Crisis Group flags upsurge of attacks on Muslim business, religious sites

Saturday, 23 February 2013 00:22 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government of Sri Lanka has done little to discourage the upsurge of attacks on Muslim religious sites and businesses, the International Crisis Group said in a damning report urging strong international action against the country which it claimed was taking an ‘authoritarian’ turn.

The report that comes days ahead of the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s 22nd Session in Geneva was entitled ‘Sri Lanka’s Authoritarian Turn: The Need for International Action’ called in the international community to censure Sri Lanka by way of referring the country to the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) in April and a stronger resolution at the UNHRC this year.

The ICG report that examines the Sri Lankan Government’s recent consolidation of power, calls the impeachment of Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake the culmination of a ‘constitutional coup’ that commenced with the passing of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and says provocations from Buddhist groups could pose ‘serious threats’ to Sri Lanka’s Muslims.

“Given the country’s history of violent resistance to State power perceived as unjust, the authoritarian drift can only increase the risk of an eventual outbreak of political violence,” the ICG says.

Sri Lankans of all ethnicities who have struggled to preserve their democracy deserve stronger international support, the ICG said. The group’s report warned that the dismantling of the independent Judiciary and other democratic checks on the Executive and military will inevitably feed the growing ethnic tension resulting from the absence of power sharing and the denial of minority rights.

The report said that the Government’s politically motivated impeachment of the Chief Justice reveals both its intolerance of dissent and the weakness of the political Opposition.

The group called the impeachment the “incapacitating” of the last institutional check on the Executive.

“The Government has crossed a threshold into new and dangerous terrain, threatening prospects for the eventual peaceful transfer of power through free and fair elections,” it warned.

ICG says that the CMAG and the UNHRC should call for concrete, time bound actions to restore the rule of law, investigate alleged war crimes and human rights violations by the Government and the LTTE and devolve power to the north and east.

The report said the Government had failed to deliver on the commitments called for in the UNHRC resolution adopted against Sri Lanka in March last year.

“The Government has conducted no credible investigations into allegations of war crimes, disappearances or other serious human rights violations; rather than establish independent institutions for oversight and investigation, the Government has in effect removed the last remnants of judicial independence through the impeachment of the Chief Justice; there has been no progress toward a lasting and fair constitutional settlement of the ethnic conflict through devolution of power,” the ICG Report said in its Executive Summary.

The International Crisis Group is an international non-governmental organisation committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict world over and is headed by former UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour.