Sri Lanka: Truth and Reconciliation At Last?

On May 18, 2009, the Sri Lankan Civil War came to an end when government forces claimed victory over the separatist rebel forces of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam. The conflict, which had erupted in July 1983 from long-standing ethnic and religious divisions between the Buddhist Sinhalese majority and the Hindu Tamil minority, claimed an estimated 70,000 to 130,000 lives. Over 40,000 members of the Tamil community are thought to have perished in the final five months of the government offensive alone. On September 14, 2015, the Sri Lankan government declared its intention to establish and implement a Commission for Truth, Reconciliation, Justice, and Non-Recurrence in order to strengthen previous previous attempts to confront and redress the atrocities associated with the Sri Lankan civil war. The Commission, which is expected to draw from post-apartheid truth and reconciliation efforts in South Africa, seeks to develop a procedure for the pursuit of criminal justice. It also seeks to guide and compensate victims through the establishment of a Compassion Council, administered by leaders of major faith traditions, that will enable individuals to come to terms with issues of truth and injustice related to the war. In light of the failure of previous post-war administrations to address and indict war crimes, the announcement of the Commission represents a new opportunity.

Some, however, doubt the accountability of a domestic body with little international oversight or guidance. In its report on crimes committed during the Sri Lankan Civil War, the United Nations Human Rights Council has suggested the establishment of a “hybrid court” with U.N. jurisdiction for the purpose of ensuring effective prosecution of war crimes and human rights violations. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein, has declared that the establishment of the abovementioned Commission, while commendable, is not enough to address evidence of deliberate and systematic perpetration of war crimes by state forces during the conflict. He has also stated that significant international involvement is necessary to ensure justice. Tamil minority leaders have also emphasized the necessity of an objective international process.

The Sri Lankan government, for its part, has explicitly rejected the notion of a hybrid court with foreign jurisdiction, raising questions as to the depth of the commitment of the coalition government to come to terms with the horrors of a civil conflict.