Political diversion or dispensation of justice?

Reports in the state-controlled press said yesterday that President Kumaratunga will appoint a commission to probe ‘multi-million rupee financing of the LTTE by UNP leaders’. The fact that President Premadasa while holding talks with the LTTE in 1990 helped the LTTE by giving them arms to fight the Indian Peace Keeping Force was known even at that time. It was undoubtedly a very grave mistake and had he let the Indian troops finish off the LTTE, this country would have been rid of terrorism many years ago. Now allegations are being made that money too had been given.

Such a probe may be justified but whether it would be in the national interest is the question. It would further polarise and UNP and the government and result in increased antagonism whereas the situation today demands consensus between the main political parties to finish off the terrorists. Perhaps, the stinging defeats suffered recently at Kilinochchi may be the reason for this call by government MPs. It is perhaps a political diversion from the embarrassment caused at Kilinochchi. Claims made by the government of the ‘victory’ at Mankulam do not appear to be convincing. Nonetheless, it could be argued that justice demands that those who have committed acts amounting to treason should not go unpunished. But justice also demands that perpetrators of other dastardly political crimes too be punished.

There have been many mass political murders committed in Sri Lanka during the past three decades. It has been estimated that around 25,000 youth were killed in the 1970 JVP insurrection by the armed forces. The United Front government of the day made no effort to investigate these killings, despite calls made by organisations like Amnesty International and the Civic Rights Movement. The argument that too long a time had elapsed would not hold water in the context of World War 11 crimes being still investigated. There are many leading lights in the government today who were on the other side of the barricades in 1970. They could provide ample information for justice to be done.

There are the mass killings of the Second JVP insurrection that took place in the 1988- ’89 period. The government is investigating only the alleged crimes committed by the armed forces. Mass graves have been dug up and some of the accused army officers are now before courts. But what of the atrocious crimes committed by the JVP? People who refused to obey orders of the terrorists were beheaded and their heads nailed to nameboards at the places they worked. Life support systems in intensive care units were pulled out ending the lives of critically ill patients. Politicians including Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga fled abroad with her children. In a newspaper interview she accused the JVP of killing her husband Vijaya. When the families of armed forces too were threatened by the JVP that they turned with utmost ferocity on the terrorist movement and crushed it. While many of the JVPers had perished, should there be no investigation conducted and the remaining criminals brought to book. Some leaders of the JVP have surfaced in western capitals and are carrying out propaganda openly. Should not the government ask Western governments not to harbour terrorists like in the case of the LTTE?

Most important of all, the government should investigate about those policemen who were ordered to surrender to the LTTE when President Premadasa’s peace talks with them collapsed. Who assured the policemen that their lives would be spared? Mr. A.C.S. Hameed who was chief negotiator for Mr. Premadasa and now on good terms with the PA government, should know much about it. Should there be no justice done to those policemen who were carrying out their duties and obeying orders? Demands are being made, quite rightly, that the allegation of a mass grave at Chemmanai be probed. But what of the mass graves of these policemen? Should not the world know the crimes committed on them by the LTTE? Gen. Cyril Ranatunga, then Secretary of Defence admitted in mid July 1990 that 564 security personnel were killed after the LTTE attacked police stations and army camps while talks were going on. Orders had been issued to the forces not to retaliate, in the hope that the talks could be salvaged. If the call made to probe UNPers who had allegedly funded the LTTE is made in the name of justice, then let justice visit those JVPers who committed terrible atrocities and also let justice be done to the policemen who virtually marched into their graves obeying orders of the UNP government.

This sudden awakening after four years about UNPers funding the LTTE appears to be more a political diversion from the Kilinochchi disaster than a call for justice to be done.