Lankan officials working on war crimes inquiry panel

Sri Lankan officials are working on the formation of a domestic commission to inquire into wartime accountability issues, the spokesman of the Lankan Ministry of External Affairs, Mahishini Colonne, told newspersons here on Wednesday. But the Xinhua news agency quoted the Deputy Minister of External Affairs, Ajith Perera, as saying that legal experts are looking into it and that the mechanism will be set up by August. Earlier this year, Sri Lanka had promised to the US and the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), that it would set up such an inquiry commission before the September session of the UNHRC. It was on this condition that the UN report on alleged war crimes and human rights violations in Lanka was not released at the March session of the UNHRC. The US also did not press for a resolution against Lanka in that session. The US wanted to give time to the new and friendlier government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. However, till date, there is no sign of the domestic panel. The speculation in political circles is that the government will drag its feet till after the parliamentary elections expected in September. President Sirisena, who heads the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), has given an undertaking to the majority Sinhalese community, that he will not let down the armed forces and will protect it against accusations of war crimes. But at the same time, he has to satisfy the Tamils who have been demanding such an inquiry. He was elected President in January this year, substantially due to the votes of the Tamils. The issue of the domestic mechanism has come up now because of the remarks of the UN Human Rights Commissioner, Prince Zeid, who told the UNHRC on June 15, that he was “very engaged” with Lanka on accountability and reconciliation issues, and that he hoped to see a credible domestic mechanism to address accountability issues by September this year. Meanwhile, the possibility of domestic inquiry mechanism being set up in the very near future began to look bleak with the SLFP trying to unite its present leader, Maithripala Sirisena and its former leader, Mahinda Rajapaksa. The party has set up a six-man committee to make the two leaders cooperate. But the Rajapaksa group is totally opposed to any inquiry into war crimes, whether domestic or international. (The New Indian Express)