Fortunately the Chair of the UN's Human Rights Council, a South African of Indian (Tamil) descent Ms Navaneetham Pillay has finally been allowed to visit Sri Lanka, and gave a very direct and firm statement last Saturday on her visit. This is encouraging news for all human rights defenders but as she says in the speech, many in the Sri Lankan government branded her as a Tamil, not as the highest UN official in the HR area to visit the island and a proud South African. Her full statement is worth reading:
Colombo, 31 August 2013
Good morning, and thank you for coming.
As is customary at the end of official missions such as this, I would
like to make some observations concerning the human rights situation in
the country.
During my seven-day visit, I have held discussions with President
Mahinda Rajapaksa, and senior members of the Government. These included
the Ministers of External Affairs, Justice, Economic Development,
National Languages and Social Integration, Youth Affairs
and the Minister of Plantations Industries who is also Special Envoy to
the President on Human Rights, as well as the Secretary of Defence. I
also met the Chief Justice, Attorney-General, Leader of the House of
Parliament and the Permanent Secretary to the
President, who is head of the taskforce appointed to monitor the
implementation of the report of the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation
Commission (LLRC).
I had discussions with politicians who are not part of the current
Government, namely the Leader of the Opposition and the leader of the
Tamil National Alliance; in addition I met with the National Human
Rights Commission, and a total of eight different gatherings
of human rights defenders and civil society organizations in Colombo,
Jaffna and Trincomalee. I also received briefings from the Governors and
other senior officials in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
I thank the Government for its invitation and its excellent cooperation
during the planning and conduct of this very complex mission. It stated
that I could go anywhere, and see anything I wished to see. And, despite
some disturbing incidents which I will go
into later, that commitment was honoured throughout.
Even though this is the longest official visit I have ever made to a
single country, I am acutely conscious that I was unable to see everyone
who requested a meeting. Nor will I be able to do justice to all the
human rights issues facing the Sri Lankan people
and government. Since I will be providing an oral update to the Human
Rights Council in Geneva in late September, and a full written report in
March next year, I will today confine myself to a few key issues that
crystallized during the course of the mission.
I will divide these human rights issues into two parts: those related to
the vicious and debilitating 27-year conflict between the Government
and the LTTE, and its aftermath; and those that relate to the whole
country.
Some media, ministers,
bloggers and various propagandists in Sri Lanka have, for several years
now, on the basis of my Indian Tamil heritage, described me as a tool of
the LTTE. They have claimed I was in their
pay, the “Tamil Tigress in the UN.” This is not only wildly incorrect,
it is deeply offensive. This type of abuse has reached an extraordinary
crescendo during this past week, with at least three Government
Ministers joining in.
Firstly, let me say, I am a South African and proud of it.
Secondly, the LTTE was a murderous organization that committed numerous
crimes and destroyed many lives. In fact, my only previous visit to Sri
Lanka was to attend a commemoration of the celebrated legislator,
peacemaker and scholar, Neelan Tiruchelvam, who
was killed by an LTTE suicide bomb in July 1999. Those in the diaspora
who continue to revere the memory of the LTTE must recognize that there
should be no place for the glorification of such a ruthless
organization.
I would like to pay my respects to all Sri Lankans, across the country,
who were killed during those three decades of conflict, and offer my
heartfelt sympathy to their families, all of whom – no matter who they
are – share one thing: they have lost someone
they can never replace. I have met many people during this visit whose
relatives or spouses – both civilians and soldiers – are known to have
been killed, or who are missing and may well be dead.
It is important everyone realizes that, although the fighting is over, the suffering is not.
I have been extremely moved by the profound trauma I have seen among the
relatives of the missing and the dead, and the war survivors, in all
the places I have visited, as well as by their resilience. This was
particularly evident among those scratching out
a living among the ghosts of burned and shelled trees, ruined houses
and other debris of the final battle of the the war along the lagoon in
Mullaitivu.
Wounds will not heal and reconciliation will not happen, without respect
for those who grieve, and remembrance for the tens of thousands of
Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims and others who died before their time on the
battlefield, in buses, on the street, or in detention.
As one wife of a missing man put it poignantly: “Even when we eat, we
keep a portion for him.”
Throughout my visit, the authorities, at all levels, have been keen to
demonstrate to me how much has been achieved in terms of resettlement,
reconstruction and rehabilitation in the relatively short period since
the conflict with the LTTE ended in 2009. And
the reconstruction achievements, made with the help of donor countries,
UN agencies and NGOs, are indeed impressive: in both the Eastern and
Northern Provinces, large numbers of new roads, bridges, houses, medical
facilities and schools have been built or
rebuilt; electricity and water supplies have been greatly improved; and
most of the landmines have been removed. As a result, the great
majority of the more than 450,000 people who were internally displaced
at the end of the conflict have now gone home.
These are important achievements, and I understand the Government’s
concern that they have perhaps not been sufficiently recognized.
However, physical reconstruction alone will not bring reconciliation,
dignity, or lasting peace. Clearly, a more holistic approach
is needed to provide truth, justice and reparations for people’s
suffering during the war, and I have repeated my previous offer of
OHCHR’s assistance in these areas.
There are a number of specific factors impeding normalization, which –
if not quickly rectified – may sow the seeds of future discord. These
are by and large to do with the curtailment or denial of personal
freedoms and human rights, or linked to persistent
impunity and the failure of rule of law.
From the very beginning, I have placed great hopes in Sri Lanka
achieving true peace and reconciliation after the war. I welcomed the
LLRC report as an important step in that direction, even though it
side-stepped the much-needed full, transparent, impartial
investigation into the conduct of a conflict that saw numerous war
crimes and other violations committed by both sides. The Human Rights
Council has expressed a strong interest in seeing progress in the
implementation of the most important LLRC recommendations,
and proper investigation of the many outstanding allegations and
concerns.
The LLRC report contains a broad range of excellent recommendations
regarding concrete improvements on human rights, and I was interested to
receive a briefing on the extent of the implementation of some of those
recommendations from the Permanent Secretary
to the President. My Office will closely examine that update and future
developments in the implementation of the LLRC, and I will of course
make reference to any genuine progress in my reports to the Human Rights
Council.
I will now briefly outline some of the other issues that were raised
during my visits to the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and which I have
in turn raised with various ministers.
I welcome the forthcoming elections to the Northern Provincial Council
and hope they will proceed in a peaceful, free and fair environment, and
usher in an important new stage in the devolution of power.
I was concerned to hear about the degree to which the military appears
to be putting down roots and becoming involved in what should be
civilian activities, for instance education, agriculture and even
tourism. I also heard complaints about the acquisition
of private land to build military camps and installations, including a
holiday resort. This is only going to make the complex land issues with
which the Government has been grappling even more complicated and
difficult to resolve. Clearly, the army needs some
camps, but the prevalence and level of involvement of soldiers in the
community seem much greater than is needed for strictly military or
reconstruction purposes four years after the end of the war.
I understand the Secretary of Defence’s point that the demobilization of
a significant proportion of such a large army cannot be done overnight,
but urge the government to speed up its efforts to demilitarize these
two war-affected provinces, as the continued
large-scale presence of the military and other security forces is seen
by many as oppressive and intrusive, with the continuing high level of
surveillance of former combatants and returnees at times verging on
harassment.
I was very concerned to hear about the vulnerability of women and girls,
especially in female-headed households, to sexual harassment and abuse.
I have raised this issue with several ministers, the provincial
governors and senior military commanders who attended
my meeting with the Secretary of Defence. I challenged them to
rigorously enforce a zero tolerance policy for sexual abuse.
I have also been following up on the status of the remaining detainees
and have urged the Government to expedite their cases, either by
bringing charges or releasing them for rehabilitation. I also suggested
it may now be time to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism
Act which has long been cause for concern.
Because of the legacy of massive trauma, there is a desperate need for
counseling and psychosocial support in the North, and I was surprised
and disappointed to learn that the authorities have restricted NGO
activity in this sector. I hope the Government can
relax controls on this type of assistance.
I met many relatives of missing or disappeared civilians and soldiers
who are still hoping to discover the whereabouts of their loved ones,
and they emphasized the urgent need to resolve this issue – something
that was made abundantly evident at the two very
moving meetings with relatives of the disappeared that I attended
yesterday, to commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Forced
Disappearances.
I asked the Government for more information about the new Commission of
Inquiry on Disappearances, and stressed the need for it to be more
effective than the five previous commissions of this kind. I was
disappointed to learn that it will only cover disappearances
in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, which means that the many “white
van” disappearances reported in Colombo and other parts of the country
in recent years will not fall within its scope.
I urge the Government to broaden the Commission’s mandate, and seize
this opportunity to make a comprehensive effort to resolve the
disappearances issue once and for all. I therefore welcome the new
proposal to criminalize disappearances in the penal code,
and hope this will be done without delay. The Government could also
send a clear signal of its commitment by ratifying the International
Convention on Disappearances, and by inviting the Working Group on
Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances to visit Sri
Lanka, ideally before I report back to the Human Rights Council in
March.
The Human Rights Council will also be looking to see something credible
in terms of investigation of what happened at the end of the war and
many other past cases.
I was pleased to learn that the case of the five students murdered on
the beach in Trincomalee in 2006 has been reinvigorated by the arrest of
12 Police Special Task Force members known to have been in the vicinity
at the time of the killings. I will be watching
the progress of that case with interest, as well as the other infamous
unsolved case of 17 ACF aid workers murdered in the same year, just a
few kilometres to the south.
I also requested more information about the Courts of Inquiry appointed
by the army to further investigate the allegations of civilian
casualties and summary executions, and suggested that appointing the
army to investigate itself does not inspire confidence
in a country where so many past investigations and commissions of
inquiry have foundered one way or another. Unless there is a credible
national process, calls for an international inquiry are likely to
continue.
The recent deployment of the military in support of police to control a
demonstration in Welawariya, which resulted in at least three deaths,
has sent a shockwave through the community. I stressed to the Defence
Secretary the need to urgently complete and
publish a proper investigation into this incident.
Too many other investigation files remain pending, for instance the
custodial deaths of prisoners in Vavuniya and Welikada Prisons in 2012.
The Government has since announced police powers will now be
transferred from the Ministry of Defence to a new Ministry
of Law and Order, but this is at best a partial separation as both
Ministries will remain under the President, rather than under a separate
civilian ministry.
I have also reminded the Government that Sri Lanka desperately needs
strong witness and victim protection legislation, which has been
languishing in draft form since 2007.
I expressed concern at the recent surge in incitement of hatred and
violence against religious minorities, including attacks on churches and
mosques, and the lack of swift action against the perpetrators. I was
surprised that the Government seemed to downplay
this issue, and I hope it will send the strongest possible signal of
zero tolerance for such acts and ensure that those responsible (who are
easily identifiable on video footage) are punished. The Minister of
National Languages and Social Integration told
me that he has proposed new legislation on hate speech. We have
recently concluded a study of such laws and would be happy to assist in
this area. The same Minister, along with the Minister of Justice,
expressed to me his support for a visit by the Independent
Expert on Minorities, and I hope this can happen as soon as possible. I
also applaud the Government’s policy of introducing tri-lingualism all
across the country.
I would now like to turn to a disturbing aspect of the visit, namely the
harassment and intimidation of a number of human rights defenders, at
least two priests, journalists, and many ordinary citizens who met with
me, or planned to meet with me. I have received
reports that people in villages and settlements in the Mullaitivu area
were visited by police or military officers both before and after I
arrived there. In Trincomalee, several people I met were subsequently
questioned about the content of our conversation.
This type of surveillance and harassment appears to be getting worse in
Sri Lanka, which is a country where critical voices are quite often
attacked or even permanently silenced. Utterly unacceptable at any time,
it is particularly extraordinary for such treatment
to be meted out during a visit by a UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights. I wish to stress that the United Nations takes the issue of
reprisals against people because they have talked to UN officials as an
extremely serious matter, and I will be reporting
those that take place in connection with this visit to the Human Rights
Council.
I urge the Government of Sri Lanka to issue immediate orders to halt
this treatment of human rights defenders and journalists who face this
kind of harassment and intimidation on a regular basis. More than 30
journalists are believed to have been killed since
2005, and several more – including the cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda
– have disappeared. Many others have fled the country. Newspaper and TV
offices have been vandalized or subjected to arson attacks – some, such
as the Jaffna-based paper Uthayan, on multiple
occasions. With self-censorship fuelled by fear, journalists report
that there are articles that they dare not write, and others their
editors dare not print. Freedom of expression is under a sustained
assault in Sri Lanka. I have called for the right to Information
Act to be adopted like many of its neighbours in SAARC.
The war may have ended, but in the meantime democracy has been undermined and the rule of law eroded. The 18th amendment,
which abolished the Constitutional Council which once recommended
appointments to the independent bodies, such as the Elections
Commission and Human Rights Commission, has weakened these important
checks and balances on the power of the Executive. The controversial
impeachment of the Chief Justice earlier this year, and apparent
politicization of senior judicial appointments, have
shaken confidence in the independence of the judiciary.
I am deeply concerned that Sri Lanka, despite the opportunity provided
by the end of the war to construct a new vibrant, all-embracing state,
is showing signs of heading in an increasingly authoritarian direction.
Ending on a more optimistic note, yesterday, at the Government’s suggestion, I visited the Youth Parliament. This unusual institution, founded in 2010,
is filled with bright, enthusiastic students from all across the
country, and dedicated to a tolerant and all-inclusive approach. The
parliament draws on elected members of youth groups
who meet once a month to discuss key issues such as the importance of
Amendment 13 to the Constitution and the LLRC (indeed they claim they
actually debated the latter before the National Parliament).
I hope that the current and future members of the Youth Parliament,
three of whom delivered excellent speeches in my presence, will, when
they graduate to the main political stage, usher in a new era of
tolerant coexistence in this beautiful island, where –
despite the problems I have listed above – I have been greeted with
great warmth and hospitality.
Thank you.
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