Help Sri Lanka face the truth

Sri Lanka is facing the onerous task of not only ferreting out the truth behind the war against the LTTE but also ensuring all sections of its society are reconciled with it, however unpalatable the truth despite the passage of six years during which there has also been a major shift in the political firmament. Barbaric acts by both sides — Sri Lanka in bombing its own citizens and hospitals and the LTTE in indiscriminate killing of leaders, including Tamils and an Indian PM — cannot be wished away. What the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has brought out is precisely this barbarity.

While the revelations are not new, the import of the document lies in its pointing the way forward on facing the demons of the past. Its suggestion of a “hybrid” probe must not to be dismissed offhand simply because it runs contrary to the existing laws of Sri Lanka. It should be possible to set up a fair and independent tribunal with bipartisan as well as non-partisan judges from countries not so far from the emerald isle. There is no need for anyone to hector Sri Lanka over who should be on the probe panel or on how the truth commission is to be handled.

The political chemistry changed completely on the island after two poll events in 2015 led to the unique formation of a national government and a historic first in the Tamil alliance (TNIA), which rules in Jaffna, becoming the official Opposition in Parliament. Although Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena himself may not be completely out of the shadow of a war crimes probe since he was acting defence minister in 2009 under Mahinda Rajapaksa, he has not rejected the UN report outright.

Lionised by sections of Indian Tamils in Tamil Nadu, the LTTE has been shown to be a terrorist organisation. However, the Tamil sentiment has a place in the larger scheme because primarily the Sri Lankan Tamil victims must have faith in the probe. Towards this, Sri Lanka can make a positive contribution by recalling its Army to barracks in the north and returning the land to the Tamils. In the promised new era of reconciliation, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe spoke in New Delhi of going beyond the 13th Amendment.

It is time India came up with fresh ideas to help Sri Lanka. By its very distance from Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka, New Delhi is aware that the Tamil question is not the sum total of bilateral ties. Sensitivity to the Tamil sentiment is an important guideline, but not everything. Healing an ethnically fractured country is more important.