SL to make haste slowly towards transitional justice: Mangala

By Dharisha Bastians

The Government of Sri Lanka yesterday strongly denied claims that it was delaying the transitional justice process before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and said it was ‘united and firm’ in its commitment to justice and reconciliation.  

“The steps taken so far may seem like only baby steps for some, but for us in Sri Lanka, these are giant leaps,” Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told the 47 member Council last evening.

Responding to the oral report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein at the Palais des Nations last evening, Foreign Minister Samaraweera said Sri Lanka was following a policy of ‘festina lente’ or ‘making haste slowly’, a phrase attributed to the Romans, in order to find a balance of urgency and diligence on its journey to delivering transitional justice.

“Reconciliation is not just a box to be ticked. The price to pay if we falter is not one our nation can endure once again after 30 years of bloodshed that spared no one,” the Foreign Minister said in an impassioned appeal for patience and encouragement from the international community.

“For those of our friends who are genuinely concerned, and want Sri Lanka to succeed, every delayed second seems to appear as an eternity, and they fear that the Government has lost its way and the political will to succeed,” he said referring to constant references to delays by the Government on moving on transitional justice.

The Government was committed to implementing the 2015 resolution it had co-sponsored in Geneva last September, the Minister said.

Minister Samaraweera said that there were those who prayed the Government’s reconciliation efforts would not succeed. “These are the forces of extremism on both sides of the divide, who, in league with the ghosts of the past, wait to rejoice to see Sri Lanka fail to succeed in its journey of reconciliation,” he said.

The Foreign Minister pledged that when he returns to the Human Rights Council in March next year, the contours of the new Sri Lanka his Government was aspiring to build will be far clearer. The Minister admitted that the Government’s ineffective communication strategies were a weakness and vowed to address the shortcomings with an effective awareness programme.  

He said the Government was focusing first on the ‘low hanging fruit’ or the least controversial aspects of the transitional justice mechanism to be set up as soon as possible. “We have strategies and plans to deal with the more serious and controversial issue of setting up a judicial mechanism with international assistance. Sri Lanka is no stranger to international assistance and participation with many investigative and forensic experts having worked with us in the past,” the Minister explained.

Highlighting the achievements of Sri Lanka’s Unity Government since it took office nearly one year ago, Minister Samaraweera said a draft bill to establish a Permanent and Independent Office on Missing Persons had been included in the order paper of Parliament and was set to be debated on in July. He also said that the Government was in the process of reforming the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act, with new counter-terrorism legislation in keeping with Sri Lanka’s commitment and obligations to human rights and countering terrorism. A committee was now putting the ‘final touches’ to the first draft of this legislation, Minister Samaraweera said, adding that expertise and technical assistance had been sought from the Counter-terrorism Committee Executive Directorate in drafting the bill.

The Sri Lankan Delegation to the UNHRC’s 32nd Session includes Minister Samaraweera, Justice Minister Wijedasa Rajapakse, Secretary General of the Secretariat for Coordinating Reconciliation Mechanisms Mano Tittawella and Attorneys at Law, Suren Fernando and Prashanthi Mahindaratne.

Yesterday, in his first report to the Council on Sri Lanka’s progress on implementing the recommendations of the September 2015 resolution, High Commissioner Zeid reported to the 47 member Human Rights Council in Geneva that the full promise of governance reform, transitional justice and economic revival was yet to be delivered by the ruling National Unity Government in Sri Lanka, and said the process was at risk of “stalling or dissipating”. Zeid said President Maithripala Sirisena’s Government had “consolidated its position, creating a political environment conducive to reforms” but warned that overall progress in setting up structures to deliver transitional justice had been “hesitant and slow”. “The early momentum established in investigating emblematic cases must be sustained, as early successful prosecutions would mark a turning point from the impunity of the past,” the High Commissioner’s report said, referring to the Trinco-5 murders, the Lasantha Wickrematunge assassination and the Prageeth Ekneligoda disappearance among other key cases of major violations. “Continuing allegations of arbitrary arrest, torture and sexual violence, as well as more general military surveillance and harassment, must be swiftly addressed, and the structures and institutional culture that promoted those practices be dismantled,” the report noted.

The High Commissioner will deliver a full progress report to the Council in March 2017.