Sri Lanka condemns the alleged hidden agenda of right groups

Sri Lanka has accused the three major human rights groups of pursuing a 'broader targeted agenda' against the government by leveling unsubstantiated allegations on a range of issues.

Drawing attention to a letter addressed by the International Crisis Group (ICG), Amnesty International (AI) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) on 14 October 2010, to the Secretary of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the External Affairs Ministry said the letter contains a series of unsubstantiated allegations against the government on a wide range of issues, including matters unrelated to the purview of the Commission.
The decision by the right groups to make the letter public is demonstrative of a broader targeted agenda against the government, the Ministry said in a statement released Wednesday (20).

The three organizations snubbed an invitation by the LLRC to share their insight at the Commission's hearings saying that the LLRC does not meet international standards and lack credibility.

Their main arguments were that its members were appointed by the government, has no real mandate to investigate war crimes in the last stages of the conflict, lacks any mechanism to protect witnesses and falls short of minimum international standards of a commission of inquiry.

The Ministry responding to the concerns said the LLRC has conducted its hearings in the former battlefields and civilians including displaced persons, widows and members of civil society have testified before the Commission.

"If there were any fear to testify, such a strong public participation in the work of the Commission, especially in the North and in the East of the country, would not have materialized," the Ministry statement said.

The right groups' concern that the state of emergency is still enforced in the country has no relevance to the Commission's work, the Ministry pointed out.

Regarding the members of the Commission, the Ministry said the three organizations have taken the unacceptable step of publicly discrediting them saying that they have been public officials.

The Ministry, noting that there are several examples of former officials served or are currently serving on various commissions from all over the world, condemned the right groups for personally targeting the Commission members.

"The comment that previous Commissions have not fulfilled expectations, is a claim best left to the people of Sri Lanka, to determine," the Ministry said pointing out that Sri Lankan people have the political maturity to apply their judgment.


The Ministry said the three organizations involved could have better contributed, by following the internationally recognized principle and practice of co-operating with national institutions and domestic mechanisms and processes, in the promotion and protection of human rights.

Underscoring the progress made in post-war Sri Lanka, the Ministry said the Sri Lankan government has been successful in resettling almost all of the internally displaced, providing schooling to all former child combatants and rehabilitating the ex-combatants to lead productive lives.

The Government, it said, plans to hold the local elections in the North soon to create the necessary space for the democratic Tamil political leadership in the region.

The Sri Lankan government has embarked on a programme aimed at reconstruction and rehabilitation of the conflict-affected areas, along with equitable long-term development in all parts of the country, the Ministry stated.
Considering the developments in the country, the Ministry concluded that the letter form the three rights groups ICG, AI and HRW allows room to believe that they would prefer to voice allegations from distant parts of the world, rather than jeopardize their claims of credibility by subjecting their assertions to scrutiny under the transparent and legally sound process afforded by the LLRC.