Editorial

This week’s May Day rhetoric from numerous platforms was on the subject of corruption; who is responsible and how each will tackle the issue. There were thundering pledges to find the loot stashed abroad by corrupt politicians – and bring it home. If only it was such a walk in the park.

After years in the pipeline, Sri Lanka is ready with a framework for a Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) that provides for restraint, preservation, seizure, protection, management (particularly of going concerns), judicial freezing, and forfeiture of proceeds of crime. The ground-breaking law also proposes civil remedies that allow the victims of crime to seek damages.

It is common knowledge that the IMF is pushing for this law to be passed given the recognition that corruption is at the root of Sri Lanka’s economic breakdown. It is a pity that such a law is being introduced at the behest of an external party. It is no different to governments at home having to dance to the tune of the UN Human Rights Council on reconciliation issues when they ought to be doing what has to be done on their own volition. Yet, better late than never.

And again, the Government stands accused of not adhering to public consultation requiring comprehensive input from diverse stakeholders, including the public, civil society and local experts to ensure its effectiveness.

That this law is necessary is moot, especially as the world is increasingly moving – and many jurisdictions have already got there – towards asset recovery alongside corruption investigations.

Political leaders seem to underestimate the anger of the common citizens who justifiably believe they are paying from their pockets for what leaders and their associates in big business have lined up in their pockets. It is crucial that no party “plays politics” with the enactment of POCA – that they look at the draft bill objectively and act in the national interest. No person who has assets earned through legitimate income or profits needs fear it. That cuts both ways, however. And significant pressure might be essential to propel the legislation in an undiluted form through Parliament. The vote will show clearly the divide between who wants to eradicate the proceeds of crime and who wants to protect them. A public discourse driving this narrative is vital. But while enacting this law is important, enforcing it independently and effectively would be even more so. Tracing, locating, identifying and recovering proceeds of crime concealed overseas is a time-consuming challenge requiring significant expertise. Enforcement through the existing law enforcement agencies is so abysmal that the perception is that the politically connected and affluent can get away with crime.

Even the most robust laws prove useless in the absence of strong political will. Additionally, asset recovery is expensive, needs specific skills and takes years. To expect quick results would be naive.

The first step, however, is to get the most airtight version of the law (arrived at through wider consultation) passed, and fast.

Lankans fighting Russia’s war

Next Thursday, Russia marks its annual ‘V Day’ – its historic victory over Nazi Germany in World War 2 in which millions of its people died, ironically, in the midst of another war in Ukraine, which it has itself started unlike in 1941. And this time, Sri Lankan soldiers are getting involved in the fighting.

There is no agreement between the Russian and Sri Lankan armies for members of the Sri Lankan military to join the Russian forces, Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry (MoD) said this week. Earlier this year the Russian Government offered citizenship to families of foreign citizens prepared to join its military.

Sri Lankan men – most of them ex-military with battle experience – are flying in unspecified numbers to Moscow on the premise they will get hefty salaries and non-combat jobs with the Russian army, and finding the reality to be starkly different.

There are no official statistics of how many have so far gone, but it is reported that well over 50 Sri Lankans have either been killed, injured or are MIA (Missing in Action) on the front lines. Interviews the Sunday Times conducted revealed that informal agents in Sri Lanka are engaged in human trafficking, liaising with informal agents in Russia (some of them Sri Lankans settled there) to recruit ex-soldiers who pay large sums to get across on short-term tourist visas issued by the Russian embassy in Colombo. And there are those who have joined the Ukrainian side fighting the Russians. They are virtually shooting each other.

There has been no repatriation of bodies and families complain of not hearing from their loved ones for months. According to one ex-Special Forces soldier, now a mercenary: “Nobody is responsible for us”. Beyond the Defence Ministry belatedly urging Sri Lankan tri-forces members not to join the Russian or Ukrainian military through illegal means, it is the responsibility of the National Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (NAHTTF) to say something publicly. This is in stark contrast to the Nepali Government which has banned its nationals from going to fight in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Indian Government which has taken up the issue with Moscow, especially over the false promises and monetary scams channelling them there.

The Sri Lankan Government knows there is a problem. Some families are due to lodge complaints with the CID this week. To expect the Police to nab those involved in human trafficking is to expect a lot. The Office of the UN Resident Coordinator in Colombo has received appeals from relatives of these combatants stranded in that part of the world. But at the end of the day, those who embark on these dangerous missions go with their eyes open. And then, like in the recent case in Myanmar, when things go wrong, they run to the closest government embassy and seek assistance. Two local agents, both retired military, were recently arrested but this problem runs deeper. It is time the Sri Lankan Government too saw to it that its economically hard-pressed citizens are not exploited by foreign governments through outsourced agencies to fight their wars.

The wholesome reputation gained by the contribution of Sri Lanka’s Armed Forces towards world peace through the UN Peacekeeping Forces is getting tarnished in the meantime by these mercenaries lending their bodies – and their souls – for what they believe is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but in reality is nothing but a mess of pottage, involved in someone else’s war in a faraway land.