Sri Lanka to start up special court on alleged war crimes
Sri Lanka will set up a special court in the next few weeks to examine alleged war crimes committed in the final phase of its 26-year conflict with Tamil rebels, a top official in charge of reconciliation said on Tuesday.
After being elected in August, the island nation’s new government signalled it would accept United Nations recommendations to establish a credible judicial process involving foreign judges and prosecutors.
“The special court should start its work by the end of this month or by early January,” said Chandrika Kumaratunga, who led Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005 and now heads the reconciliation unit of President Maithripala Sirisena’s government.
She told reporters the mechanism would be a domestic one but might get technical assistance from international experts.
“No reconciliation is possible without accepting the mistakes of the past. They will not be chasing behind every soldier, but the main line of command will be looked at,” she said.
The Sri Lankan military, under former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, was accused of committing grave human rights abuses during the war, which ended in 2009, and in its immediate aftermath. But Rajapaksa rejected international pressure for a U.N. war crimes probe.
Sirisena unseated Rajapaksa in a bitterly contested election in January. In the August parliamentary poll, Rajapaksa lost a bid to become prime minister, and is now an opposition lawmaker.
(Reuters)
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So, it is the line of command which is going to be probed by the Special Courts.
At the time the 30 year war was concluded, we had a Defence Minister, a Secretary to Ministry Defence and a Commander of the forces.
The Defence Minister formulates the policy; that policy said the 30 year terrible war has to come to an end. Anyone challenge that policy? OMG no way, we were hiding under the bed in the south while Velu was making hay while the sun was shining for 30 long years.
The policy was handed over to the top Defence official, the Defence Secretary for implementation.
And, at the end of the war, Sri Lanka was blessed with a super efficient, super committed Defence Secretary who implemented the Cabinet approved policy on dealing with the 30 yr old war against terrorism.
Now, can anyone find fault with this process?
Special court on alleged war crimes? Who are the judges? Are they foreigners?
You shut up..! and just let the lord westerns and other Ltte supporters decide the justice in srilanka. That’s why they installed a govt here. Wait do you know? This’s the most urgent and importent task in srilanka now…
Kudraj!
Who named you Kudraj? KudUraj would have been more appropriate. Your writing style resembles that of another phoney Ganjapani Gorakapola who I understand from my Ausie Srilankan friends lives in a leafy prosperous suburb of Sydney driving around in a flashy BMW wearing designer cloths not to mention T shirts with his company logo! Apparently as pass time he keeps news starved onlanka readers entertained with his witty intelligent scribes. The octanarian AUJ and patriotic Nicholas Dias simply love him. My guess is you Kudraj and Ganja are nothing but one and the same! Own up Kudu.
Amada you are spot on. We Sri Lankans who voted this government to power deserve this.
Yeah Amre… Why not, these fools deserve the worst for their ultimate stupidity….