Sri Lanka: Sirisena’s reconciliation would fail without punishing the guilty!

-Dr. Abdul Ruff

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Reconciliation is closely and directly linked to repentance by those who have committed sins or crimes- knowingly or otherwise.  A fake reconciliation move on the part of any regime that has committed and perpetrated crimes against minorities for whatever reasons cannot ensure peace and stability in that country. The case in point here is Sri Lanka, an island nation in South Asia facing the threat of dangerous level of climatic disorders.

Sri Lanka, like India, does not seem to repent for their sins and crimes perpetrated against minority communities, especially the Tamils primarily because they don’t expect forgiveness of the Tamil community at all and want to coerce and pressure the besieged minority community to just forget about the past and try to assimilate themselves with the majority Singhalese.

If one watches Lankan TV channels and read news media portals one thing is crystal clear that the SL government and majority look at the Tamils and other minorities as a problem which needs to be put down  by all means, including with force. They, thus, have got no sympathy for Tamils, whom Rajapaksha regime and military targeted. In fact, they have no regrets whatsoever for the crimes they committed against humanity in the name of fighting ‘terrorism’.  

Sri Lankan war crimes against humanity are a very serious issue and both UN and USA have asked for in-depth investigation and prompt punishment for the culprits. Though president Sirisena had declared to proceed with reconciliation with Tamils and other minority communities, nothing has happened so far to fix the culprits, because Rajapaksha and majority Singhalese community do not want any punishment for their community and military.   

Possibly, Sirisena does not want to be seen as a ‘traitor’ of Singhalese community to which he belongs.  This predicament is very similar to Congress government unable to punish the Hindu criminals who demolished historic Babri mosque. 

The Sirisena regime has to realize the harm of not punishing the criminals who killed so many Tamils as the collective punishment for the action of a few individuals in LTTE they also inflict on the psyche and life of Tamils who are the target of Singhalese military.

Tamils simply cannot forget, let alone forgive, the war crimes committed against their kith and kin by the Rajapaksha military, ill focused on minority communities.

President Sirisena should have announced repentance for the former regime and sought reconciliation with Tamils so that they would forgive the government’s crimes.

Crimes – state or private- against minorities is punishable offence. But that the SL government is neither willing nor ready to admit its crimes against Tamils only shows it’s petrified anti Tamil and anti-India mindset is still strong and Lankan military would relaunch the war on Tamils when they want.  

The Rajapaksha regime committed the ghastly war crimes against Tamils on the strength of support extended by many sources and the Indo-US fight against so-called terrorism. Now the Sirisena is slow peddling with the investigation of UN, encouraging only a local enquiry to close the war crime file once for all. With a clean chit from the Sirisena regime, Rajapaksha could stage a ‘valiant’ come back.

No!  That should not happen.

President Sirisena has a very important pledge to keep as people of Sri Lanka who voted him to presidency by kicking the then president Rajapaksha look forward to his fulfilling his promise of bringing the war criminal to justice. Reconciliation, if any, won’t be genuine if the people, especially Tamils are disappointed by his irresponsibility. 

The Sirisena government is duty-bound to bring the war criminals to justice and make Tamil community and others feel free to live on the island.

The UN investigations into Lankan war crimes and punishment of the war criminals would strengthen democracy in the country and discourage war crimes across the globe.