Colombo: Following mounting pressure, the Sri Lankan government has decided to set up a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission to look into atrocities during its civil war so that it can act against the perpetrators.
South Africa, which confronted its own apartheid-era crimes through such a body, would advise the nation on how to use the commission to provide remedy to victims and to track down missing people, the foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera, said. The minister announced plan at the UN human rights council, hours after the world body announced it would release a long-delayed report soon calling for accountability for Lankan war crimes.
Successive governments have promised to look into crimes committed by both sides during the 26-year conflict between government forces and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. According to an earlier UN report, around 40,000 ethnic minority Tamils were killed in a final offensive ordered by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2009. But world organisations have been frustrated by a string of failed plans and a lack of criminal indictments.
Samaraweera said his govdernment wanted an independent and credible commission for truth, justice, reconciliation and non-recurrence. “The reputation of the vast majority of armed forces was tarnished because of the system and culture created by a few people in positions of responsibility,” he said, without elaborating.
Rights groups say Sri Lanka has failed to address continuing incidents of torture by the police and military against minority Tamils, whose leaders call for an international investigation. “We will judge the government by the actions they take, not the promises they make,” Fred Carver, director of the Sri Lanka Campaign, said.
Human Rights Watch urged the council to set out concrete benchmarks for an effective justice and accountability mechanism, including a majority of international judges in an independent system and an independent international prosecutor.
