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Paranagama Commission proposes Special High Court and Truth Commission
View(s):By Chandani Kirinde
The Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints Regarding Missing Persons in its final report has recommended the setting up of a two-way domestic mechanism — a Special High court and a Truth Commission — to deal with persons accused of human rights violations during the last phase of the war.
Suspects who plead not guilty to alleged criminal charges should be charged in the High Court while those who plead guilty should appear before the Truth Commission where they can be offered “accountable amnesties,” the Commission has recommended, the Sunday Times learns.
The term of the three member commission headed by Maxwell Paranagama ended last month and it handed over the final report to the Presidential Secretariat a few days ago. This report deals mainly with the Second Mandate of the Commission. This was to investigate matters relating to international humanitarian law, international human rights law and customary international law, during the final phase of the war.
The Commission has said that for those who plead not guilty the entire probe should be a domestic one with local investigators and judges and prosecution by the Attorney General.
For those who pleaded guilty, the Commission has recommended that they be given the opportunity to explain before a Truth Commission the circumstances under which certain acts were committed and be offered “accountable amnesties” with punitive action to include fines and withholding of promotions if they are members of the security forces.
The Commission has warned that as some of the charges are in contravention with international humanitarian laws, failure on the part of the government to undertake a credible domestic mechanism could lead to direct intervention by the United Nations in such matters.
The Commission has emphasised that all the charges of enforced disappearances and missing persons have been documented based on accounts of civilians in the North and East and as its mandate expired, it did not have adequate time to summon members of the armed forces or paramilitary groups which operated in these areas and are among those alleged to have been involved in such activities.
Additionally, the Commission has said that the compensation paid to families whose bread winners are listed as missing should be at last Rs. 500,000 and that the state must do more, not only to uplift them economically but also have more counselling programmes to help people traumatised by violence.
It was noted that social welfare programmes such as Samurdhi are yet to reach the majority of these people whose main problems in the aftermath of the war were social economic problems, many of which remained unaddressed to date.
The Commission was set on August 15 2013 by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Its other members were Mano Ramanathan and Suranjana Vidyaratne. Its term was extended several times by President Maithripala Sirisena too.