President’s democratic move...
21st October 2015
It was reported that the President Maithripala
Sirisena will convene an all party meeting tomorrow (22) to discuss the war
crimes inquiry mechanism, which was approved at the UNHRC.
Invitations for the all party meeting have already been sent out to all political parties, irrespective of their presence in Parliament. The opportunity has been given to all major and minor parties to express their views at the all party meeting, on forming a war crimes inquiry mechanism with the participation of international stakeholders.
Despite the numerous protests and objections put forward by the naysayers and the pessimists, this will not be the first time international investigators, Judges and prosecutors had taken part in an inquiry on a crucial case. On the insistence of the family members of General Denzil Kobbekaduwa and nine other military officers who were killed in a land mine attack in August 1992 in Kayts, late President D. B. Wijetunge appointed a Special International Commission to investigate into the incident.
The Special International Commission appointed by the late President comprised several Judges from the Commonwealth countries namely, Justices Necabeohe Evans Amissah from Ghana, Sir Kenneth James Keith from New Zealand and Muhammad Lawal Uwais from Nigeria.
The three International Judges commenced their task on 26 May 1993 and continued till 8 June 1993 in Colombo where evidence from 24 persons was recorded by the Commission. Thereafter, the three foreign Judges had even travelled to London and stayed there for two days to record the evidence of a British Forensic expert J.R. Wyatt on his findings on the landmine explosion which killed Gen. Kobbekaduwa and other officers. The International Commission after completing its sittings handed over its final report establishing that Gen. Kobbekaduwa and the other military officers who accompanied him were killed due to a land mine explosion in Kayts.
Therefore, the irrational fear of international stakeholders actively involving in the domestic mechanism process into the alleged war crimes is rather misplaced and should not be given unwarranted attention. Although the local invigilators and officials can possess the necessary expertise in this matter, the international stakeholders can definitely put their independent views into the inquiry.
Meanwhile, the large majority of Opposition parties too have decided to take part in the all party meeting convened by the President. It was further reported that the government's course of action with regard to the domestic inquiry mechanism will be based on the outcome of the all party meeting. The President is also expected to hold a meeting with religious leaders to obtain their views on the war crimes inquiry mechanism.
This is the perfect opportunity for all the political parties, who have till now been speaking to the public who cannot comprehend what they are talking about, to express their views on the domestic inquiry mechanism to those who would be implementing it, that is, the government. In this procedure, they would have a say in creating the domestic inquiry which will be implemented and initiated by the government where they will be allowed to express their view on the matter regardless of its positive or negative stance.
Several political parties recently organized independent rallies calling the government to bring the United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution before the Parliament indicating that the Members of Parliament have the right to know what Sri Lanka had signed with the other foreign countries. This could be their opportunity to ask their questions regarding the domestic mechanism without making presumptions of it like proverbial frogs in a well. In this manner, they wouldn't have to spend large funds on organizing such useless rallies to promote their hate speech, which could have been allocated to be spent on their political campaign for the upcoming local government elections.
Social Rights activist Desmond Tutu once said, "Racism, xenophobia and unfair discrimination have spawned slavery, when human beings have been bought and sold and owned and branded by fellow human beings as if they were so many beasts of burden." It would be great if all these political parties came together as allies so that they could create a successful inquiry mechanism that would address the case of alleged war crimes and which would appoint proper individuals regardless of the personnel being local or foreign experts.
After all, speaking behind the back won't help either of them nor the country and would only reinforce xenophobia and racism that we still try to eradicate from our society.
