Reconciliation delayed, harmony denied

The resolution 30/1 co-sponsored by Sri Lanka in October 2015 prescribes some essential steps that the Sri Lankan government should take for bringing about reconciliation between the two communities, the Sinhalese and the Tamil communities, and durable peace that will ensure the non – recurrence of a state of civil war. I have mentioned below some significant measures the Sri Lankan government has already taken in the process of implementing the Resolution 30/1.

The government has taken all steps to establish the Office on Missing Persons. The relevant bill has been passed by Parliament and relevant gazette notice too has been published. This is a very important step taken by the government because, according to the TNA about twenty thousand people have gone missing and the relatives of missing persons are constantly expressing their mental agony by staging demonstrations against the government demanding the establishment of a mechanism to find out the truth as to what happened to their loved ones.

Bill on Prevention of Disappearances

Another pivotal step that the present government has taken is the drafting of the Bill on the prevention of disappearances. The objective of this Bill is to ensure the freedom of life for every citizen born in Sri Lanka without fear of forcible abduction, disappearance and imprisonment. Sri Lanka has already signed the International Covenant on Convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance on December 10, 2015 and the government ratified it on May 25, 2016. For the purpose of giving legal validity to this, the relevant draft bill was gazetted on May 09, 2017 and submitted to Parliament. However, it is unfortunate that the debate on this bill has been postponed, perhaps due to the objections raised by the Joint Opposition stating as the ground that the war heroes will be affected by the implementation of this law.

The government has already drafted the necessary legislation for repealing the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act and substituting this law with necessary legislation conforming to the international standards acceptable to the democratic states.

Framing a new Constitution

The Interim Report of the Steering Committee tasked with framing a new constitution was submitted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to the Constituent Assembly on September 21, 2017. The national unity government which is an alliance of the two major political parties in Sri Lanka, the SLFP and the UNP, has been able to obtain the cooperation of the Tamil National Alliance representing the Sri Lankan Tamil community. After the submission of the interim report in Parliament, the leader of the TNA, R. Sampanthan, expressed his support for making a Constitution within the framework of a united, undivided and indivisible Sri Lanka.

He made reference to the fact that the national unity government deviated from the earlier practice of political parties in power making or amending Constitutions unilaterally ignoring the demands and aspirations of the Tamil community. He said that no constitution has thus far been framed for Sri Lanka on the basis of a substantial bi – partisan consensus amongst its deferent people, in particular the Tamil people, or on the basis of such bi – partisan consensus between the two main parties and other political parties.

“The present exercise in Constitution making presents the first such opportunity. A Constitution based upon such a reasonable consensus, would give the Constitution, the basic and supreme law of the country, a legitimacy and credibility which the country direly needs.”

Hybrid Courts

Resolution 30/1 also demands from Sri Lanka the establishment of hybrid courts comprising foreign judges for investigating allegations of serious violations of humanitarian law and human rights amounting to war crimes.

The establishment of such courts has become a serious political issue in Sri Lanka since there are some retired military officers who openly support the Joint Opposition stating that this move is an anti-national campaign to insult the war heroes, who have brought peace to the entire country after defeating the most ruthless terrorist outfit in the world. But the United Nations insist that such an investigation is necessary and therefore there is no option but to establish a tribunal for investigating these allegations. However, if the Sri Lankan government takes necessary steps such as including necessary provisions in the new constitution for strengthening the independence of judges and upholding the rule of law and thereby convince the international community that Sri Lanka is capable of holding a credible domestic investigation acceptable to the community of democratic states, there is a possibility of the United Nations waiving the requirement for including foreign judges.

The International Community showing an interest in the reconciliation process should appreciate the extremely difficult task the present government has undertaken specially in view of the propaganda campaign a powerful section of the opposition both within and outside Parliament led by the former President Mahinda Rajapaksa has launched to topple the whole reconciliation process by toppling the government. This opposition group is projecting the entire reconciliation process as a project designed by the USA and other western states supporting the Tamil diaspora for dividing the country and establishing the Tamil Eelam. They have engaged in a despicable political campaign exploiting the nationalist sentiments of the Sinhala Buddhist community for recapturing power.

They argue that the implementation of the resolution of the UNHRC in Geneva co-sponsored by the Sri Lankan government should be opposed and prevented by toppling the government. The moderate thinkers can understand that the Sri Lankan government adopted the diplomatically rational attitude of co-operating with the International Community after the change of government in 2015, because the leaders of the national unity government realized the harmful repercussions of continuing to adopt a confrontationist approach to the resolutions brought before the UNHRC in Geneva against Sri Lanka. It appears that there is a need for enlightening the average citizens of this country regarding the actual reasons for bringing the resolutions before the UNHRC.

The UN desires genuine reconciliation between the Sinhalese community and Tamil community in Sri Lanka because unless the steps that should be taken by the Sri Lankan government for genuine reconciliation are unnecessarily delayed or ignored for political or any other reasons, recurrence of the state of civil war between the two communities cannot be prevented.