United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, engaged in a dialogue this morning (25) at Jubilee Hall, Trincomalee, with religious leaders, civil society representatives, and families of the disappeared.

The meeting, held behind closed doors, was preceded by a silent protest outside the venue, where families held photos and placards, demanding answers and justice for loved ones missing for over a decade.

“All religious leaders here highlighted the issues affecting our district. Volker Türk listened attentively. He promised to meet the President tomorrow and said he would inform him about these concerns,” said Swami Agaththiyar, representing the Thirukkailaya Adheenam.

Family members shared deeply personal accounts:

“We’ve been searching for our missing loved ones for 17 years. We just want justice. How much longer do we have to live like this?”

“It’s been 17 years since the war ended, yet our lands in the North and East are still being taken. We’re being pushed out of our own homes.”

One recounted the disappearance of her child and 12 others in Sathurukondan, Batticaloa, and the abduction of a brother in a white van on Valentine’s Day 2009.

“We want justice — for the disappeared, for the massacres, and for the ongoing land grabs. We’re handing over this message in hope of real solutions.”

Later in the day, Türk met with Eastern Province Governor Jayanta Lal Ratnasekera at the Governor’s Office.

“We exchanged views on resettlement, the disappeared, and broader human rights concerns. They presented proposals, especially regarding land disputes. From what I gathered, they were pleased with the steps the government has taken so far. They also appreciated our efforts to ensure public welfare while avoiding corruption,” said the Governor.

The Government will facilitate a visit to the Chemmani mass gravesite in Jaffna for United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk, who will arrive in the country tomorrow on a four-day tour.

The gravesite, which is under excavation, has drawn international attention, as it is believed to contain the remains of the victims of the past hostilities. Mr. Turk will be given the opportunity to visit the site and talk to people in the area, Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath said.

During the first stage of the excavation, which ended on June 7, at least 19 human skeletons were recovered.

The minister told the Sunday Times Mr. Turk would have unrestricted access to both people and places during his visit, as the government wanted to demonstrate its sincerity in dealing with past human rights issues and its commitment to reconciliation in the country.

Mr. Turk’s visit from June 23 to 26 is the first by a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to Sri Lanka in nine years. The last visit by a UNHRC chief was in February 2016.

During the visit, the High Commissioner will call on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya and hold discussions with Foreign Affairs Minister Herath. He will also meet other ministers and MPs representing all parties.

A meeting with Colombo’s Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has also been scheduled, with Mr. Turk expected to assess the progress in investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks.

He will also travel to Jaffna and Trincomalee to meet with the governors of the Northern and Eastern Provinces. He will also visit Kandy, where he will pay respects to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic and call on the chief prelates of the Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters.

A public discussion will be held in Colombo during his visit for Mr. Turk to engage with members of civil society organisations and the public. He is also expected to address the media before his departure.

“Substantive discussions during the visit will focus on further advancing the promotion and protection of human rights and reconciliation, in line with the Government of Sri Lanka’s ongoing constructive engagement with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, a continuous three-day protest is scheduled to take place at Chemmani, Jaffna, from tomorrow, calling for justice and accountability.

Organised by the People’s Action Committee, which consists of youth groups and civil society outfits, the protest is named ‘Anaiyaa vilakku’ or ‘everlasting lamp’.

The organisers urged the visiting UN Human Rights Chief to visit the fresh mass gravesite where at least 19 human skeletons, including three children, were found recently during the first phase of excavation.

The new mass grave was discovered when construction workers tried to clear the land in an area near a Hindu cemetery.

In response to the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, a minister said that Sri Lanka has enhanced security at key locations and reaffirmed its commitment to safeguarding all tourists and citizens.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Public Security Minister Ananda Wijepala said that precautionary measures are already in place to ensure the safety of all tourists.

“We have provided security to the Israeli nationals in Sri Lanka,” Minister Wijepala said.

“The government is taking all necessary steps to maintain peace and stability across the island and to safeguard both our citizens and foreign nationals during this volatile time,” he said.

He said that a significant number of Iranian and Israeli tourists are currently in Sri Lanka and assured that there is no threat to their safety.

According to the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), 10,899 tourists from Israel arrived in Sri Lanka between January and June 18 this year, while 5,782 tourists from Iran visited during the first five months of the year.

In response to potential threats following the escalation of the Gaza conflict, Sri Lanka Police have increased security at Chabad houses (Jewish community centres) located in various parts of the country, where Israeli residents and tourists engage in religious activities and access amenities.

Israeli tourists, including popular surfing communities in Arugam Bay, have also been placed under enhanced protection.

Police said that any potential threats to foreign nationals will be continuously assessed, with appropriate security measures implemented as necessary.

Meanwhile, Minister Wijepala said that the Sri Lanka Foreign Ministry is also engaging in diplomatic efforts to ensure the safety of Sri Lankans currently residing in Iran and Israel.

In the wake of the escalating instability in the Middle East, the U.S. Department of State issued a Worldwide Caution Security Alert on Sunday, advising American citizens overseas to exercise increased caution.

“The conflict between Israel and Iran has resulted in disruptions to travel and periodic closure of airspace across the Middle East. There is the potential for demonstrations against U.S. citizens and interests abroad,” the State Department said.

According to the SLTDA, over 30,000 tourists have arrived from the United States since January this year, including 2,202 arrivals so far this month.

Thirteen (13) Chinese nationals being held at the Welisara Immigration Detention Centre for involvement in cybercrime activities have escaped custody, the Tourist Police confirmed. The individuals, who were awaiting deportation, had previously been arrested for operating illegal cybercrime networks while on tourist visas in Sri Lanka.

Of the 13 escapees, nine have been re-arrested by Welikada Police, while a search operation is currently underway to locate the remaining four fugitives.

According to the Tourist Police, the group had been detained following multiple tip-offs regarding cybercrime operations targeting both Sri Lankan and foreign nationals. Their escape occurred just days before they were due to be deported.

Officials also stated that this group is part of a broader wave of arrests involving Chinese nationals. Currently, 35 individuals are being held at the Kalutara camp, while 130 others were detained in Kandy in connection with similar offences. The magistrate has ordered the deportation of all suspects to China.

Just last week, 85 Chinese nationals were deported on a special SriLankan Airlines flight to Guangzhou. These individuals had previously been remanded by court and later transferred to the Welisara Detention Centre. They were transported to Bandaranaike International Airport in five buses under tight security and boarded flight UL-880, which departed at 1:20 a.m. on 20 June.

The upcoming visit of UNHRC chief Volker Türk to Sri Lanka has revived limited interest in media discourses – and from expected quarters. Not all of them are Tamil, who have their litany of unaddressed woes, woes unaddressed not only by the government but also the UNHRC, on which they had counted the most, when the ethnic war ended 15 years back.

Most Tamils in the country have given up on it. Their politicians alone seem to talk to them, especially every March and September, when the UNHRC’s bi-annual sessions are held. This time, they were all busier with the local government elections first, and the complexities of individual mayoral elections in the Tamil areas of the North and the East.

Hence, they will take time to re-focus their energies and time on UNHRC-related issues. High Commissioner Türk’s visit could not have come at a better time, for the Tamil leaders to re-direct their energies back to war crimes and accountability issues. Needless to say, the government leadership will be concerned, meeting with the visitor, but they are not going to be overly worried.

Ours and theirs

At least the Sri Lankan State, independent of the party or ruler in power, has come to conclude that the UNHRC is a tool of the elite West to divide nations as ‘ours’ and the unknown ‘theirs’. And unfortunately for the victims of war crimes – and there were at least some, definitely – the last UNHRC resolution that provided for expanding the scope of the probe to the present has only helped dilute the cause, if there was genuinely one, to begin with.

Many in the Sinhala South especially believe that ridding them of the LTTE terrorism and the economic cost that it entailed was the greatest and possibly the only service that the Sri Lankan state had done for them since Independence. But victimised Tamils disagree. No one is defending the LTTE anymore, not in public, not in parlour discourses.

Yet, every one of them wants the ‘guilty’ from the other side, namely, the armed forces, identified and punished. It may be fair from their perception, yes – and so with those who have been moving and voting for the UNHRC resolutions, time and again. But neither side is even vaguely suggesting that ‘LTTE escapees’ from the country, and their Diaspora sponsors, including those that funded the LTTE, too, should be brought to book.

Rolling probe

Today, when the UNHRC in its upcoming Council meeting is going to discuss and debate Sri Lanka and possibly a new resolution to replace the one that is running out its term, the very authority flows from the three-man Darussman Report, commissioned for ‘personal information / education’ by then UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Now, we have a new group of ‘nationalists’ in the country wanting the Darussman Report withdrawn, as they, like those in their ilk, dub it as ‘illegal’. Like the ‘Rolling Plan’ that some national governments have for their development, the current phase of the UNHRC resolution has become a ‘rolling probe’ but with nothing substantial achieved.

Over and above all these, the Tamils now want the recent ‘Chemmani grave dig-outs’ too to come under the UNHRC probe. The chances are that they are the skeletal remains of Tamil victims of the war – innocent people or LTTE cadres – but the age of the skeletons and their past as living humans, too, has to be proved.

Yet, Tamil leaders in the country have been demanding that the UNHRC boss visit the site. He is now scheduled to visit only Trincomalee. His meetings with government leaders, and possibly with some human rights groups, apart from self-styled intellectuals can be expected to go through tiringly past procedures.

The question is if he will be meeting Colombo Archbishop, Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, who has now begun criticising the incumbent government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, too, for failure in bringing the ‘real culprits’ behind the Easter blasts, to book. Whether or not he has been doing his theological work with a missionary zeal, he has been doing so on the Easter blasts front, no doubt.

Religious profiling

There is a widespread demand for the withdrawal of the controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The debate within the country is if it should have an alternate to the PTA, with adequate checks and balances – or, not. At a time when the ugly face of terrorism has shown its face across the world, there is general acceptance over the need for some kind of a ‘preventive’ detention by the state.

There may not be many member-nations in the UNHRC or the larger UNGA that do not have a preventive detention law, especially post-9/11. For a nation of its size, Sri Lanka has experienced almost all forms of terrorism – ideological, ethnic / linguist, religious and socio-political.

The ruling JVP was a prime example for ideological terrorism, though in its time as a ‘militant, insurgent group’, the term was not as popular as it is now. The LTTE’s face was that of ethnic terrorism. Likewise, the Easter blasts were a product of ‘religious terrorism’.

Then you have all the violent acts during the Aragalaya protests, in which coordinated arson attacks were staged on the properties of ruling party politicians across the Sinhala-Buddhist South. The properties belonging to then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Ministers Mahinda Rajapaksa and Ranil Wickremesinghe were in the list.

There are any number of individual cases where PTA misuse has come to light. The latest is that of Mohamad Liyaudeen Rusdi, who was detained under PTA, for displaying stickers on Israel and Palestine. Thankfully, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) intervened, as Rusdi’s detention was obviously based on pre-meditate and biased ethnic and religious profiling.

Truth be told, if a Sinhala-Buddhist holding similar views as Rusdi on the issue in question had displayed those stickers, he might not have been arrested. The police would have simply ignored or overlooked him, and no one would have been wiser.

Semantics, optics

The Sri Lankan State’s position on the UNHRC front is predictable and well-known. Under President Dissanayake, it is not going to change. Needless to recall, no western government has seriously sought the UNHRC probe to cover non-military personnel allegedly involved in those reported episodes of war-crimes.

It is unlikely that this session will have such requests, not certainly forming a part of a new resolution – if the present one is modified and extended for a further period. To put it all in perspective, the UNHRC process has lost its relevance to new-generation Sri Lankans, Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalas.

Even if the Tamil polity and INGOs made their people believe in the process, today, it has out-lived its utility, if the original idea itself was only to pull wool over their collective eyes – at least pending a decision on what to do with the State actors and majority / majoritarian Sinhala sections. That is saying a lot.

Politicising the process

All of it has boiled down to semantics on the one hand and optics on the other. The UNHRC, like all UN institutions including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) decide not always on merits. Instead, they do so in terms of the political mood of individual nations that are in a position to decide.

This in turn has politicised the entire process. For instance, the original idea for a UN probe into allegations of war-crimes in Sri Lanka flowed from the western perception that Colombo was excessively siding with a China that was growing in geo-political and geo-strategic ambitions. They could not – or, did not – punish China. Or, their early attempts, like the Tiananmen Square failed.

So, the next best was to target China’s prospective ‘client states’. Sri Lanka fitted the bill. Leave aside the yearnings of the victimised Tamil community in the country, for the West, the UNHRC route was the best to ‘discipline’ Colombo. After all, Sri Lanka too needed to be taught a lesson, for the temerity of ‘insulting’ western leaders and nations that tried to argue the LTTE’s case for secured exit from the war zone and the country.

This in turn only pushed Sri Lanka into the waiting hands of China, whose veto-vote in the UNSC, the country knew it would badly need, as and when pushed to the wall. Their attempts at successive ‘regime-changes’ only helped alter domestic politics and election results in Sri Lanka, but their friends till the previous day, too, showed that they had a mind of their own, priorities of their own.

Down the years and UNHRC sessions, the West has learnt its lesson – or, so it seems. Sri Lanka is yet to be taught one. It is difficult for Sri Lanka to be taught a lesson without dividing the island-nation, but that comes with its bag of geo-strategic and geo-political risks that the West cannot stomach, now or ever. The question is if the UNHRC has at all served the purpose of the West.

That is to ask, who will represent the nation at the UNHRC, and who may represent Sri Lanka at the UNGA for the annual address later this year. Will President Dissanayake appear in either or both of them – to put a finality to speculation from his presumed international sponsors on his government’s position on war crimes, et al, and also matters of geo-strategic and geo-political importance, when in the Sri Lankan context, they all should be discussing geo-economics and geo-economics alone.

(The writer is a Chennai-based Policy Analyst & Political Commentator. Email: sathiyam54@nsathiyamoorthy.com)

The Coconut Cultivation Board has announced the launch of a special program titled “Coconut Fortnight” (‘Pol Desathiya’) as an immediate measure to combat pests, particularly whiteflies, which pose a significant threat to coconut cultivation.

The first phase of the program is scheduled to commence on July 14, with initial operations focusing on the Jaffna district, according to the Chairman of the Coconut Cultivation Board, Dr. Sunimal Jayakody.

“We have decided to declare a Coconut Fortnight across all districts and implement it as an urgent response to the whitefly infestation,” Dr. Jayakody stated.

“Accordingly, it will be implemented on July 14. We will start from Jaffna. As a solution to the whitefly issue, all the coconut trees in the Jaffna district will be sprayed with water and washed. This is a large-scale operation, but we are currently preparing the necessary manpower and machinery for it,” he added.