reasonable settlement, what is in offer to almost
one hundred thousand war widows, to an unaccounted number of children
who had lost one or both parents and about large numbers detained under
the PTA for very long durations without charges. What in fact minister
Samaraweera said about the PTA if read between the lines means it would
not be repealed, but replaced with same anti terrorism (!) clauses
brought to life through other legislation(s).
All this thus negates serious commitment for a Commission for Truth,
Justice, Reconciliation and Non-recurrence promised by minister
Samaraweera. The promise of working with relevant authorities of South
Africa will only turn out as a popular tagline for marketing the promise of
a domestic mechanism. With a militarised North-East, with police and
military intelligence units operating freely as accepted in the SL Report,
with displaced still living with no future hope, there is no space for truth,
reconciliation and non-recurrence in Tamil society. That provides the
fundamental contradiction with South Africa in establishing a truth
commission here in Sri Lanka.
In South Africa, the Truth Commission had much social space to draw in
the Black society with confidence, as their Truth Commission was
established after the apartheid rule they fought against was defeated.
Their hero Nelson Mandela was elected President with an overwhelming
majority. The apartheid regime was thereafter dismantled. Black South
African people were thus able to take charge of the fate of their collective
life. Therefore the issue of Victim and Witness Protection (I dealt with this

topic at length and on impunity in SL in my previous article in GV) was no

issue in South Africa under Mandela as it would be here in SL.
In total contrast and politically opposed to the South African context, Sri
Lanka is dominated by an acutely polarised urban Sinhala mind set. The
war waged against the separatist LTTE under President Rajapaksa further
polarised ethnicities allowing space for hard line Sinhala extremism to claim
this island as the Land of Gauthama Buddha in the precious hands of the
Sinhalese to save Buddhism for posterity. It is with this sentiment the
Sinhala State is governed under an ill-conceived political partnership that
would oversee the Commission for Truth, Justice, Reconciliation and Nonrecurrence promised by minister Samaraweera. How confident, how
hopeful and how eager can the Tamil people be to accept such an
arrangement as victims of a Sinhala celebrated war openly sponsored by
the State and still ruled by that very same State?
It is in such socio political background the Tamil society here in SL and
displaced elsewhere will not be willing to accept a wholly domestic process
even with international support and expertise as spoken of by minister
Samaraweera. It is prudent therefore for the Sirisena-Wickramasinghe
government to work within the hybrid process of investigation as
proposed in the SL Report. For it is important to have the most important
stakeholder the Tamil people on board whose voluntary and freedom of
participation would decide the credibility of the investigation.
Yet the core problem is in the two main political parties in the Sinhala South
believing the majority of the Sinhala constituency are confirmed Sinhala
patriots. A belief that keeps them catering to the Sinhala constituency
purely to be in power. This thinking is rationally wrong but rationale is not
what matters. In reality all past elections prove Sinhala extremism have
only been a noisy nuisance ballooned by Colombo based media. In year

2000 when Sihala Urumaya first contested parliamentary elections with

the total backing of the Sinhala Veera Vidhanaya a city-trader based
organisation, they could muster only 127,000 plus (1.47%) votes nationally.
In 2001 they crashed to a national total of 50,665 (0.56%) votes. In
predominantly Sinhala Buddhist districts like Moneragala and Hambantota
they could not poll even a thousand votes. They managed a national total
of 552,724 (5.9%) votes in 2004 with 09 MPs that included 02 from national
list, when all the candidates fielded were Buddhist monks. But that did not
keep the JHU intact and expanding. Almost all the monk MPs except 02 left
them within a year. In all these elections the most votes polled were from
Colombo district and that too in Maharagama electorate. This is reason why
the JHU and Champika Ranawaka do not contest on their own after 2004
April elections.
Despite such rejection of the JHU by the larger majority, Sinhala political
leadership in both traditional parties do not want to accept the argument
the Sinhala constituency could be consciously and politically led on a
secular, inclusive path, IF a political leadership is willing to take up the
challenge. In any society when political convictions go unchallenged for
decades and are given religious overtones as well, they become as good
and strong as religious beliefs. As Prof. Arjuna Parakarama said on 14
September (2015) at the launch of Dr. Nirmal Dewasiris book Demalage
Prashnaya (Problem of the Tamil), beliefs dont work on a rational and on
logic. They thus dont accept proof and counter arguments that challenge
their pre conceived positions said Prof Arjuna Parakrama.
Here lies the political logjam. This coalition though seen as a convenient
necessity in the Sinhala South to find a decent, workable answer to Tamil
demands, it lives with its own Sinhala supremacist belief to remain in
power. That belief doesnt allow them to understand nor accept these

Sinhala Buddhist voters are ideologically not necessarily a noisy nuisance

as JHU. That a larger majority can be convinced to accept a shared future,
for peaceful and decent prosperity. It is this mediocrity of the Southern
leadership that allows an urban but a loud Sinhala nuisance to have the
State behave with impunity and derail any domestic investigation into war
related crimes and accountability. It is this Sinhala possibility proved a
hindrance in the past that keeps the Tamil society suspecting the Colombo
government. This MS_RW government does not show any signs it would
face up to that challenge. If they dont, they would have difficulty in
pleasing Tamil politics, though Sinhala extremism would stay pleased.
Posted by Thavam