‘We must not lose hope’: Activists, victims seek war crimes charges against ex-Sri Lankan president
When Sandya Eknaligoda obtained the information that former Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had fled the nation in shame aboard a army jet within the wee hours of a Wednesday in July, she could not fairly imagine it.
A month and a half later, the human rights activist nonetheless cannot fathom that the second she had dreamed of and prayed for “had lastly turn out to be a actuality.”
It felt like vindication but in addition a possibility: Rajapaksa was now not protected by the immunity that comes with the workplace of presidency, and could possibly be prosecuted for alleged struggle crimes dedicated whereas he was defence secretary and head of the armed forces overseeing the tip of Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil struggle.
Months of widespread protests over Sri Lanka’s financial disaster spurred Rajapaksa’s abrupt resignation in July. However Eknaligoda has spent years cursing the president, whom she holds answerable for the enforced disappearance of her husband greater than 12 years in the past.
Prageeth Eknaligoda, a journalist and cartoonist, vanished on Jan. 24, 2010, by the hands of a army intelligence unit, in accordance with Sri Lanka’s Felony Investigations Division (CID), and was by no means seen once more, leaving his spouse and two teenage sons with out their main breadwinner.
His spouse has been preventing ever since to prosecute these accountable.
Through the civil struggle that resulted in 2009, whereas Rajapaksa’s older brother Mahinda was president and Gotabaya was defence secretary, the youthful Rajapaksa was accused of persecuting critics and overseeing what had been referred to as “white van squads” that carted away journalists, activists and civilians suspected of hyperlinks to the rebels, referred to as the Tamil Tigers. Some had been tortured and launched, whereas hundreds of others, like Prageeth Eknaligoda, merely disappeared.
“My foremost battle has been to make sure Prageeth’s reminiscence would not disappear, like he did, till there may be justice for him,” stated Eknaligoda, 59, in her house in Kottawa, a suburb southeast of the capital, Colombo, earlier this month.
“It is not going to be simple,” she stated, referring to the authorized battle to carry Gotabaya Rajapaksa to account for alleged complicity in torture and killings. “However we nonetheless have an opportunity to maneuver ahead. We must always not let it go.”
A ‘well-documented file’ of proof
That is the consensus amongst legal professionals and human rights teams, which have labored doggedly to construct a “very well-documented file” of proof in opposition to Rajapaksa relationship again to 1989, in accordance with Yasmin Sooka, human rights lawyer and govt director of the South Africa-based Worldwide Reality and Justice Challenge (ITJP).
The group alleges the last word duty and chain of command for crimes dedicated by authorities forces throughout the civil struggle was in Rajapaksa’s fingers, an accusation he denies.
“So long as he would not have immunity, it does open up the gates and it does give hope to lots of the victims,” Sooka stated.
On July 24, the ITJP filed a prison criticism with the legal professional normal in Singapore, the place Rajapaksa first fled, asking that he be arrested below that nation’s Geneva Conventions Act. Their hope was that the ousted president could possibly be held accountable below common jurisdiction — the concept that any nation’s courts can strive individuals for alleged crimes in opposition to humanity dedicated elsewhere.
It has been used, though hardly ever, to prosecute struggle criminals who’ve escaped the nations the place atrocities had been documented. However Sooka stated her group is keenly conscious that, for political causes, many governments are “not likely inclined” to pursue common jurisdiction instances.
Nonetheless, she is optimistic there is perhaps some authorized motion on this occasion, regardless that Rajapaksa has absconded to Thailand, the place the legislation doesn’t enable the common jurisdiction argument for struggle crimes.
WATCH | Sri Lankan president flees nation amid social unrest:
Main civil unrest continues in Sri Lanka after its president fled the nation. Protesters are demanding he resign over an financial disaster. Amid the turmoil, the interim president introduced in an in a single day curfew and gave the army broad powers to convey stability.
As a substitute, the ITJP is leaning on a number of nations which have extradition agreements with Thailand — comparable to america, the UK and France — within the hopes a kind of governments is perhaps keen to request that Rajapaksa be extradited and face costs of their nation.
In 2011, a United Nations panel discovered there have been “credible allegations” of atrocities dedicated by each the Sri Lankan authorities forces and the Tamil Tigers, a few of which amounted to struggle crimes or crimes in opposition to humanity.
The UN and different organizations documented torture, abstract executions and sexual violence, in addition to hundreds of enforced disappearances.
In search of accountability
Earlier this 12 months, one other damning report from the UN’s Excessive Commissioner on Human Rights referred to as out the Sri Lankan authorities for “its unwillingness to acknowledge severe worldwide crimes and pursue accountability.” The report went on to induce nations world wide to think about common jurisdiction and focused sanctions in opposition to alleged perpetrators.
“We must always not lose hope” for accountability “in some unspecified time in the future,” Sooka stated, emphasizing what she sees as her group’s multi-pronged judicial technique, which consists of additional authorized motion and a push to have nations slap sanctions on Rajapaksa’s belongings.
“It is also necessary that Gotabaya [Rajapaksa] has to hop from place to position…. it is the insecurity of by no means understanding the place he’ll be secure.”
The hope that Rajapaksa may face costs someplace is “not as far-fetched or far off as some individuals assume,” in accordance with Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, govt director of the Colombo-based think-tank Centre for Coverage Options. “But it surely’s actually not one thing that is going to occur in a rush.”
Different lawsuits in opposition to Rajapaksa are within the works, together with a refiling of a 2019 civil case within the U.S. — below that nation’s Torture Victims Safety Act — that the ITJP submitted on behalf of a handful of Sri Lankan torture victims.
That swimsuit — for which Rajapaksa was served courtroom papers in April 2019, within the parking zone of a Dealer Joe’s grocery retailer in California — proved that he was “not invincible,” in accordance with Sooka.
WATCH | Sri Lankans battle as nation gripped by financial disaster:
CBC’s Salimah Shivji offers an inside take a look at how the political and financial unrest in Sri Lanka is hurting on a regular basis individuals.
“No person had believed that this man, who had been referred to as ‘The Terminator,’ would ever let himself be served with papers,” she stated. “We had been in a position to do this.”
And but, a bit greater than half a 12 months later, Rajapaksa was elected president of Sri Lanka and granted immunity from prosecution.
In search of justice outdoors Sri Lanka
Additional complicating the renewed push to carry Rajapaksa to account are rumours he’s making ready a return to Sri Lanka, the place consultants imagine it is unlikely he would face consequence for alleged struggle crimes. The United Nations has repeatedly condemned Sri Lanka’s inner accountability mechanisms.
As nicely, Rajapaksa’s political allies are nonetheless in energy in Sri Lanka, the place a crippling financial disaster has largely been blamed on the previous president’s fiscal mismanagement.
“Now we have to look past Sri Lanka for justice,” stated Sandya Eknaligoda, glancing on the pale images of her husband in her lounge, arrange as a everlasting shrine to the person she final noticed 12½ years in the past.
Whereas she longs for a extra concerted worldwide effort to prosecute the previous president, she was muted when requested if she believed Rajapaksa would face costs inside her nation, the place she has fought for years to have her husband’s abduction uncovered and defined.
“We should hold one factor in thoughts: Politicians in Sri Lanka will all the time shield one another,” Eknaligoda stated. “What occurs right here remains to be very a lot what the Rajapaksas need.”
