Combating impunity in Sri Lanka

On 24 December 2005, Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, aged 71, a member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka belonging to the Tamil National Alliance and a prominent human rights activist, attended the midnight Christmas Eve mass in St. Mary's Cathedral in Batticaloa. After receiving communion, he was shot dead by unidentified gunmen inside the Cathedral, in the presence of some 300 people.

His wife was also struck by two bullets and taken to hospital in critical condition. Although the Cathedral is located in a high security zone and additional security personnel were on duty at the time, the investigation into the murder has so far produced no result. At the time, the IPU condemned Mr. Pararajasingham's murder and expressed deep concern at the lack of any progress in the investigation.

Mr. Pararajasingham's murder comes after the August 2005 murder of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kardigamar. In common with Mr. Kardigamar's killing, it is a product of the ethnic conflict and political violence that have ravaged Sri Lanka for the past 24 years. Unfortunately, hopes that the ceasefire agreement of 2002 between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) heralded a lasting settlement of the conflict have proved vain, since the peace negotiations were called off in April 2006. Since then, the country has seen a new surge in violence, with an alarming increase in the number of disappearances and abductions. The prevailing impunity merely exacerbates this state of affairs.

In 2006, President Rajapakse decided to address this problem by setting up a new and unique mechanism: a national commission which will inquire into certain particularly grave human rights abuses and whose work will be monitored by an international body - the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) - to ensure that the process is transparent and meets internationally accepted human rights standards. Early this year the preparatory work was completed and the National Commission of Inquiry (NCI) and the IIGEP have been constituted. In selecting the members of the IIGEP, President Rajapakse sought the help of a number of States, the United Nations and the IPU. Three of the crimes into which the NCI will have to inquire concern the murders of members of parliament: Mr. Kardigamar, Mr. Pararajasingham and Mr. Nadarajah Raviraj, who was shot in Colombo in November 2006. The IIGEP member who was invited to join the Group at the proposal of the IPU is Mr. Marzuki Darusman, a member of the House of Representatives of Indonesia, former Attorney General and former President of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission.

The IIGEP, composed of 12 members and chaired by the former Chief Justice of India, Justice Bhagwati, met for the first time in Colombo from 12 to 14 February. Apart from discussing matters regarding its own functioning, the IIGEP established initial contacts with the members of the NCI to determine how both bodies could best work together in discharging their respective mandates.

Both the NCI and the IIGEP face great and manifold challenges. To mention but one, the NCI will have to develop an effective witness protection system, as yet non-existent in Sri Lanka. Only then will potential witnesses come forward with testimony. But there is a strong will to make a success of this process – the only one of its kind - and see it through. This would no doubt help pave the way for a resumption of negotiations, the only path to lasting reconciliation and peace in Sri Lanka.