{"id":25656,"date":"2013-09-12T15:25:39","date_gmt":"2013-09-12T19:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=25656"},"modified":"2013-09-12T15:25:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T19:25:39","slug":"lesson-of-navi-pillay-sri-lanka-visit-is-that-rajapaksa-regime-requires-a-more-robust-united-international-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=25656","title":{"rendered":"Lesson of Navi Pillay Sri Lanka Visit is that Rajapaksa Regime Requires a More Robust United International response"},"content":{"rendered":"

by
\nAlan Keenan
\n<\/strong>
\nConcluding her recent fact-finding trip to Sri Lanka, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned that President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s government was \u201cheading in an increasingly authoritarian direction\u2026 despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing state\u201d.<\/p>\n

Pillay\u2019s statement cited a long and growing list of serious human rights problems, including \u201cpersistent impunity and the failure of rule of law\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan government responded to her comments with accusations of \u201cprejudice\u201d and a \u201clack of fairness and balance\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Alleging authoritarianism, it argued Pillay \u201cclearly transgresses her mandate and the basic norms which should be observed by a discerning international civil servant\u201d and was a \u201ccaricature\u201d who was \u201cinfluenced by vested interests\u201d.<\/p>\n

During her trip, ministers had questioned Pillay\u2019s motives and even-handedness.<\/p>\n

Citing her south Indian heritage, they argued she was sympathetic to the Tamil Tigers, who were defeated in the brutal conclusion to Sri Lanka\u2019s quarter-century of war in May 2009.<\/p>\n

Such harsh public criticism of the high commissioner would be unusual in other contexts, but it is the Sri Lankan government\u2019s routine response to international officials who challenge their narrative of a post-war Sri Lanka well on its way to reconciliation.<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s denial and refusal to engage even well-intentioned criticism are reflected in its continuing repudiation of important reforms called for in consecutive resolutions by the UN Human Rights Council in March last year and this year.<\/p>\n

Not surprisingly, Sri Lankan activists and political opponents face much worse treatment.<\/p>\n

Pillay highlighted the government\u2019s \u201charassment and intimidation\u201d of community leaders and human rights advocates she had just met.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtterly unacceptable at any time,\u201d she said, \u201cit is particularly extraordinary for such treatment to be meted out during a visit by a UN high commissioner for human rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of surveillance and harassment appears to be getting worse in Sri Lanka, which is a country where critical voices are quite often attacked or even permanently silenced.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is to the great credit of Pillay that she has brought global attention to the problem, having raised the issue in her opening statement to the UN Human Rights Council, whose latest session began this week.<\/p>\n

Pillay\u2019s initial assessment of her visit made it clear she wasn\u2019t fooled by a series of government moves \u2013 a handful of arrests, a few new inquiries, recycled promises of legal reform \u2013 designed to make it appear as if it is addressing international concerns about impunity and rule of law deficits.<\/p>\n

Although Pillay \u201cwelcomed\u201d a newly appointed commission of inquiry into war-time disappearances \u2013 the latest in a long line of official commissions that have failed to weaken systemic impunity \u2013 her fundamental message was clear: the Rajapaksa government was moving in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n

Her week-long fact-finding mission affirms the International Crisis Group\u2019s findings that Sri Lanka has spurned the suggested reforms called for by the UN Human Rights Council in March last year and this year.
\nSri Lanka has failed even to implement the core recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.<\/p>\n

Pillay found Sri Lankans faced a \u201csustained assault\u201d on freedom of expression; a judiciary whose independence was badly undermined by January\u2019s politically motivated impeachment of the chief justice; an \u201coppressive and intrusive\u201d military presence in Tamil majority areas of the north and east; a \u201crecent surge in incitement of hatred and violence against religious minorities, including attacks on churches and mosques\u201d, without effective action being taken against the perpetrators; and a continued failure to investigate allegations of war crimes in a credible and independent manner.<\/p>\n

In response to the charge of authoritarianism, the government has pointed to Sri Lanka\u2019s numerous post-war elections as proof of its democratic credentials.<\/p>\n

As the campaigning under way for provincial council seats illustrates, elections that are held in the context of state control of the media, impunity for rights violations and heavy militarisation are better seen as useful tools to consolidate Rajapaksa\u2019s government power rather than as opportunities for open debate and citizen choice.<\/p>\n

The lesson of Pillay\u2019s visit is not just that the situation is deteriorating, but that the Rajapaksa regime\u2019s rigid denial of its grave human rights crisis demands a more robust united international response.<\/p>\n

In this context, South Africa has an important role to play when it joins other Commonwealth leaders at the organisation\u2019s annual heads of government meeting in Colombo in November.<\/p>\n

Commonwealth leaders should publicly challenge Sri Lanka\u2019s institutionalised impunity for human rights abuses, its tolerance of attacks on Muslims and the deliberate undermining of the rule of law.<\/p>\n

They should publicly insist on the need for a proper process of accountability for events at the end of the war \u2013 as the ANC and South African government have previously called for.<\/p>\n

The government should not be allowed to use the Commonwealth heads of government meeting to showcase a false picture of a democratic country at peace and on the road to reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Members of the UN Human Rights Council should begin informal discussions to design an international mechanism empowered to investigate the many credible allegations of violations of international law by both sides in Sri Lanka\u2019s civil war and monitor continuing human rights violations and attacks on the rule of law.<\/p>\n

The council should move to establish this mechanism during its session in March next year.<\/p>\n

Before leaving Sri Lanka, Pillay expressed shock at the levels of trauma and emotional distress she encountered in those she met from the north and east, especially among families of those forcibly disappeared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never seen this level of uncontrollable grief,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The emotional and political wounds of Sri Lanka\u2019s decades of civil war can only begin to be healed once the government ends its policy of denial.<\/p>\n

Insisting the Sri Lankan government do so is perhaps the most important way the international community can help lay the foundations for a sustainable and just peace.<\/p>\n

(Alan Keenan is project director and senior analyst on Sri Lanka for the International Crisis Group. This Article Appears in “Daily News” of South Africa)<\/em><\/p>\n

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by Alan Keenan Concluding her recent fact-finding trip to Sri Lanka, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay warned that President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s government was \u201cheading in an increasingly authoritarian direction\u2026 despite the opportunity provided by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing state\u201d. Pillay\u2019s statement cited a long and …<\/p>\n

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