Twenty four US Congressmen have written US Secretary of State John F. Kerry telling him to make it clear to the Sri Lankan Government that additional US funding, trade and military-to-military incentives would depend on substantial and sustained implementation of the specifics in the joint US-SL resolution before the UNHRC. The letter from the Congressmen to Kerry adds that continued assistance in these areas would hinge on credible advances in the spheres of transitional justice, ending impunity with military and security sector reform, rule of law and addressing concerns of the Tamil people set forth in Resolution 30/1. The tough letter from the powerful Congressmen comes on the heels of Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein’s oral report on Sri Lanka in Geneva today (June 29). They also brought to Kerry’s notice that there is increasing evidence that senior officials in the Sri Lanka Attorney General’s Department and in the Military have blocked important criminal investigations adding that the government must take steps to dismiss or discipline such obstructionists and remove policy-making roles officials undermining efforts to support justice and accountability. The letter stated that there have been only ‘halting efforts’ in developing the four transitional justice mechanisms pledged by the SL Government to the UNHRC, namely a Truth Commission, Reparations and Missing Persons Office and an Independent Special Court for war crimes, with international participation.
