Ghosts of war haunt Sri Lanka in peacetime

By Anthony David May 17, 2011, 4:35 GMT

Colombo - Sri Lanka's government put down a 26-year separatist rebellion two years ago but finds itself struggling in peacetime to address issues lingering from the war.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa's administration is grappling to respond to UN allegations of war crimes and facing pressure to offer a political solution to the Tamil ethnic minority as well as local campaigns to investigate disappearances during the conflict.

Back in the areas of northern Sri Lanka that were once held by Tamil rebels, civilians who fled during the fighting are gradually returning to their homes, mines are being cleared and freedom of movement has increased.

But the United Nations said last month that an investigation it conducted supported 'credible' allegations that the Sri Lankan government had engaged in a wide range of serious violations of international law, including war crimes, in the final days of the war against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Its investigative panel found a number of credible sources that estimated there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths in the final stages of the conflict, prompting Rajapaksa's government to carry out a fresh campaign to defend itself and deny the war crimes charges.

'We will go on to clear our names by keeping the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon informed about what transpired,' Rajapaksa said last week.

Rajapaksa disagreed with the UN report and rejected any claims that civilians were deliberately killed in the final stages of the conflict, which ended May 19, 2009, after Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was killed by the army.

'We had a policy of zero casualties,' Rajapaksa said. 'We never killed civilians deliberately.'

Rajapaksa has been blamed by the main Tamil party in Parliament for being slow to address minority issues and devolve powers to Tamil-dominated northern Sri Lanka.

An all-party conference held to find a solution to ethnic issues ended without a result, and instead, a fresh round of talks were initiated with Tamil parties.

Last week, the government proposed to establish a second chamber, or senate, in the unicameral Parliament made up mostly of elected members to local councils in the country, but the former proxies of the LTTE known as the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which has been negotiating with the government, were skeptical of the proposal.

The TNA wants more speedy solutions on issues involving land, language and administrative powers. It is pressing for more devolution, including police powers, to the provinces, but the government has rejected transferring police powers to local authorities.

'We are not satisfied with the progress,' said Suresh Premachandran, a TNA parliamentarian.

Meanwhile, about 5,000 suspected former Tamil rebels are undergoing rehabilitation while an unknown number is still in detention.

'The government has promised to disclose the number of persons in detention, and we are still awaiting the list,' Premachandran said.

A Marxist party is spearheading a campaign calling for the government to disclose the details of the suspected Tamil rebel detainees and investigate disappearances.

'We are trying to help the people trace information on those who disappeared and those in detention,' said Udul Premaratne, a campaigner helping the affected families.

'We have complaints about more than 450 people who have disappeared,' said Premaratne, a student activist in the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna party. 'We are holding a series of campaigns to bring pressure on the government to trace their whereabouts and disclose information on those in custody.'

Rajapaksa, riding on the popularity of the LTTE's defeat, was re-elected as president for a second term in January last year, and a few months later, his party secured a nearly two-thirds majority in polls for the 225-seat Parliament.

His party also convincingly won local elections this year.

With the Sinhala majority accounting for an estimated 75 per cent of Sri Lanka's 20 million population, Rajapaksa was unlikely to face domestic pressure to speed up a solution to the minority issues or respond to the UN allegations.

But moderates said they believe that addressing the Tamil issues would boost the reconciliation process of a country divided on ethnic lines.

Failing to do so would cause international concerns to remain about war crimes and Tamil rights.

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