In a veiled and ambiguous statement the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) said that the local judiciary does not have confidence of ‘many concerned’ and admitted that international assistance and expertise is a necessity in addressing allegations of War Crimes.
Geoffrey Alagaratnam
President Bar Association of Sri Lanka
The statement cloaked with non-committal jargon and thinly veiled sentences however, calls for the need for a mechanism which is accepted by ‘all stakeholders’.
The BASL has continuously turned a blind eye to massive issues of chronic delays, unbearable fees asked my Lawyers, cronyism and procedural malfunctioning of the system.
However, during the end years of the Rajapaksa regime the BASL shifted to a politically motivated stance and challenged the incumbent regime, despite the continuance of chronic delays and lack of access to justice to the public.
The Colombo Telegraph learns the BASL has done very little for institutional and procedural correction, confining itself to conferences and non-specific media communiques.
Following is the full statement;
justice / November 29, 2015
The last sentence of the BASL statement says it all.
Are judges, prosecutors and other staff, from other countries, as suggested by the UNHRC resolution, permitted to serve in judicial probes/processes in Sri Lanka, under the constitution?
The BASL carefully avoids this problem.
Are they not sure of the correct answer?
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sarrij / November 29, 2015
SWo, what is new?
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Kuttayan / November 29, 2015
What can we do? can we subcontract the work to a private company or another country? Lots of Srilankan Judges working in Fiji. Why don’t we hire some foreign judges then?
Only in our country a chief justice saying “we released him in the hope of that he will correct his mistakes” “we did a favour to him” etc….
We all saw ex-president of Bar Association’s behaviour in parliament and in Public as well- ” I personally prevented his arrest”
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