Probing war against LTTE

A govt-appointed panel can’t do justice

EDITORIAL | TRIBUNE INDIA

(August 13, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) THE Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission of Sri Lanka has started public hearings to find out if any excesses were committed during the military drive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the terrorist outfit that has been destroyed. But can it serve the purpose? Will its findings carry any meaning, as it is a government-appointed commission? Ideally, the task of finding out excesses against civilians or human rights violations during the war between Sri Lanka’s armed forces and the LTTE should have been given to a UN-instituted body. But this does not suit the government in Colombo, as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa says that going in for such an investigation will amount to allowing interference in the country’s internal affairs. Obviously, he does not want his government to reveal all that it did for defeating the most ruthless terrorist organisation of our times.

The commission, that has to submit its report within six months after its appointment on May 15 this year, after going into the happenings between February 21, 2002, and May 19, 2009, is aimed at ensuring that the situation that existed till the virtual decimation of the LTTE should not be there again. The annihilation of a deadly terrorist organisation is a commendable accomplishment of the Sri Lankan government. The country’s armed forces had to pay heavily for their achievement. But all this will lose meaning if it is discovered that internationally accepted norms were violated. This truth will never come out unless an independent probe is held.

The 57 US lawmakers who have called for an independent international enquiry into what they describe as “war crimes” in Sri Lanka are right when they say that an independent probe is essential for having durable peace in the island-nation. Of course, UN-appointed enquiry commissions have also been accused of not doing their job without favouring anyone as it happened in the case of a probe into human rights violations in the Lebanon war. But the situation in Sri Lanka is such that justice is not possible unless the present commission is replaced or followed by a UN-sponsored probe panel soon.