Lakbima - 29 January 2012

Feb 02, 2012

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One blunder govt has made is treating the Jaffna peninsula and Vanni as though they were similar - Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha

Jan 30, 2012

By Namini Wijedasa

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, advisor to the president on Reconciliation, has spoken openly and more emphatically on the need for the government to do more for people in areas affected by the war. Excerpts from the interview:

QUESTION: You are one of the few members of the government still talking actively about reconciliation. How would you define the term?

ANSWER: Reconciliation is a situation in which all people of this country are not only at peace but at ease with each other. This is because they are confident that the state, as a whole, treats all its members as equal and will not attempt to give undue advantages to one section. It is essentially a matter of creating confidence. My belief is that if there is mutual confidence, both friendship and working together will result. So I see my task mainly as trying to create better communication and confidence. I’m just an advisor, so all I can do is offer advice.

Q: What is the reaction of people in the north and east to your efforts?

A: On the suggestion of some advisory bodies I set up, we formed district and divisional reconciliation committees in December. I came back just yesterday from district meetings in Mannar, Vavuniya and Mullaitivu. I had divisional meetings in Oddusuddan, Puthukudiyiruppu and Chettikulam.

I found extremely positive attitudes in those areas, in general, to what the government has done but there were a few areas of worry and contention. I think people appreciated the fact that they could raise these issues in the presence of government administrators, civil liaison officers and the police.

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Government endorsement of LLRC report in presenting it to the House

Jan 28, 2012

Statement by Hon. Nimal Siripala de Silva (Leader of the House) at the Sri Lanka Parliament upon tabling  the final report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)                                      

The achievement of national reconciliation is one of the principal aims of the government after the eradication of terrorism. The reign of terror, which our country had to endure for thirty long years, was the main impediment to economic and social development in every sector. It is a matter or deep satisfaction to the government that it has been able to rid Sri Lanka of this menace. We now have the opportunity, which eluded us for so long, to derive the fullest benefit from our country’s natural strengths and, in particular, from the unique caliber of our human resources.

To do so, the first requirement is the spirit of inclusivity. We have to put behind us the anguish of a painful conflict and to confront the challenges of the future as one nation.

It is in this context that His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed, on 15th May 2010, the Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation. The Commission submitted its Report to the President on 20th November 2011. His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa wishes to thank the Chairman and Members of the Commission for the conscientious and painstaking work they have done.

It is now my pleasure to submit their Report to this august Assembly, together with a brief statement which sets out the government’s initial response to the major recommendations contained in the Report.

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A Ministry for Reconciliation is needed to implement LLRC recommendations

Jan 16, 2012

BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, January 10: Sri Lanka should create a Ministry for Reconciliation to implement the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in its recently-released report, a Presidential Adviser has suggested.

The suggestion was made by Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, Adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Reconciliation, in a presentation on "Reconciliation, Sri Lanka and the World" made here today at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a leading private think tank.

There is need for concerted action across the board to achieve genuine reconciliation. "Those anxious for reconciliation should endeavour to support government in setting up mechanisms to work quickly and imaginatively towards the goals laid out in the LLRC report. Unfortunately, there seems no urgency at the moment about implementation, or even allocating responsibility for the different tasks," he said.

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No India-China rivalry in Sri Lanka: Prof Wijesinha

Jan 13, 2012

Elizabeth Roche

New Delhi: China has conveyed to Sri Lanka that it understands the primacy of the relationship between India and the island nation, a Sri Lankan MP and adviser to President Mahinda Rajapaksa said Tuesday. The India-China rivalry in Sri Lanka was predominantly a Western construct, Rajiva Wijesinha said, adding that at times some Sri Lankan groups too played up the perceived rivalry.  Wijesinha, on a trip to New Delhi ahead of a 16-19 January visit to Sri Lanka by Indian foreign minister S.M. Krishna, was also critical of his government’s slow pace of reintegrating minority Tamils into the Sri Lankan political mainstream as he stressed the need to fasttrack the reconciliation process between the Tamils and the majority Sinhalese after the end of the almost three-decade-old civil war on the island nation in May 2009.

“Efforts to present Sri Lanka as a bone of contention between India and China are largely self-serving… given the tendency of the West to function in terms of binary opposites,” Wijesinha said, with regard to China.

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Perspectives on Reconciliation

Jan 05, 2012

The Reconciliation for Peace Section of the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies convened a panel discussion on the topic entitled 'Reconciliation – the way forward: an assessment of ongoing initiatives, a listing of productive possibilities' on 15 December 2011 at the Institute of Policy Studies in Colombo. The speakers comprised the Presidential Advisor on Reconciliation, Professor Rajiva Wijesinha, M.A. Sumanthiran, Member of Parliament and Tamil National Alliance, Mr Eran Wickramaratne, Member of Parliament, Mr V. Muralitharan, Deputy Minister of Resettlement and chaired by Ambassador Javid Yusuf, Founder-Secretary General, Peace Secretariat for Muslims and Senior Advisor, Ministry of External Affairs.

Presidential Advisor Professor Rajiva Wijesinha commenced his presentation by stating that there is a need to overcome the bitterness and suspicion that prompted the terrorism that plagued Sri Lanka for three decades. As much has been done to boost infrastructure development in the North there is a lack of knowledge and awareness of what has been done and this can affect the dividends of such initiatives from being reaped. The putting on record of what has been done would also serve the additional purpose of clarifying what remains to be done. As a prerequisite for development there is a need to provide teachers in the North with the essentials. Another area he identified as needing focus is coherent planning with regards to what is being provided. He proposed a model whereby soldiers worked together with those who need work as one that would assist considerably with reconciliation. Through working and playing together people establish lasting relationships, which has led to efforts to encourage project work as a component of the many educational exchanges that are taking place. The same principle applies to adults. 

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Chapter 8 - Conclusions

Dec 28, 2011

(i)  The Main Deficiencies in the Panel’s Report

A wise judge knows that in the imperfect domain of human knowledge there are many versions  of the truth and  steers  himself conscientiously  through all these versions, seeking the truth. The outcome of the Panels report falls far short of such wisdom.   

The conditions in which the panel was constrained to work and its inability to gain access to vital sources of information render the report practically worthless as an account of the final stages of the war. If this is all that has to be said we might lay aside the report as a harmless exercise but this is certainly not the case. The panel has to be faulted for very serious deficiencies in the report that could have  fallout of a very negative character for the process of accountability both at the global as well as the local level. Had the Panel kept steadily in view that they were missing the information from the government side and had they examined the full implications of this lacuna they could have produced a credible report. Had the panel done so they would have had to produce a different report. The tone of their report would have reflected both the humility and the professional integrity that it lacks in its present form.  What we would have is a statement to the effect that the panel has been able to gather a great deal of information from sources other than the government concerning allegations of war crimes of both the government and the LTTE which have not been verified and that they   have not been able to get the government version which is vitally important for their task. They would have then had to list the allegations in a neutral objective tone and would have not written the dramatic account of what they thought had actually happened. They would have then proceeded to advice the UNSG regarding the international law applicable and recommended that the UNSG should use his good offices to induce the government to provide a full version of the last stages of the war and strengthen the domestic process of accountability.  This of course was far from what was expected from the panel by the constituencies which pressurized  for the  appointment of the panel after their effort in the UNHRC in May 2009 was thwarted. 

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Chapter 7 - The Recommendations of the Panel

Dec 25, 2011

In part A of its first recommendation, the panel recommends that the Government should initiate an effective domestic accountability process to investigate into the alleged violations.   It is unlikely that the government would pay any attention to this recommendation in view of its stand that an investigation of this nature is not warranted and the present process of restorative justice is better suited to deal   with all issues of accountability than the approach recommended by the Panel.   

In part B it recommends that the UNSG proceed immediately to establish an international mechanism which should monitor the domestic process and conduct independent investigations into the alleged violations. First the arrangement suggested by the panel of concurrent independent investigations shows little knowledge of what is administratively feasible; it is unprecedented in the UN system and totally impractical. Second, the UNSG cannot “immediately” establish an international mechanism. He simply does not have the authority to do so. The Panel which is the expert body on these issues should have known better than to recommend a mechanism which was not a modality that could be adopted under the UN system. The manner in which it has made this recommendation seriously calls to questions its commitment  to perform its task adequately.

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Chapter 6 - Measures for Advancing Accountability : The Domestic Justice System and further Obstacles

Dec 24, 2011

The panel’s survey of the justice system and measures to strengthen the domestic process of accountability is useful as a framework for addressing shortfalls and making the necessary improvements.  It should be noted however that the Panel’s review does not contain anything new. It reiterates the critical assessments and the recommendations that have been made in various other reports of civil society organisations and human rights activists. The ongoing policies and programmes of government are also addressing most of these issues.  The problems relating to detainees and their  access to remedies has been  raised  by human rights  lawyers and organizations over a long period of time and government has repeatedly  referred to the problems which result in prolonged detention.  The defeat of the LTTE has now created conditions that would be conducive for speedier disposal of these cases.  In presenting its account the Panel does not examine some of the causes that have resulted in the pervasive derogation of human rights in Sri Lanka – the activities of the LTTE during the last 25 years and its impact on governance. Had it done so its critique and its recommendations for correcting the shortfalls would have found greater acceptance and the urgency of making the corrections in the post war context more compelling. The LLRC would need to give close attention to this section of the Panel’s report as the full restoration of civil and political rights and a sound system of justice which protects them would be the bedrock of the process of reconciliation.

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The nitty-gritty of ‘moving on’

Dec 19, 2011

Even as the world focussed on what the LLRC (Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission) would produce after months of hearings, President Mahinda Rajapaksa set up a ‘National Reconciliation Unit’ to facilitate the work of his Adviser on Reconciliation. All these in addition to the natural processes of reconciliation that the end of conflict engenders, boosted of course by concrete policies to put in place necessary infrastructure, resettle the displaced, clear landmines and reinvigorate economic activity, not to mention the rehabilitation and reintegration of thousands of ex-combatants - a practice unheard of in many parts of the world when it comes to people affiliated with terrorist organisations. The Advisor’s terms of reference included monitoring and reporting to the President on progress with regard to the Interim Recommendations of the LLRC, and promoting appropriate activities for this purpose through the relevant Ministries. ‘The Nation’ spoke with Pushpi Weerakoon, Coordinator of the Unit, on the mandate, work and challenges of this body.

Q: Could you elaborate on the power, authority and capacity of the unit?

The Office has no powers or executive authority. Apart from two minor staff, it has only an IT officer. MP’s secretary and office aide also contribute. However, much support is provided by members of the Reconciliation Youth Forum that comprises committed youngsters worked in the North and East in related activity developing initiatives and record achievements.

In addition to the Reconciliation website, www.peaceinsrilanka.org, we have started a blog – www.reconciliationyouthforum.org – and a You Tube channel – www.youtube.com/ReconcileSriLanka. You can also follow us on twitter @rcncilesrilanka and on Facebook on Sri Lankan Reconciliation Youth Forum.

Other initiatives include Civil Society Partners for Reconciliation which brings together relevant government organisations with civil society and ambassadors and non-governmental organisations (Rotary, Save the Children etc) to suggest initiatives. This has led to a project in sustainable agriculture to support ex-combatants. We hope the Japan would support it through IOM. In addition, a proposal for vocational training in Mullaitivu with socialisation and soft skills on the lines of the programmes Aide et Action is now being materialised in Vavuniya.

We have also set up a body called Religion, Education and Pluralism to develop educational initiatives as suggested when the Adviser was appointed, and feel this is particularly important in view of the vision advanced by the President in his budget speech.

Based on recommendations of some of these groups, we have set up District Reconciliation Committees in three Northern Districts and hope to do the same in the other two as well. We had productive input from the local officials who attended about problems and possible solutions with the police. Some committed social workers also actively contribute.

We have initiated discussions with UNESCO about school activities, and begun a discussion group on international relations though we are awaiting a response from the Ministry of External Affairs in this regard. We were pleased that an NGO which was sending young parliamentarians abroad initiated a familiarisation session in this regard, and hope we could start something within Parliament too, perhaps through the Friendship Associations, since there are a number of young parliamentarians with the capacity to develop into excellent international communicators if only we do some initial familiarisation with relevant issues.

We do not really influence policy, since we need to liaise with the Secretary to the President. However a meeting is planned shortly to enable us to move ahead.

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