Commission of Inquiry members’ conduct inimical to national security, sovereignty

Attorneys for Forces, STF write to President Mahinda Rajapaksa:

Attorneys-at-Law S.L. Gunasekara and Gomin Dayasri, who look after the interests of the STF and the Security Forces at the proceedings of the Government-appointed Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights have informed President Mahinda Rajapaksa that the Commissioners have engaged in acts inimical to Lanka’s interests and have disqualified themselves from serving any further.

“We submit with due responsibility that the Commissioners have abused or misused the powers conferred on them under the Act and the Warrant appointing them and have, thereby, disqualified themselves from functioning any further as members of the Commission and request you to look into this matter and take appropriate action,” they wrote.

National duty

The letter: “We address this letter to you as concerned citizens in the exercise of our national duty to bring to your notice what we perceive to be acts of gross misconduct committed in excess of their mandate/jurisdiction by the members of the Commission of Inquiry appointed by you to inquire into certain gross violations of human rights, and to request you to look into these matters and take appropriate action.

We have decided to take this step after much thought and deliberation because we most sincerely believe that such conduct of the members of the Commission adversely affect national security and hence the sovereignty of our Country as well as the good name of our Country. We, who appear before the Commission as Counsel for the Army and the Special Task Force and we alone take responsibility for this letter.

On Tuesday May 8, the Commission adjourned the hearing of the inquiry into the murders of 17 employees of ACF at Muttur early, for a `closed door meeting’ with three foreign diplomats, namely, the Ambassador for the United States of America, the High Commissioner for Canada and the Head of the European Union Mission in Sri Lanka.

Adjourned early

A most significant feature about that early adjournment which more than gives us cause for concern, is the secrecy with which the meeting was held.

We say “secrecy” because not only was no reason of whatever nature given by the Commission when announcing the fact that that day’s sitting would be adjourned early, but also because both Counsel appearing at the inquiry and all others present were shooed away by members of the staff of the Commission with what may be termed “indecent haste” immediately upon adjournment while the Commissioners themselves continued to occupy the podium. This, in our experience is unprecedented.

A fact that necessarily gives us even more cause for concern is the undeniable fact that these diplomats have repeatedly been publicly critical of the `human rights record’ of Sri Lanka and indeed called for foreign intervention in that regard, and have also been publicly critical of the military operations that are being conducted to regain that part of our territory over which the LTTE has usurped control,

To counter criticism levelled against the Commission in a letter published in ‘The Island’ newspaper, the Commission issued a public statement stating, inter alia:- “From time to time, the Commission meets delegates and members of the Diplomatic Corp on various matters of interest relating to the Commission”.

This, to our mind is a shocking revelation. The Commission is a quasi judicial body appointed by you to investigate certain despicable crimes committed in Sri Lanka - i.e. internal matters which are none of the business of any foreign diplomat. This is something that no Judge of any Court from the Supreme Court at the apex to the Primary Court on the lowest rung of the hierarchy of our Courts would ever dream of doing.

Secret meetings

While it need hardly be said that it would be manifestly wrong for the Commission to discuss its work at public or secret meetings with any Citizens of Sri Lanka or organisations of our Citizens, there is no gainsaying the fact that having such discussions with foreign diplomats is utterly unthinkable and totally incompatible with their duties and functions and hence constitutes a gross abuse of their positions and the trust reposed in them by you.

This secret meeting with foreign diplomats comes in the wake of the departure of another Group of Foreigners called the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons who, in a flurry of convoluted ‘Public Statements’ brazenly accused the Government of a “lack of political will” and called upon the it to act in accordance with the principle of “Command Responsibility”, thereby making evident the fact that they had, even prior to the conclusion of a single inquiry, arbitrarily decided that our Forces [on whom and on whom alone we depend to protect our Country from the terrorists] have been guilty of the horrendous crimes which constitute the subject matter of the inquiries pending before the Commission, and that our Service Commanders must be incarcerated or otherwise punished therefore.

Were this not so, the questions of an alleged “lack of political will” or the doctrine of “Command Responsibility” could not arise.

Judging from the public statements made by the diplomats in question, we have little doubt that they are of the same mould of `thought’ as the IIGEP.

This makes that secret meeting even more sinister and brings into focus the question whether sensitive material relating to our Armed Forces could safely be placed before the Commission.

We have also been reliably informed by an impeccable source that this secret meeting was initiated, not by the diplomats but by the Commissioners themselves.

No allegation

While we make no allegation of any endeavour by the Commissioners or any of them to acquire some personal benefit from dealings with diplomats, we cannot be blind to the fact that Heads of Mission of powerful countries have the ability to hand out patronage in various forms including appointments to various foreign and international bodies.

Since Justice must not only be done but manifestly be seen to be done, and a Commissioner appointed to a Commission as important as this must necessarily be at all times, and appear to be, as pure as Caesar’s wife, this secret meeting with the three diplomats was, in our considered view, wholly inexcusable and deprives the Commission of credibility.

We have also been reliably informed that there is foreign funded NGO which has been consistently hostile to the security forces which is seeking to exert influence on the Commission.

We will shortly forward to you a report about the indisputable evidence that Dr Nesiah a staff member of the Centre for Policy Alternatives functions as a member of the Commission while that very Centre for Policy Alternatives is represented by Counsel and participating as an interested party in the public inquiries into the murders of 17 employees of ACF at Muttur and of 5 youth in Trincomalee.

Though the undersigned Gomin Dayasri has, in writing and orally, requested certified copies of the relevant proceedings so as to furnish them to you, and hence enable you to gain a comprehensive view of the situation, the Commission has, to date, failed to provide those proceedings to us.

In their statement to ‘The Island’, the Commission further stated-

“The discussion with the said diplomats was confined to some logistical matters relating to recording of evidence by video conferencing which the Commission had commenced early this year”

This assertion, to say the least, is a classic example of a lack of transparency.

What, for example, were these “logistical matters” ? If the discussion was innocuous as the Commission seeks to make it out to have been, what was the need for secrecy ? These are but some of the questions to which this statement give rise.

Last known

This statement is in respect of the last known encounter with the diplomats which has received press coverage. According to information received by us from an impeccable source, the prime issue at this discussion with the diplomats was “FINANCING.”

What right does the Commission have to negotiate `foreign aid’ for the work of the Commission? Would not such conduct place the Commission under obligation to the foreigners and adversely affect their independence, particularly when they have conducted such negotiations with diplomats who have shown hostility to our Country in general and our Armed Forces in particular?

Four corners

The Commission can and must act only within the four corners of the warrant which is their mandate and the Act, which together constitute the sole source of their authority. Neither the Warrant, nor the Act permits the Commission to seek any aid of whatever nature from any foreign country.

In terms of the warrant, the Commission can turn to and only to the Government for financial or other logistical support. Further, according to our information, the search for foreign aid by the Commission commenced with a discussion a member of the Commission had with the Canadian High Commissioner at a social function, and the video conferencing aspect is related to witnesses who have been granted asylum/citizenship status by interested foreign countries with close links to forces hostile to Sri Lanka.

These witnesses will therefore be free to utter any falsehood they wish with impunity in that they would, by reason of having been granted such asylum/citizenship, be immune from prosecution for perjury in Sri Lanka.

The farcical nature of the last video conference set up by the IIGEP, wherein foreigners who were mere Assistants to the IIGEP controlled the proceedings without protest or censure by the Commission was described by counsel for the STF in our previous press statement on the IIGEP.

We are informed by credible sources, that those associated with the IIGEP, now abroad, are manoeuvring this video conference in their private capacities in order to produce dubious evidence with the assistance of certain foreign countries at the behest of certain members of the Commission.

One member

Newspapers have already published a photograph of one member of the IIGEP having a discussion with a member of the NGO [a staff member whereof is a member of the Commission] with an open file in front of them , in, of all places, the car park of the BMICH !!

We believe that by acting in the manner aforesaid, the Commissioners have acted in excess of and/or misused their powers in a manner that is totally inimical to both the independence with which they must not only act but manifestly be seen to act, as well as the National Interest.”