Permanent Peoples’ Tribunals and the pursuit of justice in Sri Lanka

8/13/2019 Permanent Peoples Tribunals and the pursuit of justice in Sri Lanka

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Permanent Peoples Tribunals and the pursuitof justice in Sri Lanka

By JS Tissainayagam Feb 03, 2014Can civil society initiatives succeed where the worlds powerful governments havefailed?Competitive state!centred international politics are often a barrier for victims ofhuman rights violations to find redress through global judicial institutions" Tocircumvent some of these restrictions the civil society!led #nternational $ar Crimes

Tribunal was founded by %ertrand &ussell in '()* to try the +nited States and its alliesfor war crimes against the ,ietnamese people"

The Permanent Peoples Tribunal -PPT. was established by Lelio %asso in %ologna in'(*( with similar ideals in mind" PPTs are civil society initiatives that use internationallegal standards legal reasoning and procedure such as analysing evidence but are notlimited by constraints of formal judicial systems / both national and international /that bar calling certain witnesses or adopting non!legal norms"

Since PPTs are civil society initiatives they lack the rigour and legitimacy that nationaland international judicial institutions possess" 0oreover their verdicts cannot beenforced" %ut a tribunals verdict because it is a collective opinion of a group of judgesand the product of legal reasoning has binding moral authority"
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Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's go ern!ent has "ontin#a$$y stone%a$$ed"a$$s &or a gen#ine %ar "ri!es in estigation Pi"( )P

The need for such tribunals for victims caught up in violent civil wars in a world miredin the national interests of powerful states can be seen in many contemporarye1amples" Two of those are Syria and Sri Lanka" 2o PPT has sat on Syria yet while two/ 3ublin 45'5 and %remen 45'6 / have scrutinised the 65!year civil war and ongoing violations in Sri Lanka"

#n 7anuary eminent forensic e1perts e1amining evidence from Syria between 0arch45'' and 8ugust 45'6 concluded that Syrian government forces were guilty of warcrimes from a trove of evidence that showed '' 555 prisoners had been tortured andstarved before they were killed"

These revelations came out as delicate negotiations unfolded in the presence of theinternational community in 0ontreu1 and 9eneva principally on an interimgovernment and whether al!8ssad would be part of it" 3espite the mass of evidenceunearthed on what appear war crimes there is widespread belief national interests ofpowerful countries will trump human rights" %en :ubbard and 3" ;irkpatrick wrote in

the 2ew


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'@) 555 people dead -the e1act numbers are yet to be determined." 8fter e1aminingevidence a +2 panel of e1perts concluded in a 0arch 45'' report that bothgovernment troops and rebels had committed war crimes and crimes againsthumanity"

Aver the past four years forensic e1perts and human rights lawyers have gone on tocorroborate the truth of these allegations by pulling together mobile phone videosphotographs and numerous eyewitness accounts some of which appears in a three!part documentary by %ritains Channel Bour known as Sri Lankas ;illing Bields" $orse grave human rights violations still occur due to high levels of militarisation inareas where large numbers of Tamils live disappearances rape and acts of ethniccleansing" 0eanwhile political prisoners and captured LTT cadre remain in indefinitedetention and are subject to torture and rape"

-0A& Sri Lanka hits out at +S over rights resolution.0ounting evidence of war crimes led to an international call for accountability by theSri Lanka government" Colombo denied committing war crimes and refused to appointa domestic commission of inDuiry" $hen the international community threatened topursue an international investigation into alleged war crimes Sri Lanka appointed theLessons Learned and &econciliation Commission -LL&C." %ut the LL&C not only fellshort of acceptable international norms of independence but its mandate was not toinvestigate war crimes but issues of why the Ceasefire 8greement of 4554 failed andpreventing its recurrence"

Brom 2ovember 45'' onwards the international community has pursued twointerrelated goals a. that Sri Lanka appoints a credible domestic commission ofinDuiry and b. implementing the recommendations of the LL&C" Two resolutions atthe +2 :uman &ights Council -+2:&C. / 45'4 and 45'6 / reflect these concerns"

%ut Colombo has continued to stonewall" Binally in Actober last year +2 :ighCommissioner for :uman &ights 2avi Pillay told the +2:&C =if significant steps were not taken before E 0arch -45'@. the international community would be forcedto launch its own inDuiry">

#n the face of the high commissioners call civil society hoped that the internationalcommunity frustrated by Colombos stubborn refusal to implement some measure ofaccountability or stem the continuing impunity would move towards calling forinternational accountability mechanisms"

:owever states began backtracking despite the mounting evidence of war crimes" The+S government remains focussed on the LL&C ignoring warnings by 8mnesty
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#nternational that =if international policymakers continue to treat the LL&C as apotentially credible domestic accountability mechanism capable of adeDuatelyaddressing alleged violations as serious as war crimes despite all evidence to thecontrary they contribute to dangerous delays in providing real accountability justiceand reparations for the victims">

#n 3ecember 45'6 +S 8ssistant Secretary of State for South and Central 8sia 2isha%iswal said =FtGhrough the LL&C there are a set of recommendations" # think thatthose are e1actly the points that wed like to see progress on and weve encouragedthem to do that"> The %ritish government declared that it would push for aninternational investigation only if Sri Lanka did not begin a credible internalinvestigation into war crimes before 0arch 45'@"3espite four years of not only stonewalling but of a perpetuating new human rights violations Sri Lanka still retains stature in the eyes of %ritain and the +S to carry outacredible war crimes investigation" The only e1planation for such biHarre thinking isthat as in the case of Syria and in Sri Lanka too western capitals want to remainengaged with Colombo because it would increase their leverage to pursue theirnarrowly perceived national interests rather than international law and accountability"#n the face such blatant pussyfooting bodies such as the PPT perform importantfunctions" They collect and document masses of evidence" They analyse that evidenceagainst standards of international law" 8nd by giving a forum to voices that realpolitikshuts out they supplement the formal processes"

The first PPT on Sri Lanka in 3ublin in 45'5 established that war crimes and crimes

against humanity were committed" The verdict of the second in %remen in 3ecembersaid =The panel of '' judges unanimously found Sri Lanka guilty of the crime ofgenocide against the elam Tamil people and that this crime continues today">

$e can only hope that in the run!up to the +2:&C sessions in 0arch and beyond theforthright judgement of the tribunal in %remen will establish that national interestsneed not only be for narrow goals of realpolitick" 2ational interests include fighting for justice in the world" %ecause in the long run a just and eDuitable world order makes the burden of governance less onerous in all parts of the world"

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Permanent Peoples’ Tribunals and the pursuit of justice in Sri Lanka