Geneva debacle: Name and shame as MPS play the blame game

Any talk of human rights (HR), the diaspora and the internationalisation of the country’s internal problems, leads to a lot of finger pointing in Sri Lanka’s Parliament, as was evident when a two-day debate on the US sponsored Geneva resolution was held in Parliament last week. There were Government members accusing the UNP of letting the country’s problems spill beyond its shores, by allowing the massacre of Tamil people during the 1983 riots. There were Opposition members charging that it was the President who internationalised internal issues between the late 1980s-early 1990s, by dragging Sri Lanka’s HR issues to Geneva, and then there were charges levelled at the TNA, that they were in tow with the Tamil diaspora, working together to achieve their objectives that were shattered by the defeat of the LTTE.

This kind of partisan political talk is one good reason to pay more attention at least to one recommendation of the Lessons Learnt & Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), on the need for “forgiveness and compassion”, if the process of reconciliation within the country is to move forward.

The LLRC Report says, “Leaders on all sides should reach out to one another in humility, and make a joint declaration, extending an apology to innocent citizens who fell victims to this conflict, as a result of the collective failure of the political leadership on all sides to prevent such a conflict from re-emerging.”

This is also a good place for the Government to start, if it is genuine about putting at least some of the LLRC recommendations into practice. It’s also likely to be a measure, that none of the Opposition parties will be able to refuse, without damaging their own credibility.

However, during the two-day debate, there were no clear signs that the Government had made up its mind on how it hopes to go about implementing the recommendations of the LLRC, even though it was a key question that Opposition legislators demanded an answer to. Many Opposition legislators wanted a categorical statement from the Government, on its position on the LLRC report, which, though a government appointed one, has now become the favourite tool for the Opposition with which to whack the Government, since the release of the report last November.

External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris, who wound up the debate on behalf of the Government, said that, nowhere in the world are the recommendations of a Commission implemented comma, full stop and all. Instead, only the necessary ones would be implemented. “But this does not mean we reject the report,” he emphasised. The problem however, is, he gave no hint as to which direction the Government intends to proceed, to offset the heat generated in the aftermath of the Geneva resolution, and the growing calls for action to be initiated, based on the recommendations of the report.

There was some inkling that the inability to muster enough support for Sri Lanka at the UNHRC has awakened the government to some new world realities, and the need to bring about a paradigm shift in the country’s foreign policy. The way the Government plans to go about it, by restructuring the existing Sri Lanka missions overseas, by reducing their strength and opening new ones in countries that would be both, economically and politically important for Sri Lanka, as Minister Peiris explained.

DNA JVP MP Anura Kumara Dissanayaka who moved the motion said his party had asked the Government to establish a Truth & Reconciliation Commission soon after the war ended and address grievances of the minorities. Had that been done, the UN resolution would not have come about,” he said.

UNP Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella who seconded the motion, called for the quick implementation of the LLRC recommendations.

“The LLRC report said that abductions and unlawful killings must be investigated and stopped, civil rights should be respected, while independent institutions and media freedom be restored. The Government makes promises, but does not keep them,” he said.

All the UNP praise for the LLRC report did not go down well with Minister Susil Premajayantha, who drew attention to the sections in the report which referred to the Norway brokered Cease-fire Agreement (CFA) of 2001, when Opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe was Prime Minister.

“If the UNP is accepting the LLRC report wholly, does that mean they also accept the blame placed on those who negotiated and signed the CFA?” Minister Premajayantha queried.

Housing & Construction Minister Wimal Weerawansa started his speech a bit off track, saying that, the UNP should hand over its leadership to MP Sajith Premadasa, as he had spoken out strongly against the UN resolution, while there was silence from UNP leader Ranil Wickreme- singhe. “Some in the Opposition, who could not achieve their objectives, using Velupillai Prabhakaran, are trying to achieve them through US President Barack Obama,” he said, adding that President Mahinda Rajapaksa is facing these challenges courageously.

One person angered by the contents of the LLRC report was Minister Douglas Devananda, who said that, he would take legal action against the claims made in it, that some witnesses complained to the Commission about acts of extortion that were being committed by members of the Eelam Peoples’ Democratic Party.

MPS Mangala Samaraweera and Harin Fernando had a field day of sorts, quoting from Hansard speeches made by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, when he was an Opposition legislator in 1990, defending his position to take up the violation of HR in Sri Lanka at the HR forum in Geneva. “Some of the very people that the Government brands as traitors today were among those who supported (President) Mahinda Rajapaksa when he went to Geneva,” MP Samaraweera pointed out.

As the members of the LLRC themselves noted, many people who appeared before it were concerned that this report would suffer the same fate as those made by past Commissions of Inquiry, which have yielded no results.

“The Commission strongly feels that, if these recommendations are not expeditiously implemented, the all-important efforts towards reconciliation and lasting peace may not be achieved, with the country continuing to face an uncertain future,” the LLRC said.as to whether this Report too will lie idle on a shelf somewhere and be forgotten, or its recommendations be put into practice, is now in the hands of the Government.