Sumanthiran and the TNA make statements to mislead and betray the Tamil people: accuses TMK

Mr. Sumanthiran portrays UN reports as completion of international investigation. Mr. Sumanthiran is misguiding Tamils. For Tamils to get justice, those accused in these reports should be brought before International Criminal Court (ICC) or before a Special International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka to face justice and to get punished. Tamizh Makkal Koottani led by former Chief Minister of Northern Provincial Council Justice CV. Wigneswaran, accused in a statement in response to the TNA’s spokesperson, M A Sumanthiran’s argument that an  international, independent inquiry into crimes committed against Tamils had already been completed.

The statement says as follows:

Mr. Sumanthiran wants the Tamil people to believe that the UN reports on Sri Lanka are the same as an international, independent inquiry into crimes committed against Tamils as a group. Instead of calling for a Special International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka or to refer Sri Lanka to International Criminal Court (ICC), according to media reports, Mr. Sumanthiran has asked Tamils to accept already published reports by UN and others as completion of international investigation. That is not correct. These reports did not bring justice to Tamils for the mass atrocities committed against them by the Sri Lankan Security Forces and Sri Lankan State. These reports just documented the mass atrocities that took place against Tamils. So far  no action was taken against those who committed these mass atrocities, as outlined in these reports. Mr. Sumanthiran portrays these reports as completion of international investigation. Mr. Sumanthiran is misguiding Tamils. For Tamils to get justice, those accused in these reports should be brought before International Criminal Court (ICC) or before a Special International Criminal Tribunal for Sri Lanka to face justice and to get punished.

Tamils deserve to be treated with more decency and professionalism.  When Mr. Sumanthiran and the TNA make statements like this, their aim is to mislead and betray the Tamil people.

Here are the facts. The two UN reports described events and collected data; but they are incomplete. They do not record victim statements. Neither do they make recommendations about who is criminally responsible for the acts they record. Finally, these reports themselves recognize that they are only a first step toward achieving justice. Here is what those UN reports actually say.

1) Recommendation 1B of the 2011 “Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka” (known as the Darusman Report) reads, in part:

The Secretary-General should immediately proceed to establish an independent international mechanism, whose mandate should include the following concurrent functions:

(i) Monitor and assess the extent to which the Government of Sri Lanka is carrying out an effective domestic accountability process, including genuine investigations of the alleged violations and periodically advise the Secretary-General on its findings;

(ii) Conduct investigations independently into the alleged violations, having regard to genuine and effective domestic investigations.”

2) The 2012 “Report of the Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka” (known as the Petrie Report) describes many of the events surrounding the final phases of the war, but its purpose was only to help the UN learn from its mistakes. Paragraph 82 of the Petrie Report reads:

It is beyond the scope of the Panel’s mandate to assess current events and corresponding UN action in Sri Lanka. It is nevertheless clear that there can be no lasting peace and stability without dealing with the most serious past violations and without a political response to the aspirations of Sri Lanka’s communities. The UN cannot fulfil its post-conflict and development responsibilities in Sri Lanka without addressing these fundamental concerns; and the UN should continue to support implementation of the recommendations of the Panel of Experts on Accountability.

Tamil people are smarter than to listen to fake news—they can read for themselves. Even according to the UN reports that Mr. Sumanthiran has pointed to, a full inquiry led by the UN Secretary-General is still necessary to prepare international criminal charges and to fulfill Tamils’ aspirations. The Tamil people have called for international judicial proceedings that can assess the criminal guilt of Sri Lankan personnel, because domestic mechanisms will never deliver justice.

Certainly, Mr. Sumanthiran’s tete-a-tete with UN’s Marzuki Darusman might give the lie to the current government’s claim that no official UN body has connected Shavendra Silva with any crime.

The travel ban on Silva is the result of a prima facie case established by various investigations, including the International Truth and Justice Project’s report and testimonies of victims to fact-finding missions. (In a statement ^[1] on Silva’s appointment, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights wrote that “UN reports have implicated [Silva] and his troops in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.”).  Today, all such prima facie cases must be brought to trial.

Mr. Sumanthiran’s interviews might therefore become part of the evidence for a judicial proceeding. By themselves, however, they are not an inquiry with legal effect. They have brought neither accountability nor justice. To be even clearer, while witness statements are necessary for war crimes charges, only an international tribunal (like those in Rwanda, Cambodia and the former Yugoslavia) would have the legitimacy needed to deliver charges of crimes against humanity and genocide.

The TNA wants Tamils to believe that very little can be done to achieve accountability for Sri Lanka’s crimes. This attitude hides that party’s own unwillingness to take leadership and initiative—working together with the international community—to establish an international, independent accountability mechanism.

What Mr. Sumanthiran truly fears is that an international, independent finding of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide would impose a moral obligation on the international community to hold a plebiscite among the Tamil people.

Mr. Wigneswaran was one of the first political leaders with the courage to raise the genocide charge in the North-East after 2009. He called for a plebiscite of the Tamil people to determine their political aspirations.  Mr. Wigneswaran and his allies are committed to seeing all perpetrators brought to justice.

The first step is for the international community—through officially constituted UN bodies—to take witness statements and collect evidence of crimes committed. This process will prepare the groundwork for the Tamil people’s demand of accountability and their aspirations for the future.