Sri Lankan Tamil leaders reject wartime truth Commission

While there has been some positive feedback to the Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera's recent speech at the UNHRC from Sri Lanka's minority Tamils, several leading politicians rejected the government plans for a truth commission to promote reconciliation after decades of ethnic war.

Instead, some Sri Lankan Tamil leaders continue to insist on the International Investigation. The Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera unveiled a range of reconciliation measures yesterday at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, two days before the release of a long-awaited report on Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes. "The foreign minister tells us to have confidence and trust in them. But ... He himself acknowledges that their track record is not good," said Suresh Premachandran, leader of the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front, a constituent party in the TNA. "That is why we say: have an internationally independent inquiry." Tamil legislator Dharmalingam Siddharthan also rejected the commission in favor of an international inquiry, adding that the ethnic minority was also seeking a greater share of political power. The Tamils have demanded greater autonomy in areas of the war-ravaged north and east of the country, where they are concentrated. The war ended in 2009, when troops crushed the Tamil rebels fighting for a separate homeland on the Sinhalese-majority Island. You can't just pay compensation and forget about it. We need a credible political solution," said Sitharthan, leader of the Democratic People's Liberation Front. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Tuesday the plans aimed to resolve reconciliation issues so that "all Sri Lankans are treated equally" and "together we look at the future". Ranil Wickremesinghe briefed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the developments during an official visit to New Delhi.A former Norwegian peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Eric Solheim, also welcomed the plans, saying on Twitter that they would be a "sea change for Sri Lanka" if implemented. President Maithripala Sirisena came to power in January promising reconciliation and accountability for alleged atrocities committed by troops under the command of the then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mahinda Rajapaksa resisted Western pressure to investigate allegations that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by his troops in the final months of the conflict. The Human Rights Council will be releasing the report on Sri Lanka's alleged war crimes during the war this afternoon. This report had initially been scheduled to be published in the month of March itself, but UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein had recommended it be delayed for six months to give the country's new government a chance to cooperate with investigators.