{"id":164012,"date":"2016-06-18T13:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-06-18T07:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=164012"},"modified":"2016-06-18T16:07:33","modified_gmt":"2016-06-18T10:37:33","slug":"sri-lanka-is-not-yet-the-success-story-that-many-claim-it-to-be-international-crisis-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-is-not-yet-the-success-story-that-many-claim-it-to-be-international-crisis-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka Is Not Yet The Success Story That Many Claim It To Be: International Crisis Group"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The International Crisis Group has claimed that Sri Lanka is not yet the success story that many in the international community claim it to be.<\/p>\n<p>Citing reasons for <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.crisisgroup.org\/asia\/2016\/06\/17\/impunity-and-justice-why-the-un-human-rights-council-must-stay-engaged-in-sri-lanka\/?utm_source=Sign+Up+to+Crisis+Group%27s+Email+Updates&amp;utm_campaign=5da205def2-sri_lanka_17june166_17_2016&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_1dab8c11ea-5da205def2-359862157\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">the claim<\/span><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Alan+Keenan&amp;x=8&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Alan Keenan<\/span><\/a>, the Group&#8217;s Sri Lanka Senior Analyst noted that the progress on implementing the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution has been slow and often grudging, and there are growing doubts about the government\u2019s political will and ability to see the complex process through.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_164013\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lanka-is-not-yet-the-success-story-that-many-claim-it-to-be-international-crisis-group\/alan-keenan-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-164013\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-164013\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-164013\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Alan-Keenan-300x261.jpg\" alt=\"Alan Keenan\" width=\"300\" height=\"261\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Alan-Keenan-300x261.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Alan-Keenan.jpg 426w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-164013\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alan Keenan<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cFor Sri Lanka to stay on the path toward recovery, it needs sustained international support and engagement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Keenan noted that although the government has adopted an ambitious reform agenda to address the many challenges the country faces: keeping a beleaguered economy afloat, strengthening the rule of law, tackling corruption, drafting a new constitution, promoting reconciliation efforts with the Tamil population in the north and east, and establishing a multi-pronged set of transitional justice mechanisms agreed with the Council.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, the entire program risks collapse unless new energy, focus and resources are brought to bear. A weakening economy and slow going on most other fronts have led to waning support from the key constituencies that brought the government to power \u2013 Tamils, Muslims and reform-minded Sinhalese. Belief in the possibility of meaningful progress is fading across the board,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, efforts of the national unity government \u2013 a coalition between President Sirisena\u2019s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Prime Minister Wickremesinghe\u2019s United National Party (UNP) \u2013 have been weakened by a variety of factors. \u201cFirst, the government lacks technical capacity and trained personnel on key issues. Second, there is no unified strategy for advancing reforms \u2013 with the SLFP split between Sirisena\u2019s wing and supporters of ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and often at odds with the UNP, particularly on economic policy. Third, the administration has not mounted a coherent public relations campaign to sell its successes and build support for the more politically controversial aspects of its program, including transitional justice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Keenan also said that Council members should press the government to begin building the legal, institutional and staffing capacity needed for all the promised transitional justice mechanisms. \u201cThe High Commissioner should insist that legislation needed to establish these mechanisms must be on the books by March 2017, in advance of that month\u2019s Human Rights Council session. These measures should include legislation to criminalise war crimes and crimes against humanity, and to establish command responsibility as a mode of criminal liability,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He also said that the government must take steps to dismiss or discipline obstructionists. \u201cOfficials who lobbied to undermine UN efforts to support justice and accountability under the Rajapaksa regime should also be removed from policymaking positions. In order to address long-criticised conflicts of interest in the Attorney General\u2019s department, it is necessary to establish a permanent, independent special prosecutor for serious human rights cases in which state officials are alleged perpetrators,\u201d Keenan said.<\/p>\n<p>According to him there were also credible reports that indicate that witnesses in criminal cases implicating the security forces are facing serious threats. \u201cThe government has yet to establish an effective witness protection program or revise its weak witness protection law, in compliance with a clause in last year\u2019s Council resolution promising to do so,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":164013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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