Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Thursday Nov 14, 2024
Wednesday, 20 November 2013 10:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
It is indeed a remarkable feat that the Rajapaksa administration was able to hold CHOGM 2013 despite mounting criticism from across the world. The success of holding CHOGM 2013 was owing to diplomacy by Foreign Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris.
Canada and India had different attitudes as decisions to not attend CHOGM had been made under domestic compulsions. The pro-separatist lobbies in these countries are hyperactive and there is a massive propaganda effort to tarnish the image of Sri Lanka.
High Commissioner in London Chris Nonis had a very good interview with CNN and was able to provide a balanced and diplomatic response to probing questions from the anchor. Rebuilding the battered image of Sri Lanka would be a mammoth task and requires a holistic approach to public diplomacy. Sri Lanka needs people of the calibre of Chris Nonis.
Even the British Prime Minister was under pressure from media and other Tamil diaspora lobby but had to defy the pressure as Britain’s presence is paramount, otherwise the value of sprit of Commonwealth would have been vitiated.
If Norway was a Commonwealth country it too would have abstained from attending. It is also a triumph for Rajapaksa administration when South African President Jacob Zuma attended. In South Africa, where there is a sizeable Tamil population, people have a different attitude towards Sri Lanka, hence the message by Bishop Desmond Tutu urging the South African Government to boycott CHOGM did not have the desired effect. Ideologically Tamils of South Africa are akin to Indian Tamils of Sri Lanka’s Central Province.
As far as President Rajapaksa was concerned, he should be happy that CHOGM went well despite the opposition it had to confront. President was even able to celebrate the 65th birthday of Prince Charles at his official residence. Prof. G.L. Peiris may now be a contender for the post of Prime Minister though MP Sajith Premadasa had called for his resignation over his failure to persuade the Indian Prime Minister to be present at CHOGM.
Commission on Truth and Reconciliation
Recent local press reports indicated that there is an effort by the Government to appoint a Commission on Truth and Reconciliation along the lines of the South African model. What the Government should have done was to have appointed a commission with a broader mandate along the lines of the South African TRC soon after the war victory was achieved.
In fact the need for a truth and reconciliation commission is to address the psychological impact of the conflict which dragged on for three decades. The entire nation lived in utter fear and began to suspect each other in public places. The sound of an airplane and a helicopter drove the northern Tamils into underground bunkers. Questioning looks were cast on suspicious looking individuals and different locations inside buses and trains looking for any unattended objects or parcels. Parents had a chilling time waiting for children returning home from schools.
There is a sizeable number of youth of the Northern and Eastern Provinces who had been brainwashed to see the majority Sinhalese community as a demonic people by the LTTE. That was the recruitment campaign launched by the LTTE.
If the LLRC had a broader mandate, it would have healed the wounds of the injured. It would have granted amnesty for the protagonists of the war. The whole world would have glorified Sri Lanka then and some of the criticism levelled at Sri Lanka now would not have surfaced had we given a broader mandate to the LLRC.
LLRC mandate
The mandate of the LLRC was “to inquire and report on the following matters that may have taken place during the period between 21 February 2002 and 19 May 2009, namely:
(1) The facts and circumstances which led to the failure of the Ceasefire Agreement operationalised on 21 February 2002 and the sequence of events that followed thereafter up to 19 May 2009;
(2) Whether any person, group or institution directly or indirectly bears responsibility in this regard;
(3) The lessons we would learn from those events and their attendant concern, in order to ensure that there will be no recurrence;
(4) The methodology whereby restitution to any person affected by those events or their dependants or their heirs, can be affected;
(5) The institutional administrative and legislative measured which need to be taken in order or prevent any recurrence of such concerns in the future, and to promote further national unity and the reconciliation among all communities, and to make any such other recommendations with reference to any of the matters that have been inquired into under the terms of the Warrant.”
TRC mandate
However, the South African TRC had a different mandate where it says that the “objectives of the Commission was to promote national unity and reconciliation in a spirit of understanding which transcends the conflicts and divisions of the past by
(a) Establishing as complete a picture as possible of the causes, nature and extent of the gross violations of human rights which were committed 
during the period from 1 March 1960 to the cut-off date, including the antecedents, circumstances, factors and context of such violations, as well as the perspectives of the victims and the motives and perspectives of the persons responsible for the commission of the violations, by conducting investigations and holding hearings;
(b) Facilitating the granting of amnesty to persons who make full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to acts associated with a political objective and comply with the requirements of this Act;
(c) Establishing and making known the fate or whereabouts of victims and by restoring the human and civil dignity of such victims by granting them an opportunity to relate their own accounts of the violations of which they are the victims, and by recommending reparation measures in respect of them.”
South African experience
The origins of repression in South Africa against the blacks continued for four centuries and it included serious human rights violations such as mass killings, dispossession, enslavement, ethnic cleansing and many other crimes of horrendous proportions. All human rights violations against the blacks came under State sponsorship and knowledge of the white governments of the day in South Africa.
The contribution of whites in South Africa cannot be underestimated though they were a minority. The whites had contributed immensely to the economic success and they had the most lucrative farms. They also controlled gold, diamond mines and other mineral resources. The whites wielded considerable economic power.
In order to protect these economic assets, the whites had to be armed all times and had Government protection and also retained private security personnel. In some cases private mercenaries have been employed by mining companies to protect the assets owned by whites. The whites also came under horrendous acts of violence at the hands of black militants. It was a brutal war similar to how we saw the LTTE resorting to acts of pure barbarism.
Most successful TRC
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created through an Act of Parliament in 1995 by the South African Government in an effort to bring about justice and reconciliation. Most of the public hearings were done in Cape Town. The Commission was led by imminent personalities such as Bishop Desmond Tutu and other intellectuals.
The TRC had been given a mandate to look into (1) human rights violations (2) reparation and rehabilitation of victims and restoring their dignity (3) and TRC had a special mandate to consider amnesty applications from individuals including members of the armed forces, vigilantes, paramilitary militia and members of the military wing of the ANC led by Nelson Mandela.
The South African TRC is considered to be the most successful TRC as similar exercises in other countries did not produce as impressive an outcome as the TRC of South Africa.
Amnesty
The LRRC did not have the mandate to grant amnesty and this was the biggest mistake ever committed in the run-up to the war victory. Even late Lalith Athulathmudali enacted amnesty laws to grand pardon to members of security forces during the period 1985 to 1989 where there were two internal wars.
The South African TRC played an important role in granting amnesty to defence force personnel and militants of the ANC. The armed struggle between whites and blacks was so bitter that crisis had even extended to neighbouring countries where black militants were operating and getting logistical support. There have been cross border raids by the South African Defence Force (SADF) deep into Angola, Mozambique and other countries surrounding South Africa.
The crisis became so bitter that there has been an unofficial mandate to engage in extra judicial executions and to liquidate terrorist suspects and SADF even had official sanction for that. There has been a plethora of cases involving deaths under police and military custody. Media personnel and institutions too came under terror. It was quite remarkable that transitional justice went really well in South Africa. The South African experience is an ideal case study in transitional justice.
New grand commission
Time is therefore still ripe in Sri Lanka to provide a space for a new grand commission with an objective of burying ethnic differences and bringing about national unity once and for all. Perhaps it would be possible to look into a new constitution guaranteeing the rights of minorities through a subcommittee within the new mandate. The commission could even articulate a home grown solution to the crisis.
The grand commission must have the required mandate to look into all aspects of the conflict and must provide an objective view of the crisis. The most important among all is to grant amnesty to all stakeholders of the conflict including LTTE and armed forces of Sri Lanka.
(This writer is a freelance journalist and a political lobbying and public affairs consultant. He is also a member of the American Association of
Political Consultants.)
