Sri Lanka’s Peace Endangered by Judicial System,
Group Says

By Paul Tighe

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka’s return to peace after a 26-year war with the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is threatened by a judicial system that has raised ethnic tensions, the International Crisis Group said.

“Rather than assuaging the conflict, the courts have corroded the rule of law,” the group said in a report. “An overhaul of counterproductive emergency laws is essential if the military defeat of the LTTE is to lead to a lasting peace that has the support of all ethnic communities.”

Changes in the judicial system should include an independent mechanism for choosing judges, the Brussels-based ICG said. Magistrates should use their powers to monitor the conditions of an estimated 10,000 LTTE fighters or suspected members held since the end of the conflict, it said.

Sri Lanka’s army defeated the LTTE in May, ending its fight for a separate homeland for Tamils in the north and east of the island nation. President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in an address last month marking the victory, said the end to LTTE terrorism will allow the Tamil community to live “without fear and mistrust.”

Judges and magistrates have failed to “provide remedies” for illegal or abusive detention under emergency laws and the criminal code, said the Crisis Group, which aims to prevent and resolve conflicts. The appointment of a new attorney general last month is an opportunity to depoliticize the system.

“The judiciary has not acted as a check on presidential and legislative power, but instead has contributed to the political alienation of Tamils,” Robert Templer, the group’s Asia program director, said in an e-mailed statement.

The emergency laws should be changed as they are used disproportionately against Tamils, the ICG said.

Reconciliation

Rajapaksa yesterday created an all-party committee to discuss development and reconciliation in the country now the war has ended, according to the government’s Web site. Tamils make up almost 12 percent of Sri Lanka’s population of 20 million, while Sinhalese account for 74 percent, according to a 2001 census.

Sri Lanka’s army stepped up its offensive on the LTTE’s bases in the north when the government formally banned the group in January. It scrapped a 2002 cease-fire with the group a year earlier. The Tamil Tigers said that accord recognized the de facto existence of a Tamil homeland with its own civil administration, defense force and judiciary.

A political settlement in Sri Lanka won’t include “space for racism and separatism,” Rajapaksa said at last month’s victory parade.

Travel Alerts

The end to terrorism has allowed the country to lift travel alerts, Rajapaksa said last week in an address to promote a new program to attract tourists to the South Asian island.

The U.S. on June 26 issued a new travel advisory saying its nationals should evaluate the risks of traveling to Sri Lanka.

“Despite the Sri Lankan government’s announcement of a military defeat of the LTTE, remnants of the insurgency group still remain, and thus there is a lingering potential for continued instability,” the State Department said.

The LTTE is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and India.

The U.S. statement is part of a strategy to undermine the country, Sri Lanka’s government said on its Web site two days ago. The alert “demonstrates the sheer lack of understanding of the ground situation” and the fact that the LTTE has been comprehensively defeated, Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net.

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