Lankan sojourn “frustrating”- IIGEP

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) told the media yesterday that their sojourn in Sri Lanka has been “frustrating and disappointing.”

IIGEP Chairman Justice P.N. Bhagwati said that they accepted the role of an independent observer at the request of Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI) with “high hopes.”

“We accepted this job because we believed that we could have a positive impact on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. We came with high hopes that we would be able to create something that would become a model to other countries. But in the short time we spent in the country it became obvious that the government had no political will to get to the bottom of the human rights violations in Sri Lanka,” Justice Bhagwati said.

He added that the reason to leave was because they felt that they did not want to “repeat” themselves by making the same statements and recommendations over and over again. Sir Nigel Rodley added that in the last year the government had either ignored or dragged their feet on implementing the recommendations of the IIGEP.

“We have made several points that should be rectified so that the CoI would be up to international standard. But the government was very slow to make the changes. For example, it took the CoI a long time to come to the public hearing phase and because of that the government had to extend the mandate of the CoI. So, we have been making the same recommendations in the past year and really there is nothing new for us to say,” he said.

He added that the President invited them to make sure that the CoI adhered to international standards and make necessary recommendations. But he added that the government has been increasingly disrespectful of their recommendations and been making absurd claims about their motives.

“The government accused us of having a ‘sinister plot’ to tarnish the image of the government and to bring ‘alien’ observers to monitor the situation in Sri Lanka. This is completely false,” he said. “The government claimed that we had no right to conduct public hearings, but we certainly did have and we made these statements only after discussing with the CoI and the AG’s office. All these statements contain their comments,” he said.

Justice Bhagwati said that among their continuous demands were to eliminate the role of the AG, implementation of a victim and witness protection programme, quicken the slow pace of the Commission’s hearings and the full co-operation by state organs.

“If you look at what we have been recommending you could see that we have been repeating the above mentioned factors. If these criteria are met the CoI will be able to do a very good job,” he said. He added that even with these constraints the CoI was doing a good job, but he added that the presence of the AG’s office staff at the CoI hearings would be a negative factor.

In the past few months the AG and the IIGEP had been involved in a heated verbal sparring. The AG had continually hinted that the IIGEP was involved in a conspiracy against the government. The IIGEP Chairman lashed at Attorney General C.R. de Silva for making allegations based on personal inferences. He made this statement addressing media submitting their concluding public statement.

“The AG has no place in the COI. We have been asking the government not to include officials from the AG’s Department,” he said. He added that the presence of a senior state official in the CoI would affect its independence.

Justice Bhagwati further said that since the CoI was investigating the offences made by the armed forces, the presence of the AG, who was the highest ranking legal officer in the country and his staff, would cast doubts about the independence and unbiased nature of the Commission.

“The AG’s office is an organ of the government; the Army is an organ of the government. Therefore, there will be a conflict of interest. It is because of that we maintained the AG’s office should not play any role in the CoI. They will have a role when its time to prosecute the culprits, but that will be after when the CoI has made their recommendations,” Professor Yozo Yokota, a member of IIGEP said.

IIGEP rarely attended CoI meetings – Govt.

The Sri Lankan Government countered the claims of the IIGEP yesterday at a press conference chaired by Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and AG C.R. de Silva. They claimed that the IIGEP members did not attend the CoI sessions properly and therefore were not in a position to make statements at regular intervals.

“When we look at last year’s CoI sessions, the attendance of the IIGEP members was on average 10%. Some members have not attended a single session and on most cases, only one person attended a session. But these people issue public statements at regular intervals,” Samarasinghe charged. “How can they issue such statements without attending the sessions,” he queried.

The Minister added that the IIGEP members were notified that the AG would be involved in the proceedings. But the IIGEP members started to make absurd demands including delegating their power to ‘assistants’ and to remove the AG from the process.

“We accepted when they wanted to have assistants and we gave Visas to dozens of individuals. They claimed that they needed people who knew how to operate their ‘sophisticated’ equipment. We agreed because the government wanted to continue the IIGEP mechanism. But when they said they will not attend the CoI sessions and will delegate their powers to assistants, we put our step down,” he said. “We don’t want assistants. If we did, why did we invite these ‘experts,’” he said.

Meanwhile, AG de Silva claimed that the IIGEP was conspiring to tarnish the reputation of the country. He added that the IIGEP was not working for the betterment of Sri Lanka, but to an international agenda.

“They made regular statements at strategic moments, especially when the UN Human Rights Council meets. When we look at these factors any sensible man would understand that there is a conspiracy afoot,” AG said.