By Shamindra Ferdinando

Interim Secretariat for Truth and Reconciliation (ISTRM) Director General Dr. Asanga Gunawansa, PC, declared there was absolutely no basis for concerns that the proposed Commission for Truth, Unity and Reconciliation (CTUR) targeted the war-winning military.

Dr. Gunawansa said so responding to The Island query regarding Sarvajana Balaya raising this grave concern, both in and out of Parliament.

The PC asserted that Sarvajana Balaya or other political parties and organisations may have reached that conclusion for want of understanding of the Bill. Had the Bill been perused carefully, they would have realized their concerns were baseless, the ISTRM Chief said. “Perhaps, they misinterpreted the Bill due to lack of understanding of the issues at hand.”

The government presented the relevant Bill to the Parliament on Tuesday (03). National Freedom Front (NFF) lawmaker Wimal Weerawansa emphasized that the Bill shouldn’t have been presented in view of the impending Presidential Election and the matter should have been addressed after the Presidential Election.

Dr. Gunawansa emphasized that the Bill was not meant to harm the military.

In section 16 of the proposed Bill, it is specifically provided as follows:

“16. (1) The Commission’s recommendations shall not be deemed to be a determination of civil or criminal liability of any person.”

Even though Section 16(2) of the Bill provides as follows,

“16 (2) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in the Code of Criminal Procedure Act, No. 15 of 1979 or any other law, it shall be lawful for the Attorney-General to institute criminal proceedings in a designated court of law in respect of any offence based on material collected in the course of an investigation or inquiry or both, as the case may be, by the Commission established under this Act”,

Pointing out that the Attorney General has the power to investigate and prosecute suspects for crimes,” Dr. Gunawansa explained if evidence emerged regarding perpetration of a crime during investigations and inquiries undertaken by the proposed Commission, then prosecutions would take place based on further investigation into such matters and provided that the Attorney General is satisfied that there were sufficient grounds to issue an indictment.

“Even if an indictment is issued, the starting point for any criminal prosecution in Sri Lanka is the presumption of innocence. Therefore, no one could be punished for a criminal offence unless proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt.”

Dr. Gunawansa said that ISTRM conducted a spate of stakeholder meetings during December 2023 to August 2024 period. Representatives of police and the armed forces, as well as the Defence Ministry, who appeared before ISTRM, expressed the view that a credible domestic reconciliation mechanism could help them clear their names. Dr. Gunawansa quoted them as having said that in the absence of such a credible mechanism they and in some instances their children found it difficult to obtain visas to travel overseas.

Responding to another query, Dr. Gunawansa stressed that the Bill had been explained to all political parties, including senior members of the Sarvajana Balaya. According to him none of the political parties had submitted their views and observations as regards the draft Bill though they were invited to do so.

The government established ISTRM in September 2023 to lay the ground work for establishing the proposed CTUR.

Dr. Gunawansa pointed out that the ISTRM is a temporary entity. Since its establishment, it has done the following key functions:

(a) There was a draft prepared back in 2016 to establish a Truth Commission following the extensive consultations held by the Consultation Task Force. The ISTRM compared this draft with the laws enacted in other jurisdictions to establish truth commissions and based on a comparative study, introduced several amendments. This amended version was thereafter gazetted on 1st January 2024, in all three languages, as a concept paper, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the objective of facilitation further consultations with stakeholders.

(b) The ISTRM held over 150 meetings with stakeholders during the period December 2023 to August 2024. These meetings were held in the Western province and all other eight provinces, covering 17 districts. The stakeholders included political leaders, religious leaders, victims, families of victims, civil society organizations, the military and the police, and former soldiers. Based on the findings and input received during the stakeholder meetings, several amendments were introduced to the aforesaid concept paper. Thereafter, the revised draft was Gazetted by H.E. the President on 05th August 2024.

(c) In addition to the above, currently the ISTRM is in the process of completing a study based on 12 jurisdictions which will provide way forward examples for the CTUR, should be established in Sri Lanka.