{"id":115628,"date":"2013-11-24T05:10:25","date_gmt":"2013-11-23T23:40:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=115628"},"modified":"2013-11-30T02:40:48","modified_gmt":"2013-11-29T21:10:48","slug":"whither-justice-the-proposal-for-a-south-african-style-trc-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/whither-justice-the-proposal-for-a-south-african-style-trc-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Whither Justice? The Proposal For A South African Style TRC In Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Niran Anketell<\/span><\/a> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Niran<\/a>

Niran Anketell<\/p><\/div>\n

As the dust settles on the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo, the press has reported that Sri Lanka may be considering the establishment of a South Africa style Truth and Reconciliation Commission<\/span><\/a> with the assistance of the Commonwealth and the South African government.<\/p>\n

As a preliminary observation, however, it is important to note that contemporary Sri Lanka<\/span><\/a> and post-apartheid South Africa<\/span><\/a> have vastly different political and social contexts. The South African TRC (SA TRC) model and amnesties were worked out after a formal transfer of power from the regime responsible for the vast majority of crimes under apartheid to the leaders of the liberation struggle. Moreover the dominant religious belief system in South Africa\u2014where Christian rituals of repentance and forgiveness have significant theological resonance\u2014is fundamentally different to the religious beliefs of the majority of Tamil, Sinhala and Muslim victims.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the SA TRC continues to possess an enduring appeal for Colombo based\u2014as opposed to North and East based\u2014civil society NGOs. Very few, if any, conversations on reconciliation and transitional justice within Colombo civil society networks conclude without references to the SA TRC as the paradigmatic case of the ideal transitional justice model. The Sri Lankan government has also sought to draw parallels between its own attitude to post-conflict justice reflected in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, and the SA TRC.<\/p>\n

The SA TRC is widely known as providing amnesty from prosecution to perpetrators who came before the SA TRC and made full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to their crimes. However, it is perceived in Sri Lanka\u2014wrongly, I contend\u2014as the triumph of a spirit of reconciliation and restorative justice and a rejection of criminal accountability. Thus, the way in which the SA TRC experience has been understood in Sri Lanka is deeply flawed. Moreover, I also claim that there are fundamental problems in applying the SA TRC model to contemporary Sri Lanka and that any attempt to do so without addressing those problems would have severe consequences for the pursuit of truth, justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

First, contrary to the way in which the SA TRC has been understood in Sri Lanka, the model as envisaged by its framers was not designed to exclude prosecutions. Instead, the conduct of prosecutions in respect of perpetrators who did not apply or did not qualify for amnesty was central to the success of the SA TRC\u2019s design. Institutionally, the success of the SA TRC depended on perpetrators confessing to their crimes. The threat of prosecution was precisely the tool necessary to push perpetrators to make full disclosure. In fact, empirical studies on SA TRC data demonstrate that applications for amnesty were low among state security groups whose members were not investigated and punished. Conversely, groups that had members prosecuted or were under investigation\u2014such as the \u2018elite\u2019 police task forces\u2014had greater numbers of amnesty applicants. Thus, the threat and conduct of prosecutions enhanced the prospects of truth seeking and reconciliation. This emphasizes the complementary nature of truth and justice and is an important reminder that the Sri Lankan government\u2019s attempted dichotomization of \u2018punitive justice\u2019 and \u2018restorative justice\u2019 is flawed in practice. The SA TRC Report itself acknowledged that the appeal to the self-interest of prospective applications was well conceived. Moreover, the SA TRC\u2019s final report recommended \u201ca bold prosecution policy\u201d in respect of those who did not apply or did not qualify for amnesty, \u201cin order to avoid any suggestion of impunity or of contravening its obligations in terms of international law.\u201d In fact, the South African government\u2019s failure to follow up on the recommendations of its own commission by instituting a meaningful policy of prosecutions has been sharply criticized by many South Africans, including Bishop Tutu and other members of the commission.<\/p>\n

In Sri Lanka, the government itself has explicitly stated that it has no interest in pursuing what it deems \u2018punitive\u2019 justice and has ruled out a policy of prosecution in respect of crimes committed during and after the war. Thus, any attempt to institute a SA TRC style process would be flawed for the reason that there would be no incentive for perpetrators to make full disclosure. To be clear, conditional amnesty for full disclosure is not a sine qua non for every truth commission. Domestic commissions in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Sierra Leone and Bahrain among many others focused on eliciting the truth through witness testimony and investigation, including through the use of forensic science. However, if the government opts to take the investigative route, it will have to demonstrate a change of heart and a willingness to investigate alleged crimes by its own leaders. Another sham commission in a long line of cover-ups will only highlight impunity in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

Second, the SA TRC represented a political compromise between the ANC and the National Party\u2014the two main political parties representing the Black and Afrikaner communities respectively. While the SA TRC\u2019s conduct was criticized by many parties, including the ANC which attempted to block the release of the final report, the underlying political compromise securing the end of apartheid into which the TRC was locked\u2014which all parties had come to accept as irreversible\u2014permitted the TRC to function with at least a minimally sufficient degree of political legitimacy. Thus, even though studies show Black victims feeling betrayed by the TRC, the process had sufficient legitimacy to forestall political campaigns to undo compromises already made. Unlike in Latin America where justice movements succeeded in rolling back unilateral amnesties, the South African conditional amnesty compromise has withstood attempts to retrospectively invalidate it for the very reason that it was a political compromise. The negotiations around the conditional amnesty deal evidence the political nature of the compromise. By 1992, the findings of the Goldstone Commission which inquired into human rights abuses committed by the government, together with the increasingly inevitable reality of impending change, drove the NP government to demand that indemnity offered previously to ANC functionaries must also be offered to state functionaries. However, the ANC maintained that apartheid era crimes must be prosecuted. Approaching 1994, the ANC\u2019s position on amnesty softened. While the party remained doggedly opposed to blanket amnesty, they made critical concessions and appeared willing to consider conditional amnesties predicated on full disclosure. Indeed, the ANC\u2019s position was driven by a deep realism. For one, the NP government began exerting tremendous pressure on the ANC to concede to its demand for amnesty by threatening to prosecute the ANC\u2019s leadership for human rights abuses committed by the ANC in refugee camps overseas. More critically, as Louise Mallinder notes, \u201cthe ANC became convinced that peaceful elections would be impossible without the support of the security forces and the security services made it clear that the price of their loyalty was an amnesty.\u201d As Dullah Omar\u2014then ANC negotiator and later Justice Minister\u2014acknowledged: \u201cwithout an amnesty agreement there would have been no elections.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Sri Lanka, the contrast could not be starker. Negotiations between the government and the TNA have been stalled with little indication from the government that it has any interest in pursuing a negotiated and permanent settlement of Sri Lanka\u2019s lingering ethnic problem through direct negotiations with the TNA. Thus, a Sri Lankan effort to mimic the SA TRC process without such a process being accompanied by a comprehensive political deal on restructuring the nature of the state through power sharing will merely represent the government\u2019s unilateral attempt to manage its international pressures. As a result, a Sri Lankan TRC minus a full and final political solution will not persuade the Tamil community that it is a genuine mechanism, and will alienate victims from the inception. In fact, it will likely exacerbate the tension and lack of trust between the Tamil and Sinhala communities and impede genuine reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Finally, the SA TRC was conceived and devised in the 1990\u2019s, before the crystallization of the international legal principle deeming impunity laws illegal. The law, as it stands today, requires the pursuit of investigations and prosecutions for grave violations of IHL and IHRL amounting to international crimes. A number of multi-lateral treaties, resolutions of United Nations (UN) bodies, codifications of customary international law, best practices recognized by the UN and decisions of international courts have all unequivocally recognized that there is a legal duty to prosecute serious international crimes. Thus, domestic and international judicial decision makers alike have retrospectively declared amnesty provisions illegal. In Prosecutor vs. Gbao, the Appeals Chamber of the Special Court for Sierra Leone\u2014of which Sri Lankan Judge Raja Fernando was a member\u2014held that there is support for the claim that there is a \u201ccrystallized international norm to the effect that a government cannot grant amnesty for serious crimes under international law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the illegality and the shift away from granting amnesty for serious international crimes, it is very unlikely that the international demand for accountability in Sri Lanka will recede; even in the event the Sri Lankan government attempts to deal with the issue of accountability issues through the provision of amnesty. Further, any amnesties granted in domestic courts will not bind foreign or international courts from prosecuting the beneficiaries of local amnesty laws. More critically, the provision of illegal amnesties by Sri Lankan law will only confirm the prevalence of impunity in Sri Lanka, and will result in redoubled efforts for the internationalization of investigations and prosecutions. Thus, any unilateral attempt by the Sri Lankan government to grant amnesties to its own in an effort to stave off accountability is very likely to be counterproductive.<\/p>\n

For these reasons, any attempt to mimic a SA TRC process unless accompanied by a genuine and concrete change of behaviour and strategy on the part of government\u2014including a demonstrable willingness to investigate and prosecute crimes, as well as securing a full and final political deal on restructuring the nature of the state through power sharing\u2014will not succeed. The Sri Lankan government\u2019s unwillingness to consider criminal investigation and prosecutions of those responsible for atrocities committed during and after the war forecloses the prospect of hidden truths being unearthed through a TRC. Further, with or without a political deal, a TRC that offers any amnesty to perpetrators will be perceived as illegitimate by Tamils and illegal by the international community, and will exacerbate divisions between the state and victims. Finally, even viewed from a narrow strategic lens, any attempt by the government\u2019s leaders to clothe themselves with the protective shield of a local amnesty provision will likely be counterproductive and inspire greater internationalization of the pursuit of justice in respect of serious crimes. For these reasons, any attempt by the government to constitute a SL TRC for the purpose of diverting pressure it currently faces on accountability issues\u2014but is not accompanied by a policy of investigation and prosecution of serious crimes and a comprehensive deal on power sharing\u2014must be rejected, and rejected clearly. Failure to do so will undermine the prospects for peace, justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

*This piece contains material extracted from a longer article by the author titled \u201cSelling Justice Short: Sri Lankan Civil Society and Individual Criminal Liability for Atrocity Crimes\u201d presented at \u201cEthical\u00a0Futures: Dialogues\u00a0on State, Society and\u00a0Ethical\u00a0Existence\u201d,\u00a0a conference hosted by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies in May 2013. Final publication forthcoming<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":107293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nWhither Justice? 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