International Crisis Group

A mechanism to monitor Sri Lanka`s human rights is needed | Times of India

By Sameer Arshad

Interview with Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka Project Director

According to the ICG, how is Sri Lanka`s consolidation of power impacting the process of post-war reconciliation?

There is no process of reconciliation or accountability — the government has made no attempt to remedy the long-standing poli-tical marginalisation of Tamils. It has made it clear it has no intention to devolve meaningful power to Tamil and Muslim areas in the north and east. It has refused to acknowledge the terrible suffering of Tamils and the loss of civilian lives in the last stages of the war, focussing only on the sacrifices of government troops.

Also, it has refused to conduct any independent investigations into alleged war crimes by government and LTTE forces or other violations of human rights suffered by members of all of Sri Lanka`s communities. The further concentration of power in the Rajapaksa family and the executive, achieved through the impeachment of the chief justice, will make reconciliation and accountability even harder.

What does such a situation mean for minority rights?

The rights of Tamils and Muslims are under grave threat. Tamils have long suffered from a denial of their collective right to self-rule within a united Sri Lanka as well as from a regular denial of many of their indivi-dual civil and political rights. These problems have continued and, in some ways, grown worse since the end of the war.

Unfortunately, Muslims, generally treated better by the government, have now come under sustained attack by extremist Sinhala Buddhist groups. Unless the government takes decisive action, there is a real danger of communal violence against Muslims.

FULL ARTICLE (Times of India)

Photo: Iouri Goussev/Flickr

Why India needs to vote for U.N. resolution on Sri Lanka | The Hindu

By Alan Keenan 

Until New Delhi actively participates in multilateral efforts to ensure Sri Lanka’s compliance on the accountability issue, its strongest messages to the Rajapaksa government will go unheeded

With a vote due soon on a U.S.-sponsored resolution at the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC), the Indian government has a chance to strongly encourage sustainable peace and political reform in Sri Lanka. Policy-makers in Delhi are clearly disturbed by the Sri Lankan government’s backsliding on promises of devolution of power to Tamil-speaking areas, its politically motivated impeachment of the Chief Justice there and its refusal to comply with last year’s HRC resolution on “Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka.” To maximise its ability to influence Sri Lanka towards a lasting resolution of its ethnic conflicts and a restoration of its democratic institutions, India should take the lead in developing a forceful, international strategy, first at the HRC, then through other multilateral bodies, to be able to hold Colombo to its promises.

FULL ARTICLE (The Hindu)

Photo: Flickr/trokilinochchi

from Crisis Group’s Annual Report 2013

Letter from the President, Louise Arbour

In the course of what proved to be a turbulent year, Crisis Group was instrumental in delivering timely analysis and sound recommendations to leaders the world over. The year ahead promises further uncertainty. Taking just two examples, the Syrian conflict looks set to escalate further, and the repercussions of developments in Mali are far from clear but promise to be significant. Meeting these challenges will require renewed efforts and a profound understanding of the dynamics and drivers of conflict in diverse regions of the world.

As the civil war in Syria intensified in 2012 and consecutive peace efforts failed, our analysts continued to report in an extremely complex environment on the devastating military and humanitarian situation. Crisis Group’s reports on the radicalisation of the conflict and extremist currents among the opposition afforded essential insight. In Central and West Africa, the proliferation of armed extremists and rebel groups reflects the relative ease with which radical forces can exploit the political and institutional weakness of countries in transition. Likewise, several states in North Africa face numerous hurdles in their transition to democracy, with enduring political and economic turmoil in Egypt and continued security threats confronting Libya.

Throughout these conflicts and others, Crisis Group has equipped policymakers with informed judgments and practical advice crucial to the de-escalation and prevention of violence. Our analysis of events over the past year has often proved prescient, while our targeted advocacy efforts have produced real results, including the lifting of sanctions against Myanmar and the passage of a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution criticising the Sri Lankan government’s failure to support reconciliation and account adequately for the deaths of perhaps 40,000 civilians at the end of its civil war. In addition, Crisis Group continues to ensure it pays attention to emerging or forgotten crises: last year we reported for the first time on the troubled North Caucasus region of Russia, as well as rising tensions in the South China Sea and the rise of piracy and organised crime in the Gulf of Guinea.

In the coming year, Crisis Group will further its efforts to address security issues in countries currently facing armed conflict, as well as in those emerging from it and those where instability threatens to erupt into open violence. We will also promote dialogue on a range of ­security-related issues, including the rule of law, the effectiveness of sanctions and the rights of national minorities, to ensure that these concerns continue to be adequately addressed in security circles.

Of course, at the root of any successful organisation lies the talent and dedication of its staff. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues for their hard work and congratulate them on the real-life impact they have made in promoting peace and stability throughout the world.

Brussels, 1 February 2013

Louise Arbour, President and CEO

Group says Sri Lanka is becoming an autocracy, urges international action | Canada.com

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - An international think-tank says Sri Lanka is becoming an autocracy where the rule of law and post-war reconciliation are under threat, calling for global action.

Brussels-based International Crisis Group said in a report Wednesday the “politically motivated” impeachment of Sri Lanka’s chief justice last month dismantled the last institutional check on the president and military. The group also said the lack of power sharing and safeguarding of minority rights in the island nation could feed ethnic tensions.

FULL ARTICLE (AP via Canada.com)

Photo: James Gordon/Flickr

Sri Lanka’s Authoritarian Turn

Colombo/Brussels  |   20 Feb 2013

As the UN Human Rights Council prepares to open its 22nd session next week, the Sri Lankan government has made no meaningful progress on either reconciliation or accountability and instead has accelerated the country’s authoritarian turn, with attacks on the judiciary and political dissent that threaten long-term stability and peace.

Sri Lanka’s Authoritarian Turn: The Need for International Action, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the government’s recent consolidation of power and sets out critical steps for an effective and coordinated international response.

“The Rajapaksa government’s politically motivated impeachment of the chief justice last month reveals both its intolerance of dissent and power sharing and the weakness of the political opposition”, says Alan Keenan, Crisis Group’s Sri Lanka Project Director. “By incapacitating the last institutional check on executive power, the government has crossed a threshold into new and dangerous terrain. It is threatening prospects for the eventual peaceful transfer of power through free and fair elections”.

Analysts and government critics have warned of Sri Lanka’s growing authoritarianism since the final years of the civil war, but the impeachment has considerably worsened the situation. The removal of the chief justice completes the “constitutional coup” initiated in September 2010 by the eighteenth amendment, which revoked presidential term limits and the independence of government oversight bodies.

Sri Lanka is faced with two worsening and interconnected governance crises. The dismantling of the independent judiciary and other democratic checks on the executive and military will inevitably feed the growing ethnic tension resulting from the absence of power sharing and the denial of minority rights. Both crises have deepened with the government’s refusal to comply with the UN Human Rights Council (HRC)’s March 2012 resolution on reconciliation and accountability. While it claims to have implemented many of the recommendations of its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) – a key demand of the HRC – there has in fact been no meaningful progress.

The government has conducted no credible investigations into allegations of war crimes, disappearances or other serious human rights violations and has rejected the LLRC’s recommendations to establish a range of independent institutions for oversight and investigations.

The international community has a number of tools at its disposal to encourage Colombo to account for the deaths of up to 40,000 civilians in the final months of the war; to halt the current trajectory towards authoritarianism; and to build a country for all, not just some, Sri Lankans.  Chief among these are the levers of the UN, including the HRC, Sri Lanka’s reliance on development assistance and the prestige of hosting the forthcoming heads of government meeting of the Commonwealth.

“Strong international action should begin with Sri Lanka’s immediate referral to the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) and a new resolution from the HRC calling for concrete, time-bound actions to restore the rule of law, investigate alleged war crimes and rights abuses, and devolve power to Tamil and Muslim areas of the north and east”, says Paul Quinn-Judge, Crisis Group’s Asia Program Director. “Sri Lankans of all ethnicities, who have struggled to preserve their democracy, deserve stronger international support”.

FULL REPORT