Washington: The new Sri Lankan government has “a very strong intent” in addressing rights concerns, a top Obama Administration official said, calling for a “credible domestic” probe with “substantial involvement” from international community to address justice and accountability.
Less than a month after she visited Sri Lanka ahead of a crucial report on alleged war crimes during the country’s decades-long civil war with the LTTE, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told PTI: “We have seen (in the new government), what we would say a very strong intent.”
“We have seen that the government in the past nine months in office has done more to try to build trust and move the country towards a more inclusive society, than perhaps been done in the last nine years and beyond,” said Biswal, the Administration’s point person for South and Central Asia. “That is an encouraging sign. It is a long road ahead for the country, for the government, for the (new Sri Lankan) President (Maithripala Sirisena) and for the people,” she said in response to a question. Biswal said much needs to be done to heal the wounds that are still open on both sides from a very brutal and a very divisive conflict between the troops and the LTTE. Rights groups claim troops killed 40,000 civilians in the final months of the nearly three decades-long civil war that ended in 2009.
The LTTE is also accused of war crimes. “That would take time and would take very persistent effort on all sides towards reconciliation and no one should be saying one about the process. It is a difficult process, it is a long process. There will inevitably be setbacks. “It is fundamentally in the interest of the Sri Lankan people to secure the peace and prosperity of all of these citizens, and I think what motivates us is that hope and that desire to support a peaceful and prosperous Sri Lanka that brings opportunity for all its citizens,” Biswal said. During her visit to Lanka late last month, she said the US will move a pro-Sri Lanka resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in its September session, in what was seen as a U-turn in America’s stance. Interestingly, it was a US-moved resolution that called for the first time called for an international probe into alleged war crimes and was adopted last year in the 47-member UNHRC. The US was at the forefront in adopting a total of three resolutions at the UN human rights session on Sri Lanka. Biswal yesterday said that from the very beginning, the US has said it would support a credible domestic effort to address those long-standing issues of justice and accountability in Sri Lanka.
“We also were very clear that we had not seen that progress and we had not seen efforts towards any kind of a credible, domestic effort to address these concerns during the tenure of the previous government,” she noted about the regime of Mahinda Rajapaksa – who led the war against the LTTE. (PTI)
As a result, the US last year introduced the resolution at the UNHRC for an international probe out of frustration that there had been no substantive progress under the previous government and because of US concern that the human rights situation was getting worse instead of better, she said. The January election was historic and transformational in bringing into office a president, a prime minister and a team that are committed to advancing reconciliation to addressing issues of transparency, of combating corruption, of creating independent and accountable judicial systems and in addressing long-standing concerns on justice and accountability, she added. Sri Lankan people in the parliamentary elections in August reaffirmed their support for the path that President Sirisena, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and the unity government has put forward, she observed. “Nonetheless, we do believe that Sri Lanka has to put forward a process for addressing accountability that is credible and we do believe that for a mechanism to be credible, it will need to have some substantial involvement from the international community,” Biswal said. “What the nature of that involvement is I think is still under discussion and debate in many different circles and will have to be something that is evolved over the coming weeks and months,” the US official said. Referring to the latest UNHRC report that favours a hybrid court with international judges, she said: “I think these are all issues that are going to be discussed and deliberated by the government of Sri Lanka as it seeks to move forward. “But fundamentally, the US has said that if there is the political will the commitment to pursue this, this is the path that Sri Lanka must take and we are there to support them in that process.” PTI LKJ SAI AKJ SAI 09191410
