Consultations Task Force says ‘no guarantees’ Govt. will heed recommendations

Task Force says 

it’s up to civil society, media to push Govt. now 

On hybrid court, CTF says foreign judges 

can be phased out once 

competence and trust is built locally 

By Dharisha Bastians 

The Consultations Task Force (CTF) on Reconciliation Mechanisms yesterday warned that there were “no guarantees” that recommendations in its 500-page final report would be implemented and urged civil society and the media to step up pressure on the Government to deliver on its promises to the people on truth and justice. 

“We have no guarantees that the Government will implement this,” said Dr. Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, a Task Force Member and Executive Director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives. “But we are hopeful.” 

Irrespective of the consideration the report will receive from the Government, it would now stand as a reference point for what the people wanted, CTF members said.

“The ball is now in the Government’s court, to say what it accepts and what it rejects of these recommendations,” Dr. Saravanamuttu told reporters last afternoon. 

The statements came during a press conference held at the Government Information Department, following the release of the CTF’s final report. Both the President and the Prime Minister skipped the handing over ceremony at the Presidential Secretariat, sparking questions about the Government’s interest in the Task Force findings, that members said had been informed by the views of people who came before the panel from all over the country. 

“In our report, we have tried to reflect the experiences of those who engaged with us, their anger and their quest for relief,” said senior lawyer Manori Muttetuwegama, who headed the Task Force. 

She said the Task Force held the view that the evidence placed before it should receive the most serious consideration by the Government as it sets about designing structures to address reconciliation and accountability for grave crimes committed during the war. 

Muttetuwagama emphasised that the Task Force had operated entirely independent of the State. “We were appointed by the State, but we are not agents of the State,” she asserted. 

The CTF also clarified its recommendation on a special court to try alleged war crimes, saying foreign judges and international participation could be phased out once trust in the process is repaired and expertise has been built up nationally. 

CTF said its reasoning for calling for full participation of internationals in the special court was grounded in a victims’ lack of confidence in the credibility of a judicial mechanism that was exclusively domestic and the lack of competence and expertise nationally to deal with complex international crimes. 

“Once the trust deficit is bridged and competence issues are addressed, international participation in the special court can be phased out,” said Dr. Saravanamuttu. 

Task Force members also emphasised that the request for international participation did not emerge only from Tamils in the North and East. “It was also a request from the south, where families of missing soldiers called for international expertise to be brought in to find their loved ones,” said Task Force Member and independent researcher Mirak Raheem. 

In September 2015, the Government promised to set up a four-pillared transitional justice structure to deal with alleged war crimes, missing persons and reparations for victims of violence and conflict. 

The CTF was a special panel set up by the Government to solicit the people’s views on how structures it was proposing to deal with grave human rights violations should be shaped. It was an exercise in asking the people what they wanted, rather than the state imposing a structure upon the people, CTF members explained.  CTF held public meetings and received written submissions between July and September 2016. It received 7,306 submissions during consultations. The CTF comprised 11 independent experts drawn from civil society to design and oversee consultations, who were assisted by 15 Zonal Task Forces, with representatives from districts or provinces to conduct community-level consultations. The 11-member Consultations Task Force, whose mandate ended with the handover of its final report at the Presidential Secretariat on Tuesday (3), said its members go back to being civil society activists, whose role would now include lobbying the Government to act on the people’s wishes as it deals with truth and justice issues lingering since the end of the war. 

The changes of the past two or three years would never have been possible without sustained pressure from civil society and the media, Dr. Saravanamuttu noted. “That job is never over.”