Sri Lanka continues to deprive itself of the benefits of transitional justice; UN Rapporteur

United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence Pablo de Greiff, who was on a official visit to the country said that the government's transnational justice policy has been "deeply polarized and politicized" by its actors.

Concluding of his two weeks long official visit to Sri Lanka for second time after a government invitation extended, he said that transitional justice should be of interest, and in any case is meant to protect the rights of all the people of the country. 

"Transitional justice processes are nothing like ‘witch hunts,’ they do not involve massive purges, and do not trade on charges of collective responsibility or guilt by association," he said .

UN Rapporteur Grieff also expressed concerns over the recent the use of rhetoric such as ‘war heroes will never be brought to trial.’by senior government ministers recently." This seems to me to misrepresent the target of transitional justice accountability measures by suggesting that it is a generally anti-security agenda, and also by forgetting that no one who has committed violations of human rights law or of the laws of war deserves to be called a hero,"

Pointing out the recent case presented in Brazil against a former member of the Armed Forces, Mr Pablo Greiff noted that accountability will be sought either here or abroad." In my opinion, this is an additional reason for the country, with the full support of the Armed Forces, who stand a lot to gain from this process-- to establish a robust and credible comprehensive transitional justice policy,"

Mr de Greiff compiled a comprehensive recommendations to move forward in the transnational justice process and he will be delivering his final report to Human Rights Council in September next year.