Geneva: Local 'electric chair' better?
Fortunately, for all those who fear retribution
for the murder, mass brutality, political repression, racism and abuse
of power that they may have perpetrated or, presided over, the path of
redemption that our country has now set foot on avoids the pitfalls of
sweeping judiciary prosecution.
If judicial prosecution had been the intention, then, ironically, the
international judiciary process would have been infinitely better for
those likely to be caught in the net for large scale human rights
violations, including murder. Why? Because, the United Nations and other
multilateral institutions abandoned the death sentence long ago. Thus,
if there had been an 'international probe', as it was feared by some
'patriots' and their patrons, then, those found guilty would have
escaped the death sentence and the electric chair.
Sri Lanka, however, is not in line with global civilization, and the
death sentence yet prevails here, even though execution has not occurred
in recent decades - much to the disappointment of many citizens, judging
by the recent hue and cry. Thus, the country's resort to a 'domestic
mechanism' actually opens up the possibility of the death sentence for
anyone who might be prosecuted for these crimes.
The degree of ignorance prevailing in the country is such that when
one political leader - someone anticipating possible prosecution -
begins worrying about the (non-existent) international electric chair,
there are many patriots who share in this fear for their hero. And both
they, and their hero, now celebrate the resort to a purely domestic
mechanism notwithstanding the risk of the electric chair ever present
under current Sri Lankan law! Their simplistic patriotism ignores the
realities of legal backwardness and the local fetishism of death.
Indeed, this tangle of institutional actualities and ignorance of
international legal culture and of local legal provisions all indicate
the morass from which we must now extricate ourselves. The current
government has won, in Geneva, a reprieve of sorts for Sri Lanka from
the international strictures to which the country had been committed
during the previous regime.
Those who care only about their heroes and not the fabric of our
civilisation, may now scramble for legal reform to exempt their
political heroes from the local death sentence that many in Sri Lanka
want revived. Such scramblers should be reassured. Anyone reading the
provisions of the UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka, will
be aware that, leave aside death sentencing, there is the likelihood of
very few on either side of the bloody internal war being actually
subjected to direct criminal prosecution for human rights violations.
The UNHRC Resolution provides for an elaborate process of mediation,
confession, forgiveness and reconciliation in place of straightforward
judicial prosecution so that the transition from war to peace builds
human relationships and societal harmony as against a socially divisive
process of retribution.
Indeed, the answers to many of the problems in the complex tangle we
are now escaping from, lie in the provisions of the UNHRC Resolution.
Geneva 'encourages' us not to remain mired in old laws and procedures
but to reform the legal system, the judiciary and even the Constitution
in our search for solutions. Why we had to wait for 'encouragement' from
an external body can only be explained by our previous set of leaders
who first dealt with the UN, and, by their duplicity, got us entangled.
Nevertheless, thus 'encouraged', our new government plans to innovate
with new institutions and mechanisms that will enable us to disentangle
ourselves from this web of ignorance, obscurantism and childish
pre-occupation with electric chairs. Indeed, if we can only focus on our
problems honestly and acknowledge them as 'problems', then all we need
to do - Geneva notwithstanding - is to be as creative as we want to be
in finding the best solutions that would be appreciated by all on this
beautiful island of ours.
In a sense, the UNHRC Resolution should be seen as a national compact
adopted by most sections of the Sri Lankan nation that has, then, been
endorsed by, first, those countries joining Sri Lanka in proposing the
Resolution and then, by the UN Council as a whole. That is, the
Resolution becomes a Sri Lankan commitment to ourselves taken before the
eyes of the global community and with the promise of world's nations to
support us in the implementation. All our friends in the international
community - that same 'international community' derided by the previous
regime - from Japan and China in the East, to India and Pakistan in our
own region, and to Russia, Europe and the United States in the West,
have wholeheartedly supported us in our final resolve to put things
right in our country.
Most sections of Sri Lankan society voted for a political change in
January and August this year that will bring honest and intelligent
action for peace and justice as against the duplicity, racism and
injustice during the previous regime. Now all sections of society need
to rally round the government and parliament and support and participate
in this process of setting things right.
Inter-ethnic dialogue needs to be facilitated both at the political
as well as the citizens' levels to enable justice and equality for all
ethnic groups and an appreciation of our cultural richness. Professional
bodies and experts - local and foreign - need to contribute their ideas
and skills to design and implement new structures for judicial probes
and social reconciliation. Trade unions, civic action groups, scholars,
artistes, the media and religious leaders will need to facilitate the
myriad activities that will take place in this process of national
redemption, and systemic repair. The business community should give
public support to this national process that will bring about the social
cohesion and stability so necessary for good business. The
Constitutional reform program must necessarily be as transparent and
inclusive as possible.
Let the Sri Lankan process of post-war recovery and peaceful
settlement be an example to the world as a product of our Dharma Dveepa. |