Alleged war crimes:
Accountability remains critical
by Mytili Bala
Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war ended six years ago amidst allegations
of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other serious abuses by both
government and rebel forces.
In 2011, a UN panel concluded that “the conduct of the war by both
sides represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international
law designed to protect individual dignity.”
A UN investigation is complete, but its report has been deferred to
September.
The government of President Maithripala Sirisena has made welcome
promises to hold perpetrators on both sides accountable, but it has yet
to show tangible progress. Its decision last week to promote Jagath Dias
as Army Chief of Staff raises real concerns: Dias is alleged to be
responsible for serious international crimes during the last phase of
the war.
Six years after the war’s end, here are six reasons why
accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity remains
critical.
Accountability will help war-affected communities heal from a violent
past. As one Tamil woman explained in her recent letter to the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, “Each and every family in the Vanni
region has been affected by the war.”
Unless there is accountability, Sri Lanka’s war-affected families
will never know what happened to their disappeared loved ones or be able
to rebuild their lives.Accountability may help deter future human rights
abuses. Sirisena’s predecessor failed to deliver on promises of
accountability, and troubling reports of post-war violations emerged.
In 2014, Sri Lanka Campaign published a report pointing to post-war
crimes against humanity committed against Tamils in the Northern
Province. Another report documented systematic post-war torture and
sexual violence of those perceived as having ties with the defeated LTTE.
From an atrocity prevention standpoint, impunity paves the way for new
human rights abuses to occur.
Accountability will help restore the rule of law and faith in a
united Sri Lanka. Accountability matters to strengthen institutions and
reestablish a commitment to the rule of law for all of Sri Lanka’s
communities.
Resorting to the rule of law
Without accountability, there is the risk that Sri Lanka’s Tamil
minority will feel little purchase in a united Sri Lanka, losing faith
in the ability of State institutions and courts to deliver justice.
Accountability will finally end decades of impunity for crimes by the
LTTE, Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF), Sri Lankan Armed Forces,
paramilitaries, and the JVP (People’s Liberation Front of Sri Lanka).
Accountability will promote reconciliation across ethnic divides.
By apportioning blame to both sides, accountability will help
challenge nationalist myths within the Sinhalese and Tamil communities
about the Army and the LTTE and help shift blame from whole groups to
the individuals responsible for alleged crimes.
In particular, many war-affected Tamils would like to see
prosecutions of senior officials on all sides - Army, LTTE, and
paramilitaries - rather than lower-ranking foot soldiers. Pursuing
accountability for those most responsible could therefore lay the
groundwork for broader conflict transformation across ethnic divides.
Accountability will reaffirm and strengthen international law. In
winning the war, Sri Lankan armed forces allegedly engaged in serious
violations of international law, resulting in an ‘unimaginable
humanitarian catastrophe’. Yet, after the war, Sri Lanka’s Defense
Ministry held annual conferences to propagate the ‘Rajapaksa Model of
fighting terror’.
Israel, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Colombia and the
Philippines have reportedly studied the Sri Lankan approach. Unless the
record is set straight, the Sri Lankan experience could stand as a
dangerous model and threaten international laws meant to protect
civilians during armed conflict.
Accountability will help Sri Lanka rejoin the international
community. Under the previous government, Sri Lanka became increasingly
isolated from the international community, leading the UN Human Rights
Council to pass three successive resolutions to promote reconciliation
and accountability.
As UN Special Rapporteur Pablo de Greiff stated after his recent
visit, by committing to accountability, Sri Lanka will be ‘rejoining the
international community of rights’, through ‘an international system
which Sri Lanka contributed to constructing’. Indian Prime Minister
Narendra Modi likewise expressed India’s hope that Sri Lanka
“accommodates the aspirations of all sections of society, including the
Sri Lankan Tamil community, for a life of equality, justice, peace and
dignity in a united Sri Lanka.”
In short, Sri Lanka has a real chance to help all of its ethnic
communities transition from a divided past to a shared, peaceful future,
if it commits to accountability. Six years after Sri Lanka’s brutal
civil war, accountability remains more important than ever.
The writer is the Robert L. Bernstein International Human Rights
Fellow at the Centre for Justice and Accountability, an international
human rights organization dedicated to deterring torture and other
severe human rights abuses around the world and advancing the rights of
survivors to seek truth, justice and redress.
- Groundviews |