By Col R Hariharan
Overview
In the first half of the month, the Sri Lanka scene was dominated
by the final phase of the local body elections in which President Rajapaksa’s
United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition scored a massive success
underlining his continued popularity.
In the second half, the Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting
(CHOGM) held at Perth, Australia came into the limelight as it considered the
creation of a Human Rights watchdog for the Commonwealth. Sri Lanka felt this as targeted move against
the country as it continued to be in a state of denial over the alleged war
crimes committed by Sri Lanka Army during the last stage of Eelam War. However,
the proposal sponsored mainly by Britain, Canada and Australia was not
accepted. Similarly Sri Lanka also ran the risk of losing its opportunity to
host the CHOGM 2013 when Canada and the UK suggested changing the venue.
However, again thanks to the support of Afro-Asian members this was also
rejected.
CHOGM and
war crimes allegations
Sri Lanka managed to prevent British, Australian and Canadian
efforts at the 22nd CHOGM to
push through the controversial recommendation of the Eminent Persons Group
(EPG) for establishing “Commissioner for Democracy, the Rule of Law and Human
Rights” to monitor members’ performance on this count.
The CHOGM held at Perth for three days from October 28, was
attended by only 51 of the 54 members; Dominican Republic and Jamaica were
absent while Fiji has been suspended after a military takeover of the
government. However, only 35 heads of governments attended the conclave while
16 countries were represented by their other representatives.
Sri Lanka also succeeded in ensuring the already accepted venue
for CHOGM 2013 at Hambantota in Sri Lanka is not changed, as suggested by some
members like Canada and Australia. In fact, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper has said Canada would boycott CHOGM 2013 in Sri Lanka unless President
Mahinda Rajapaksa allowed an independent investigation into alleged Sri Lankan
army shelling of civilians and bombing of hospitals in 2009.
Notable absentee at the CHOGM was Indian Prime Minister; Vice
President Dr Hamid Ansari represented India at the conference. Sri Lanka had
acknowledged that India played a very important role in helping Sri Lanka on
both the issues before and after the Conference. Even before the start of the
conference, India had been among those members opposing the idea, citing three
reasons: concerns about finances, external intervention in domestic issues, and
unnecessary duplication of the work already handled by the UN.
According to Sri Lanka Foreign Minister GL Peiris, Sri Lanka had
the support of 15 countries when Canada raised Sri Lanka’s accountability issue
under “any
other business” at the end of the third session of ministerial-level talks.
However, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd ruled out any discussion on it
as clearly there was no consensus. Apparently,
majority of the Commonwealth leaders perceived establishing a human rights commissioner
as being motivated by some countries against Sri Lanka on the human rights
issue.
Though some Sri Lankan commentators hailed it as a victory for Sri
Lanka at CHOGM, it could be a pyrrhic victory as the EPG recommendation on
Human Rights Commissioner has not been dropped. The Conference decided to
further review it by the Secretary General and a Ministerial Action Group
(CMAG), which will report back to leaders at a later date. So there is a possibility
of Sri Lanka confronting the issue at when it is resurrected subsequently.
Moreover, international pressure on Sri Lanka is likely to be
renewed when the report of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission
(LLRC) is submitted in mid November 2011. Apparently, wary of its fall out, the
LLRC spokesman has said the report would not be made public. Western
governments have made it clear that they were awaiting the LLRC report before
deciding on raising the alleged war crime issue before the March 2012 sessions
of the UN Human Rights Council.
The Tamil Diaspora organisations and LTTE’s cells overseas used
the occasion of the CHOGM to turn the limelight on the issue of alleged Sri
Lankan human rights violations and war crimes in the Eelam War. They organised
a number of conferences and protests, notably in Australia, Canada and the UK. Significantly,
in Canada protesting Tamils carried portraits of slain LTTE leader Prabhakaran,
hailing him as their leader.
The Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) and the British-based Global Tamil
Forum (GTF) organised a conference on "Accountability in Sri Lanka: Common
Justice in the Commonwealth" attended by Tamil and Sinhala personalities and
the
opposition Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP. Two days before the Conference, Australia's
public national broadcaster ABC in its prime time news programme showed Meena
Krishnamoorthy, who claimed she was an eyewitness to alleged "massacre of
people." The report was based on a complaint made to the Australian
Federal Police by that Australian branch of the International Commission of
Jurists. They had claimed that Sri Lanka's High Commissioner, Admiral Tisara
Samarasinghe, who was then Commander of the Navy, had "command
responsibility” for the killings.
The opposition TNA also used the opportunity offered by the global
focus on Tamil issues to visit the U.S. and meet with representatives of the UN
and the State Department to express their concerns in three areas: the
militarisation of the North and the East, the lack of economic opportunities,
and the slack attempts at rehabilitation. Presumably, this is the TNA’s follow
up strategy after its parliament member A Sumanthiran had submitted a detailed
report highlighting these issues.
Local body
polls
The third and final phase of the elections for local bodies was
held on October 8. Over all, ruling UPFA coalition swept the polls winning
control of 270 of the 332 local authorities for which elections were held. The
TNA won 32 local authorities while United National Party (UNP) could win only 9
local authorities. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) won 5, while one was
captured by independents backed by the UPFA. This has underlined the continuing
domination of UPFA in Sri Lankan politics mainly due to President Rajapaksa’s
immense popularity among Sinhala masses. The sweeping success of TNA in the
polls in Tamil areas of North indicated the Tamil-Sinhala political divide
continues as before.
The elections were by and large peaceful, though there were some
violent incidents and accusations of stuffing of ballot boxes. However, peace
was marred on the election day in a shootout between two senior leaders of the
UPFA - Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra, Presidential
advisor, and his political rival Duminda Silva,
Colombo district UPFA MP. They along with their supporters and body guards came
face to face at Mulleriyawa when the incident was triggered. Premachandra and two others were killed in the shoot while Duminda
Silva was critically injured in the shootout. He is recovering now in hospital.
This incident has highlighted the growing gun culture in politics and absence
of rule of law. Civil society activists have pointed out that no action has
been taken so far against Duminda, who is a friend of Defence Secretary
Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The dismal performance of opposition UNP, and the Janatha Vimukthi
Peramuna (JVP), which could not capture even one local body, has aggravated the
internal schism continued in both the parties. In the power struggle for
leadership, the UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe slapped disciplinary action
against supporters of those who wanted a change in leadership. The rival
factions of the JVP are locked in a show of strength to claim legitimacy.
Raising of
intelligence battalions
Sri Lanka army has raised five more intelligence battalions in
addition to the existing single battalion.
Recently, Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa while speaking at the
opening ceremony of the new Security Forces Headquarters Complex in Kilinochchi,
had said the military intelligence apparatus was being increased to six
battalions to handle external and internal threats. Apparently this was in
response to the revival of LTTE activities among Tamil Diaspora as he
said: “Some LTTE cadres escaped capture
in Sri Lanka. Those LTTE members as well as the Diaspora have teamed up
together and are working to destabilise the country and resurrect their
ruthless organisation.”
Written on October 31, 2011
Courtesy: South Asia SecurityTrends, Vol 5 No 9
URL: www.security-risks.com
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