Author: TELO Admin

(Geneva) – The Sri Lankan government’s ongoing abuses are undermining the purported goals of its newly proposed truth and reconciliation commission, Human Rights Watch said in a report published today. Victims of past violations, their families, and human rights defenders have rejected the government’s initiative because the government has not consulted them, ignores evidence gathered by past commissions, and it exposes them to security force abuses and retraumatization if they participate.

The 39-page report, “‘If We Raise Our Voice They Arrest Us’: Sri Lanka’s Proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission,” documents abusive security force surveillance and intimidation of activists and campaigners from minority Tamil families of those who “disappeared” during Sri Lanka’s civil war. The authorities are using draconian counterterrorism laws to silence dissenting voices, including those calling for truth and accountability, while government-backed land grabs target Tamil and Muslim communities and their places of worship.

“Sri Lanka profoundly needs truth and accountability, but a credible process requires the support of victims’ families and an end to government abuses against them and their communities,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “As the government’s own public statements suggest, this latest commission seems to be aimed at deflecting international pressure over continuing impunity, rather than revealing the fate of the disappeared or bringing those responsible to justice.”

The report is based on over 80 interviews in Sri Lanka in June 2023, with relatives of victims of enforced disappearance, other victims of abuses, human rights defenders, activists, and journalists in Sri Lanka’s predominantly Tamil north and east.

The government has not yet published details about the new commission, known as the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. However, officials have sought the support of foreign governments, including South Africa, Switzerland, and Japan, as well as United Nations agencies. President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office hopes the initiative will convince governments that there is no need for further scrutiny by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which has established an expert team to collect evidence of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka for use in future prosecutions.

The government’s targeting of those campaigning for justice undermines the credibility of the latest initiative, Human Rights Watch said. “Since my husband was abducted, I lost my freedom to do routine activities,” said a Tamil woman whose husband was forcibly disappeared in 2000. “Even if I go to the market or temple, they [security officers] ask, ‘Where are you going?’”

Thousands of people “disappeared” in state custody during a left-wing insurgency in the late 1980s and a 26-year civil war between the government and successionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which ended in 2009. Government forces and rebel groups committed widespread atrocities including attacks on civilians, extrajudicial executions, torture, and the use of child soldiers.

Successive governments in Sri Lanka have appointed commissions that collected extensive testimony from victims and witnesses but none led to genuine accountability. Instead, the authorities blocked the few criminal investigations into grave abuses that had made some progress in identifying those responsible and initiating prosecutions.

Sri Lankan civil society and victims’ groups have issued several joint statements making it clear that while a process to deliver truth and justice is urgently needed, the current initiative lacks credibility and risks further harm to victims and their families. International law obligates governments to prosecute those responsible for war crimes and other serious international crimes by all sides. Failing to do so fuels further rights violations and undermines prospects for a durable peace, Human Rights Watch said.

The UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said in a report on Sri Lanka to the Human Rights Council dated September 6, that for any transitional justice process to succeed, “[t]ruth-seeking alone will not suffice. It must also be accompanied by a clear commitment to accountability and the political will to implement far-reaching change.”

The government should make progress toward achieving credible justice by genuinely engaging with victims and affected communities. It should build on the evidence collected and recommendations made by past commissions. It should support a fair, credible investigation and prosecution of international crimes; immediately end ongoing abuses against past victims, their families, and human rights defenders and activists; and order state agencies to halt “land grabs” targeting minority communities.

Foreign governments, including South Africa, Switzerland, and Japan, should not finance or otherwise endorse a truth and reconciliation commission that victims reject and puts them at risk, Human Rights Watch said. International partners, including the European Union, should continue to press the government to meet its commitments to end violations committed using counterterrorism laws.

“President Wickremesinghe promotes ‘reconciliation’ while his government threatens the victims of past abuses and their families and minority communities,” Ganguly said. “Instead of creating yet another commission to give the appearance of progress, the government should take steps to gain credibility for a genuine truth and justice process that Sri Lanka desperately needs.”

The SLPP breakaway faction led by Nimal Lanza and Anura Yapa has met Samagi Jana Balawegaya chairman Sarath Fonseka and United Republican Party leader Patali Champika Ranawaka.

Both meetings took place at the parliamentary complex last week, where the upcoming elections were discussed at length.

A spokesman for the Lanza camp said they would reach an arrangement with SLFP leader Maithripala Sirisena as well.

However, no SLFP MP would be allowed individually into their fold, he stressed.

The Lanza faction intends to support incumbent Ranil Wickremesinghe at the next presidential polls.

Sinhala Mobs in presence of the police in Trincomalee Today attacked a rally held in remembrance of LTTE member Thileepan.

Vehicles transporting an image of Thileepan came under attack after they were surrounded by a Sinhala mob.

Tamil National People’s Front MP Selvarasa Gajendran led the rally and was on a truck carrying a picture of Thileepan.

A Police officer at the location was seen telling the vehicles to turn back while the mob attacked them using poles and stones.

The mob also attacked MP Selvarasa Gajendran and threatened policemen who attempted to stop the attack.

Rasaiah Parthipan, known as Thileepan, was a Tamil Eelam revolutionary and member of the LTTE.

Thileepan began a hunger strike on 15 September 1987 in front of the Nallur Kandaswamy Temple.

After refusing food or water for 12 days, Thileepan died on 26 September 1987.

After a “martyr’s funeral” in Jaffna, Thileepan’s body was handed over to the University of Jaffna’s medical faculty.

The Chinese geophysical and seismic scientific research vessel Shi Yan 6 (IMO: 9904247) has commenced its 80-day expedition into the Indian Ocean and was enroute to the Malacca Strait yesterday (16) evening, despite Colombo not yet having granted diplomatic permission for the vessel to call port or carry out a planned joint survey in the waters surrounding the island, The Sunday Morning learns.

According to Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Priyanga Wickramasinghe, the ministry has not granted the Shi Yan 6 permission as of last evening.

Wickramasinghe added that the dates and territories for the survey were yet to be finalised.

Last week, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry, responding to a question, confirmed that Sri Lanka had not granted permission and that the request was being processed.

Last month, the Ministry of Defence told The Sunday Morning that permission for the Shi Yan 6 to call port in Colombo had been granted. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs disputed the statement, stressing that Sri Lanka had not granted permission and was processing the request.

China has made the request seeking clearance for the mission in April this year, with the vessel planned to visit the island in October.

The Sunday Morning also reported that the Shi Yan 6’s request for a wide range coastal survey had been resisted by top defence officials, with recommendations made that the survey should be limited to the southern coast of the island.

The vessel’s planned arrival in Sri Lanka stokes controversy one year after the controversial visit of Chinese satellite tracking ship, the Yuan Wang 5, to Hambantota Port, which drew strong concerns from India and the US.

The Shi Yan 6 is expected to undertake a joint research with the National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA) as part of an agreement between the parties in 2014 to locate the wrecks of vessels from historic Chinese navigator Admiral Zheng He’s fleet off the southern coast.

According to Chinese media reports, the Shi Yan 6, which is operated by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology (SCSIO), is heading to the East Indian Ocean on an 80-day-long expedition, departing from Guangzhou in South China’s Guangdong Province.

The vessel, one of the latest in China’s growing scientific fleet, is entering the expedition with 28 scientific research projects from 13 research teams onboard and is expected to cover a range of more than 12,000 nautical miles, reports indicate.

“The voyage, based on multidisciplinary observations, aims to obtain a large amount of basic data for revealing the mechanisms by which dynamic processes affect biogeochemical cycles, ecosystems, and sedimentary processes in that region, clarifying the geographical pattern of biodiversity in the study area, uncovering the response and indicative role of biological communities to physical processes, as well as understanding paleoclimate changes, Wang Weiqing, Chief Scientist of the expedition, said. An observation system will be deployed in the key observation area to study the current system in the local topographic evolution and its relationship with seabed sediments and geology,” the Chinese broadcaster CGTN said.

The online ship tracking organisation Marinetraffic.com on Friday (15) indicated that the vessel had departed, making 10.4 knots, passing the coast of Vietnam and heading to the Malacca Strait, through which ships transit to the Indian Ocean.