28 March, 2024

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The Hypocrisy Of Hybrid Courts 

By Dayan Jayatilleka

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka

Given the outpouring of public gratitude towards the military for its role in rescue and relief during the floods, I’d like to see the Government proceeding with and taking the consequences of the ‘full implementation of the Geneva resolution’, with new hybrid judicial mechanisms, foreign judges etc.

One cannot help but wonder how Foreign Minister Kadirgamar would have reacted to the recent, absurdly intrusive and occasionally hypocritical statements on Sri Lanka by Justin Trudeau, Jeremy Corbyn and Jayalalithaa.

Speaking of the late Mr. Kadirgamar, a former secretary of Justice Dr. Nihal Jayawickrema has expressed some doubts and confusion as to who killed him. Hmmm, who indeed could it conceivably have been?

Dr. Jayawickrema has, to cut a convoluted story short, advocated a hybrid court and foreign participation in probing the war and the military which liberated us from thirty years of suicide bombing terrorism.

This is even richer in hypocrisy than Justin Trudeau’s statement. Dr. Jayawickrema, a friend of my father’s, served as a conspicuous commissar under Felix Dias Bandaranaike in the Sirimavo Bandaranaike regime of 1970-1977. Remember Gamani Fonseka’s film ‘Sagarayak Meda’ anyone?

My father was an enlightened dissident in that Establishment who was duly sacked by Mrs. Bandaranaike from the posts of Editor, Daily News and Editor-in-Chief of Lake House (just as I would be from Geneva over three decades later by President Rajapaksa). Dr. Jayawickrema by contrast was deprived of his civic rights on charges of the abuse of power, by the successor administration which was swept in with the most massive popular mandate in the history of Sri Lankan democracy.

It was during the administration of Mrs. Bandaranaike, of which Dr. Jayawickrema was a flamboyantly energetic apparatchik that Sri Lanka (still Ceylon at the time) saw bodies of young men and women, burnt on tyres; floating down rivers with hands tied behind their backs. A JVP suspect named Kamalabandu was dismembered while alive with a buzz-saw. People stopped eating fish, because the fish had fed on the bodies.

My generation saw these horrors. In my teens I joined a revolutionary group (of which Rohan Samarajeewa and Asoka Pieris were older members) and was detained for questioning by the anti-terrorist secret police between my A levels and university entrance.

Profs Sarachchandra and Ashley Halpe wrote about the tyre pyres up in the Hantana hills. Bala Tampoe wrote open letters of protest to the PM. Prof. EFC Ludowyk signed petitions in London against the horrors. The Civil Rights Movement was initiated against this reign of terror. Its co-founder, Rajah Gunasekara, the Law College Principal, was reviled (as was MARGA Institute and its respected founder Godfrey Gunatilleke) by Dr. Jayawickrema’s boss (and my father’s campus colleague), Felix Dias.

The Amnesty International representative Lord Avebury was deported. The Guardian (London) ran Lord Avebury’s article with the caption “An Island behind Bars”. The Ceylon Solidarity Campaign was started in London against the regime’s brutal practices. Civil rights lawyers protested against retroactive legislation. Indeed the Communist Party of Sri Lanka split and its two most respected leaders, Dr. SA Wickemasinghe and Sarath Muttetuwegama left the Government precisely in protest at the passage of the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) Act , which they criticized for being both retroactive and draconian. It is the Ministry of which Dr. Jayawickrema was Permanent Secretary that drafted that piece of legislation.

While this exceptional legislation was directed against the anti-state forces which lost the clash, there were no hybrid courts and foreign judges to ensure the accountability of the state apparatus.

What the military learned in 1971, it practiced again in 1986-1989, as the 1971 veterans rose through the ranks. What the JVP didn’t do in 1971 it did in 1986-1989 because it thought it had been too soft the first time around and imitated both its old enemy and the Tamil Tigers who had arisen since. Ragging grew exponentially more violent as a generation which had witnessed torture entered the universities after 1971. A new generation which had witnessed atrocities and been brutalized, joined both the JVP and the military.

Despite a record 12,000 enforced disappearances according to a UN report, there were no hybrid courts or foreign judges.

I don’t see anything wrong in that, but if there were no accountability mechanisms and certainly exceptional, hybrid ones after either 1971 or 1987-90, there do not need to be any after our Just War of self-defense and reunification (2007-2009).

Dr. Jayawickrema went overseas, earned his PhD and much to the delight of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, preached Human Rights in Hong Kong before it reverted to China.

Having gone through the thirty year war living in Eton, UK, during which time our friends were being killed by suicide bombers, and we were risking sudden death in daily life, Dr. Jayawickrema wants hybrid courts and foreign judges to judge our military men who liberated us from the hell of weekly terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile Jayalalithaa Jayaram, who just won a historic electoral victory, had declared during her campaign, her commitment to Tamil Eelam.

For its part, the Sri Lankan government has agreed to an Indian-built temple marking the spot where Sita is said to have had to walk the talk through the fire (the earliest forerunner of a ‘Game of Thrones’ lass).

Thus the Sri Lankan government has given permission for a temple marking a mythical narrative in which Ravana of Lanka is the bad guy and India’s Rama and his invading monkey army are heroes!

No wonder our PM, far more a Vibheeshana fan than a Ravana fan, suggested the Hanuman Bridge linking Tamil Nadu with northern Sri Lanka as far back as 2002; a deadly bridge and underwater tunnel which India is now about to build.

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Latest comments

  • 4
    3

    Mr. Jayatilake,with your PhD I would expect you to argue your case in a more decent manner and based on facts. What you have done is to throw mud at Dr. jayawickrama, which is not acceptable to the educated.You are not writing these articles to be read by the drug addicts and thugs with 3rd standard education.

  • 5
    1

    Dr. jayatilake, the outpouring of public gratitude is fast disappearing, as it happens to all things good, with time.Not everybody thinks that just because one was in the forces at the end of the war, one becomes a hero.

    No body has met the argument that all if not some of the photographs that have appeared had been released by former personnel of the army.

  • 7
    1

    Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka,

    “Given the outpouring of public gratitude towards the military for its role in rescue and relief during the floods, I’d like to see the Government proceeding with and taking the consequences of the ‘full implementation of the Geneva resolution’, with new hybrid judicial mechanisms, foreign judges etc.”

    India kept its promise to the word. What can you and the 20 million do?? Employ another Tamil terrorist to do your bidding- KP, Karuna et .al ??

    Bradmen Weerakoon said something more precise but did not play 4’s and 6’ like you or you pop the journo as in the above statement of yours.
    When Premadasa was made into diced meat on 1st May after the 16May 2 years earlier (Neville was informed face to face, eye for eye) he rightly accused India of the tit for tat. He had space for it on the web. But when Rajapassa gave his daughter an ambassador post the web space was withdrawn. You can’t be different but you are sadly worse because neither you nor pop were great enough to challenge India and beat them in their own game which we have done. The Freudian slip and victory you had at a debate at Madras was prearranged by India using SC/ST Doctors like you from 30% reserved seats. You never know the strength of India when it comes to battle except Welshman Clive the Nabob- it’s in Indian and English Archives.

    I challenge you to stop sitting on your brains thinking English which is not your mother tongue is greater than application of knowledge. non of you got even a booker prize to talk shop like twits.

  • 3
    2

    Felix Dias Bandaranaike became a Born Again Christian in his last years when he realised the enormity of crimes and that no mortal was willing to forgive him. I think Dr Jayatailleke’s statement about Dr Nihal Jayyawickrama is a call for Dr Jayawickrama to reflect on his own baggage and the hypocrisy of his statements. As someone who spent 30 years in academia in the UK and to have not lived through the 30 years war, Nihal Jayawickrama is a sanctimonious humbug to come back and preach reconciliation and foreign judges. Let us not forget that the regime he was part of in the 70s killed over 20,000 youth.

    • 1
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      Angelo…Good on you mate..

  • 3
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    [Edited out]The person who believes in Mahawamsa there by believing that Sinhala race was the result of the union between a human princess and a lion is now talking about Ramayana.

  • 2
    4

    You guys are still living in the stone age, man. Thinking out of the square is not in your profile. All human beings go through a process of transformation, often for the better, but sometimes for the worse. We learn by our mistakes and our conscience is the driver of what is right and wrong. I admire Dr Nihal J coming out and expressing his views on this matter. This is what is known as enlightenment and comes with acquiring knowledge and wisdom as we go though the journey of life. Greater is the man who realizes the mistakes he has made and then embarks on a course of correction and leading a better life. As one gets older you understand and appreciate the subtleties of good behavior, moral strengthening and adherences to a value system. Dr J is in a way fortunate that he lived in the UK which is a civilized country run by politicians who are educated and a system where everyone irrespective of gender or religion are treated equally in the eyes of the law exists. Puppets and mental lightweights like the so called professors we have in SL the likes of DJ and GLP are only interested in doing the big suck hoping that there will be some rewards that will flow to them by trying to place obstacles in the path of good governance that Ranil and team are trying to introduce. DJ is a disgrace, even after his crooked boss sacked him, he is still displaying his admiration for this crook. Talk of values!!!!

    • 7
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      confu_tao,
      knung fu fighting clinging onto mohamed ali- stings like a bee.
      but never like beautiful butter_cup_fly.

      “” This is what is known as enlightenment and comes with acquiring knowledge and wisdom as we go though the journey of life.”

      How do you explain that some are or cultures are born wise??
      (rebirth is complacency with the unknown)

      ” Greater is the man who realizes the mistakes he has made and then embarks on a course of correction and leading a better life”

      So we had the gaffe Texas Shrub taking revenge for a spat on his father.
      Now bless the mess!!

      “As one gets older you understand and appreciate the subtleties of good behavior, moral strengthening and adherences to a value system. “

      These are traits one learns at home not by having 90% of foreign remittances from menial workers in the ME. Inward remittances come again from european cash crops worked by women and now garments- your pseudo island from 48 is for mainly pathetic men and some weeping women who like the arabs prefer sexslavery of the weaker.

      “Dr J is in a way fortunate that he lived in the UK which is a civilized country run by politicians who are educated and a system where everyone irrespective of gender or religion are treated equally in the eyes of the law exists. “

      Colony boy you know very little about my nation the land of pirates who are always for the underdog.
      But I know who Dr J is from his actions alone at Lanka- barre patte ta hoiya. (greed has no limits) Bringing the dead back to life same as Pasku presently in the treasury- a forgetful man because he ran beyond his capacity for preme the man who made TB patients of his workers.

      “SL the likes of DJ and GLP are only interested in doing the big suck hoping that there will be some rewards that will flow to them by trying to place obstacles in the path of good governance that Ranil and team are trying to introduce.”
      school teachers are by nature crowd controllers and when they retire become priest at england where the pews are empty.- what does it matter when the man gets a castle as his new home- golden handshake.
      DJ runs behind ambulances. while GL could never be a professional so he killed anything- chip on his shoulder & never meant for foreign office like hillary billary who aims to become queen NWO if she wins But we won’t let her as much as we did not let Texas Shrub.

      “Talk of values!!!! “
      don’t judge others according to your standards which are now obvious
      O enlightened One)))

      Value: All money is surreal! can you beat that???

      wisdom of the foolish Ranil living all day like a fool.

      the man of the sea and mountain you are confused because there is no mountain in the island but rolling picturesque hills carved by europeans.
      Isla bonita is imaginary from the mountains of san sebastian and christopher columbus. The world is not just your or his well as much as the island.

  • 0
    0

    Dear Dr. Jayatilleka

    I suggest that hypocrisy is the currency of international relations.

    “Hypocrisy is a detriment to progress. There’s always a hidden agenda.”

    so be it

    Larry Flynt
    brainyquote.com

  • 0
    0

    DJ. pl tell me whether sinhalese were here long before, the tamils. were you a human rights consultant to late president premadas.

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