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Wednesday, Sep 12, 2007
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“Rights probe in Sri Lanka slow”

Staff Reporter

Commission must expedite it: Bhagwati

Attorney General’s department should desist from involving in enquiry
IIGEP will continue to express its views fearlessly

MADURAI: The Sri Lankan Presidential Commission of Enquiry probing serious human rights violations in the island nation has made “woefully slow” progress in the last 10 months since its inception on November 3, said P.N. Bhagwati, Chairman, International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) which oversees the functioning of the Commission.

In an interview to The Hindu here on Saturday, Mr. Justice Bhagwati expressed concern that the Commission had not completed the enquiry even in one of the 15 stipulated incidents that occurred since August 1, 2005. The incidents inc lude the assassination of the former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar and the Muttur killings in which 17 Sri Lankan workers of a French NGO, Action Against Hunger (ACF), were shot dead.

“If they (Commission) go on at this rate, I don’t think it can be completed in another 12 months. But, we have been impressing on them that they must spend more time on the actual enquiry and try to finish it as early as possible, because our (IIGEP) own life is very limited and if it doesn’t happen within the lifetime of the IIGEP, there is no possibility of the enquiry being completed,” he said.

Insisting that the Sri Lankan Attorney General’s department should desist from involving in the Commission of Enquiry, he said the IIGEP members raised the issue with the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on August 20 after its third quarterly plenary session in Colombo.

“We impressed on him that the Attorney General’s department should not be drawn in this enquiry because this is only an investigation followed by an enquiry by a Commission of Enquiry. This is not a prosecution… That is what we impressed upon the President but I am afraid it has not had much effect… He did not agree with that.”

Legislation on the anvil

Mr. Justice Bhagwati said the Sri Lankan President told the IIGEP members that a national legislation on protection of witnesses was on the anvil. “He said he will see to it that the Bill was passed within a month or so.”

Asked whether he was disturbed by the hard-hitting rebuttal made by the Attorney General to the two public statements released by IIGEP, in June this year, highlighting the shortcomings of the Commission of Enquiry, Mr. Justice Bhagwati said: “It did not disturb me personally. But it did, I mean we felt that it was most improper on the part of the Attorney General to make such allegations against IIGEP and particularly against its Chairman who is a retired Chief Justice of India and a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee.”

He said the IIGEP would continue to express its views fearlessly. “We don’t care. We have got to do our duty and our function of monitoring the working of the Commission of Enquiry and that we are doing fearlessly and boldly irrespective of what the Government of Sri Lanka thinks.”

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