Strong report from Navi Pillay

By Dharisha Bastians

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navinetham Pillay released a report yesterday, renewing her call for an international probe against Sri Lanka and issuing a blazing indictment on serious Sri Lankan Government inaction on reconciliation and accountability issues in the aftermath of the UNHRC resolution adopted in Geneva last year.

Pillay’s report, which is to be presented at the 22nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that opens on 25 February, was made public by her office early yesterday.





Entitled the Report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on advice and technical assistance for the Government of Sri Lanka on promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka, the document finds serious discrepancies between the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the work the Sri Lankan Government has done to fulfil the commitments called for in the UNHRC resolution against the country last year, calling for the promotion of reconciliation and accountability.

The report takes into consideration highly current events in Sri Lanka including the detention of the Jaffna University Students, the impeachment of the Chief Justice in January and the prison riots in Welikada in which 29 inmates were killed in November last year.

Pillay’s report makes a series of recommendations including the setting up of a credible international investigation into alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, which could also monitor any domestic accountability process. Her recommendations include drafting laws for the protection of witnesses, de-militarization and holding criminal and forensic inquiries.

Referring to each of the LLRC recommendations in turn, Pillay’s report notes that concerns deepened about the independence of key institutions, already undermined by the passing of the 18th Amendment in 2010, “when the Chief Justice was impeached following a series of attacks and acts of intimidation against judges and judicial officers, which the High Commissioner and the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers warned could undermine the independence of judiciary and the rule of law”.

The report also said that despite the removal of the Emergency Regulations, several provisions still remain, including the Prevention of Terrorism Act under which the Jaffna University students were detained recently.

Pillay’s office also faults the Government on lack of action on the Presidential Commission of inquiry into the deaths of five students in Trincomalee in January 2006 and 17 aid workers in Muttur in August 2006, as recommended by the LLRC.  The report recalled that the Government of Sri Lanka during its Universal Periodic Review last year “accepted a recommendation to ensure the adequate completion of investigations into the killings of aid workers”.

It said the Government was claiming there was insufficient evidence into the incidents to make indictments. “It should be highlighted that it is now more than five years since the presidential commission of inquiry completed its report, and more than six years since the incidents,” the strongly-worded report from Pillay’s office said.

The report also highlights the fact that a Military Court of Inquiry investigating 50 alleged incidents of shelling mentioned in the LLRC report, was to conclude its inquiry mid-January 2013 and would subsequently investigate the Channel 4 allegations.

The report said Pillay was concerned about the impartiality of the military inquiry and worried for the safety of witnesses.

On the matter of disappearances, one of the most damning sections of the LLRC report, Pillay also expressed concern about the military being assigned to investigate disappearances in the Government’s National Action Plan.  “These provisions fall short of an independent and impartial investigation, given that the Ministry of Defence is made responsible for investigating the armed forces,” the report said.

On the Government’s much touted rehabilitation of ex-combatants, Pillay’s report expressed concerns about the rehabilitation process and also noted that the continual monitoring of rehabilitated persons after their release prevent them from reintegrating into their communities successfully.

The report noted that following the end of the armed conflict, memorialisation, an integral component of reparations, has been non-inclusive, a fact that risks further disaffecting the minority population. “While memorials to soldiers and war museums have been built by the Government, it has to date made no effort to commemorate civilians who lost their lives in the war… Furthermore, since the end of the armed conflict in May 2009, the military has reportedly prevented civilians in the north from holding private and religious ceremonies to commemorate family members, both civilians and combatants, killed in the war,” the report said.

It also made reference to the construction of “a holiday bungalow, called ‘Lagoon’s Edge,’ on the site of the last battle during which thousands are believed to have been killed”.

The report said that briefings her technical team received on development and reconstruction initiatives in the north, they noted that “several Government representatives viewed these efforts as benevolence on the part of the State, particularly towards the conflict-affected and minority populations, rather than the fulfilment of the State’s fundamental obligations towards its citizens.”