The
arrest of former UPFA MP and Matale District MP Janaka Bandara
Tennakoon in connection with a murder committed in December 1999 shows
that the island's justice system, though being battered and bruised, is
still working.(See the lead story of this newspaper's yesterday's
edition).
These are crimes which have had taken place in the South, where the writ of Colombo reigned, even in the dark days of the LTTE, where the terrorists' writ ran in most parts of the North and East (NE) at that time.
During the period this murder was committed, Tennakoon was an MP of the then ruling PA Government, the predecessor of the present UPFA coalition. The predominant partner in both of these coalitions was the SLFP, Sri Lanka's second largest political party after the UNP.
Tennakoon first entered Parliament in 1994 on the ticket of the PA, which romped home winners, at that year's election. He has been serving as an MP since. In the 21 years that followed, the PA, or alternatively its successor the UPFA, have been governing the country for 17 years.
The four years in which the PA/UPFA were out of power was, firstly, during the two year and four month period when the UNP governed the country from December 2001 to April 2004 and the other, from January of this year to the present.
A murder is a serious crime. It's not an offence as mild as a trespass. Prosecutions of such cases should take place immediately. But the tragedy is that justice to the victim and to the victim's family in this case appears to be working after a hiatus of 16 years.
There may be a presumption that the reason why there may have been a delay in justice being meted out was because the accused was a man of influence, being first an MP of the then ruling party and subsequently a minister.
If that may be so, wonder why no action was taken against the accused when his party, in that brief period, from December 2001 to April 2004 was out of power?
Nevertheless, there is a legal maxim which says that 'Justice delayed is justice denied'.
It may have been due to such acts of omission and commission that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last month, with Colombo's blessing and the USA's backing, unanimously passed a resolution, calling for international jurists to investigate alleged war crimes committed during the government's LTTE war, covering the period from 2002 to the war end.
It's however, not that the accused is guilty, because there is another legal maxim which governs the laws of this country which says, 'A man is innocent until proven guilty'.
Nonetheless, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in one of his translations of a German poem said, "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all." To put it simply, what Longfellow meant was that justice, whether executed immediately, or, after a great length of time, will, ipso facto, eventually catch up with you.
That however, may be acceptable in a country where the laws are not distorted or are not influenced, but are allowed to take its course, the end result of which is that justice, sooner or later, will be meted out to the victim, without fear or favour, due to natural delays or not.
Nevertheless, when there is a delay of 16 years for the wheels of justice to turn, the question arises whether this delay was due to external influences or due to natural delays?
If such law's delays take place in the relatively peaceful areas of the South, where, coincidentally, VIPs, either by fact or by conjecture are involved, one may but imagine, what may have had taken place in the NE, which was at the heart of fighting between the government and the LTTE, circumstances where it would have had been difficult to maintain the rule of law.
To win the confidence of the public and the international community that the rule of law is still working despite being pummelled by a 26- year-old terrorist war and misuse and abuse of power, accused of similar crimes committed, should also be brought to justice, whatever their status may be, unhindered by interference.
Then, perhaps, when the UNHRC next meets, it may remove the requirement for international Jurists to meddle in Sri Lanka's internal affairs?
Such meddling which will only go to de-stabilize the island.
These are crimes which have had taken place in the South, where the writ of Colombo reigned, even in the dark days of the LTTE, where the terrorists' writ ran in most parts of the North and East (NE) at that time.
During the period this murder was committed, Tennakoon was an MP of the then ruling PA Government, the predecessor of the present UPFA coalition. The predominant partner in both of these coalitions was the SLFP, Sri Lanka's second largest political party after the UNP.
Tennakoon first entered Parliament in 1994 on the ticket of the PA, which romped home winners, at that year's election. He has been serving as an MP since. In the 21 years that followed, the PA, or alternatively its successor the UPFA, have been governing the country for 17 years.
The four years in which the PA/UPFA were out of power was, firstly, during the two year and four month period when the UNP governed the country from December 2001 to April 2004 and the other, from January of this year to the present.
A murder is a serious crime. It's not an offence as mild as a trespass. Prosecutions of such cases should take place immediately. But the tragedy is that justice to the victim and to the victim's family in this case appears to be working after a hiatus of 16 years.
There may be a presumption that the reason why there may have been a delay in justice being meted out was because the accused was a man of influence, being first an MP of the then ruling party and subsequently a minister.
If that may be so, wonder why no action was taken against the accused when his party, in that brief period, from December 2001 to April 2004 was out of power?
Nevertheless, there is a legal maxim which says that 'Justice delayed is justice denied'.
It may have been due to such acts of omission and commission that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last month, with Colombo's blessing and the USA's backing, unanimously passed a resolution, calling for international jurists to investigate alleged war crimes committed during the government's LTTE war, covering the period from 2002 to the war end.
It's however, not that the accused is guilty, because there is another legal maxim which governs the laws of this country which says, 'A man is innocent until proven guilty'.
Nonetheless, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, in one of his translations of a German poem said, "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all." To put it simply, what Longfellow meant was that justice, whether executed immediately, or, after a great length of time, will, ipso facto, eventually catch up with you.
That however, may be acceptable in a country where the laws are not distorted or are not influenced, but are allowed to take its course, the end result of which is that justice, sooner or later, will be meted out to the victim, without fear or favour, due to natural delays or not.
Nevertheless, when there is a delay of 16 years for the wheels of justice to turn, the question arises whether this delay was due to external influences or due to natural delays?
If such law's delays take place in the relatively peaceful areas of the South, where, coincidentally, VIPs, either by fact or by conjecture are involved, one may but imagine, what may have had taken place in the NE, which was at the heart of fighting between the government and the LTTE, circumstances where it would have had been difficult to maintain the rule of law.
To win the confidence of the public and the international community that the rule of law is still working despite being pummelled by a 26- year-old terrorist war and misuse and abuse of power, accused of similar crimes committed, should also be brought to justice, whatever their status may be, unhindered by interference.
Then, perhaps, when the UNHRC next meets, it may remove the requirement for international Jurists to meddle in Sri Lanka's internal affairs?
Such meddling which will only go to de-stabilize the island.
