‘Post-conflict recovery at a steady pace’

Text of address by Minister of Plantation Industries and Special Envoy of the President on Human Rights on ‘Reconciliation’, Mahinda Samarasinghe M.P. at the ‘Defence Seminar - 2012’ - ‘Towards Lasting Peace and Stability’ on August 10, 2012, Colombo

I congratulate the Sri Lanka Army for this - the second consecutive occasion on which they have organized a gathering of this nature - to share experiences in defeating terrorism and dealing with its aftermath. I believe this sort of dialogue would evolve into a best practice over time. I welcome the over 120 delegates from 60 countries that have joined us on this occasion to share expertise in an area of critical importance to national and international peace and security.

Although I was unable to join you last year when I was invited to deliver the banquet address due to my representing the country overseas, I welcome this opportunity to engage with you on a subject of signal importance to us all.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe

It gives me great pleasure to share with you some thoughts on the theme of reconciliation. This is a subject which of critical importance for Sri Lanka at the present juncture. It is one of the five limbs that form the thematic basis for discussion at this gathering.

In this context, the last nine months have seen significant events that are critical to the success of the post armed conflict recovery and peace-building initiatives that we are engaged in. In December 2011, two documents were made public: firstly, the National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (NHRAP), which was in the making from 2008, was endorsed by the Cabinet for implementation. Also in December, the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission was tabled in Parliament on the 16th.

The government's position on the report was made known to the people through the Supreme Legislature of Sri Lanka. These two documents form important components of the national reconciliation effort. Human Rights is an important ancillary to rebuilding peace in a country that has been beset by the forces of terrorism for nearly three decades.

UN Human Rights Council

In January the National Trilingual Policy was adopted. Language has proved a sometimes intractable issue in ensuring unity and cohesion. This is a challenge that all multi-cultural states face. The ability of disparate linguistic backgrounds to communicate with each other freely - either in their own language or through a common link language - is a sine qua non for guaranteeing mutual trust among communities.

Since 1987 although we have accorded equal official status to Sinhala and Tamil and have recognized English as a link language, our success in implementing the provisions of the law have been somewhat limited. An overarching policy that will bring people together through guaranteeing their language rights has been a lack which has now been addressed.

In March 2012 Sri Lanka was faced with a unnecessary and unjustified challenge in the UN Human Rights Council. A resolution was tabled which, in effect, asked us to do what we were already in the process of doing. As has been our custom since the inception, we had regularly briefed the Council and had discussions with regional and cross regional groupings represented at that body periodically on the Sri Lankan situation.

We had hosted special side events at which our progress was presented and discussed. We had been open and transparent about our successes and also about the challenges we faced. Hence the resolution was in our opinion, ill-timed, unwarranted and violative of the founding principles of the Human Rights Council. We categorically rejected the resolution on a matter of principle.

We pointed out the negative outcomes of the adoption of the resolution, but notwithstanding our rejection, reiterated our commitment to achieve lasting peace, stability and prosperity for our people. Effective reconciliation is a cornerstone of that policy.

Rehabilitation of ex-combatants

During the interim, significant advances have already been made with regard to many of the recommendations in the Report commencing with its interim recommendations in September 2010. Action was initiated even before a formalized plan to implement them had been devised. We will continue to address these issues in a systematic manner. Some of the areas in which progress have been made include the rapid and sustainable resettlement of IDPs; demining; rehabilitation of ex-combatants; implementation of the language policy; the recruitment of Tamil speaking police officers; the removal of the military from assisting in civil administration in the North, making available land previously used for security purposes for resettlement/return; and carrying out a comprehensive census in the Northern Province. A national census has also just been completed and we are in the process of doing ground verification of the information collected which data is being further analysed.

Peace and stability

This is further evidence of the commitment of the government of Sri Lanka towards accounting for the population in the conflict affected areas during the humanitarian operation. It is our belief that, through this process, the highly exaggerated claim of "tens of thousands of civilian casualties" can be proved to be wholly without any foundation.

The Cabinet of Ministers in May 2012 decided that a Task Force headed by the Secretary to the President would monitor the implementation of the recommendations of the LLRC. The LLRC recommendations were duly considered and a matrix in the form of an Action Plan was devised by the most senior public officials serving the government. This plan was submitted to Cabinet in July by the President and the National Executive endorsed this plan with a time bound framework for implementation.

For the purposes of this occasion, I do not propose to detail all the measures that find a place in the Action Plan's matrix. It is a publicly available document and anyone interested in further detail is welcome to study it at leisure. What is, however, important to note is that the LLRC's sittings and the preparation of the NHRAP coincided and significant synergies were established between the parallel processes. By the time the NHRAP content was initially approved by Cabinet in September 2011 and its implementation approved in December, several of the important issues had been discussed and measures agreed upon. Hence it is not feasible to view these processes in isolation but rather it is best to view them as different contributions to a collective national effort at post conflict recovery, peace and stability.

It is important to realize that all this happened against the backdrop of the speedy implementation of the other four limbs - Reconstruction, Resettlement, Rehabilitation, Reintegration by the government aided by its partners. Our efforts which I have already alluded to are truly remarkable.

Demining and resettlement followed by restoration of economic and administrative infrastructure has been achieved on par with the best efforts elsewhere. Rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants through a speedy and effective process was also key to success. By providing them - especially the 594 child combatants - education, training and choices for new livelihoods, they are made active partners in the development processes progressing apace in their communities.

Our gains in these areas have been adequately dealt with by the Secretary and other speakers and I do not want to go over the statistics - despite them being a source of justifiable pride for us. What is important to underline in the context of reconciliation is that reconciliation cannot take place in a vacuum.

The people of the North and also to some degree the people in the East were deprived of the benefits of national development for 30 years due to the presence of the LTTE in those areas. It is less than useful to talk of reconciliation if the areas continue to lack physical infrastructure and are underserved by the government. Of course, throughout the conflict, government funded health, education and schools even in areas unlawfully occupied by the LTTE. The government also maintained administrative institutions at its expense.

Reconciliation efforts

What was deemed necessary after the conflict was over, was the speedy restoration of the conflict affected areas to a situation of normality - better than any experienced previously by the people of those areas. Our aim is to achieve balanced development across the board that will mean that no urban or rural area will have greater facilities than others - this will lead to less resentment. This ideal of balanced regional development is important for us in the South as well as for those of us from the North and East.

We must recall that Sri Lanka in the past 40 years or so has faced two youth insurrections in the South as well as terrorism in the North and East. So, all in all our commitment to economic development initiatives, roads, bridges, railways, ports and harbours, airports, livelihood opportunities and initiatives such as development zones in Sampur and Atchuveli will all sustain peace, harmony and prosperity.

I also wish to point out that there appears to be a basic disconnect in thinking as to what is at the core of our reconciliation efforts.

At the heart are the core conceptions of restorative and retributive justice which appear to colour our perceptions and those of our interlocutors. In the Warrant establishing the LLRC, the President noted that: "an opportune moment has arrived to reflect on the conflict phase and the sufferings that the country has gone through as a whole during this period." He also noted "that a need has arisen to learn from this recent history, lessons that would ensure that there will be no recurrence of any internecine conflict in the future and that people are assured of an era of peace, harmony and prosperity."

This was the golden thread than ran through the deliberations of the LLRC.

Recovery and non-repetition are at the core of this approach. Restitution, compensation and healing are ancillary principles that apply.

It is a uniquely Sri Lankan approach to a uniquely Sri Lankan situation.

To be continued