The Island Editorial: Geneva Report

Geneva Report
September 15, 2015, 7:53 pm

The much-awaited UNHRC probe report on alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka is scheduled to be released today in Geneva. UNHRC Chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has said its findings are of serious nature. One is not surprised. It can’t be different from the Darusman report prepared by a
panel of experts appointed by UNSG Ban Ki-moon on Sri Lanka’s accountability issues.

The delayed release of the report which was scheduled to be presented last March was politically motivated. The UNHRC obviously yielded to pressure from the US-led western countries which thought the report might help the Rajapaksas regain public sympathy ahead of the August 17 general election.

The US has undertaken to move a resolution in Geneva to pave the way for a domestic probe. It will do so because it has to defend those who came forward to effect a regime change here which has helped safeguard its geo-strategic interests. However, the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government won’t be free from trouble, given the political fallout of the report.

No small country can conduct a domestic probe into a heavily internationalised issue flogged vigorously by influential pressure groups capable of swaying western governments. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) has already called for foreign judges in case of a domestic war
crimes investigation being conducted. If the government accedes to the TNA’s demand, then it will be a misnomer to call the investigation ‘domestic’; foreigners will be calling the shots! Those who are campaigning for an international war crimes probe know more than one way to shoe a horse!

It is being claimed in some quarters that the war crimes allegations to be probed are against the Rajapaksa government and the LTTE. But, they are against the Sri Lankan troops who fought terrorism, political leaders who prosecuted the country’s war and the LTTE whose military leaders are now long dead.

 Among the politicians who were responsible for the country’s war effort is incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena, who declared before the last presidential election that he had functioned as Acing Defence Minister during the critical stages of the conflict.

Others are former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and former Army Commander Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.

Interestingly, the TNA, which is at the forefront of the on-going campaign for a war crimes probe, threw in its lot with Sirisena and Fonseka at presidential elections in 2010 and 2015 respectively and the people in the former war zone overwhelmingly backed those two candidates.

In a turn of events replete with irony, the TNA, which declared Prabhakaran as the sole representative of the Tamils and acted as his mouthpiece in Parliament during the conflict, strove to have as President cum Commander-in-chief a person who had led the army it accused of having committed
war crimes!

Fonseka became the darling of the western governments all out to have an international war crimes probe against Sri Lanka because he challenged the pro-Chinese Rajapaksa government. Thereafter, they threw their weight behind Sirisena, who had acted as the Defence Minister during the final stages of the war! Would those governments championing human rights have done so if they had been convinced that war crimes had actually been committed? Or, is it that their geo-political interests took precedence over their human rights concerns?

It behoves the government to critically examine the UNHRC report to be issued without rushing to take any action to please the international community.

The Darusman report was riddled with flaws; it was mostly based on information provided by sources who took cover behind a wall of secrecy. The identities of those who testified won’t be revealed until 2031!

Today, we will see whether those who prepared the new report have borrowed from or been influenced by the Darusman report. If so, it will be a case of circular logic.

Note: High Lights ENB