Clarifying statistics on Rehabilitation
One
of the few people who actually reads this column seriously drew my
attention to what seemed inaccuracies when I last wrote about the
detained. One point was my mentioning being asked to monitor
implementation of the Interim Recommendations of the LLRC. He had
thought the Committee looking into the LLRC Recommendations was composed
only of bureaucrats, and thought I must have been referring to my task
of convening the Task Force on the Human Rights Action Plan.
He was certainly right in pointing out that I had no role with regard
to the LLRC Recommendations. I suppose this seems peculiar, given my
position as Adviser on Reconciliation, but I do see that bureaucrats
like Mrs Wijeyatilaka and Mrs de Silva and Mr Dissanayake might seem
more objective in their approach. My own worry is that such a monitoring
committee should have a clear structure with transparent reporting
requirements, and that I believe has yet to be set in place. For my own
part I am finding it difficult to provide publicly accessible reports on
the Human Rights Action Plan, which I believe is a necessity.
Sadly the website that should be devoted to this has still not been
started. This is a pity, because the sterling work that has been put in
by many government agencies needs to be put on public record, while
doing this systematically will also help us to see where there are
shortcomings.
Effective supervision
Meanwhile the two young ladies who help me (reduced from three,
because the one I worked most closely with initially has been translated
to higher things) need constant guidance. Even the basic mechanism of
fitting what has been reported to us as having been done, directly under
the requirement as to action, had to be explained, and may take time to
implement - through no fault of theirs I hasten to add, more a matter of
scarcity of resources and of time for effective supervision.
I was too hasty however in agreeing with my interlocutor that he was
correct in doubting what I had written about my monitoring role. That
had in fact been with regard to the Interim Recommendations,
implementation of which, belatedly, I was asked to monitor.
Those had been excellent, and as yet another of the Commissioners
noted at the Kotelawala Defence University Symposium on Reconciliation
and Sustainable Development, had they been implemented expeditiously,
many problems would already have been solved. My monitoring role, it
should be noted, was a complete failure, though not I think through any
fault of my own, or for want of trying.
In actual fact some of the recommendations had indeed been
implemented, but unfortunately the Inter-Ministerial Committee tasked
with the job never met, and therefore action was piecemeal. The public,
indeed the stakeholders in Reconciliation, did not know what had been
achieved, and there was no way of focusing attention on areas that
required heightened activity.
I was myself in despair, even though I was assured that things were
happening, and it was only after several reminders that the then
Attorney General gave me a comprehensive breakdown of what had happened
in the area with which he had concerned himself in particular.
The figures were read off a sheet of paper, but they were quite
heartening. I had known already of the excellent work being done by the
Commissioner General of Rehabilitation, but it was good to have it
certified as it were that there were only about 3,000 left with the CGR
of the 10790 who had surrendered in 2009 as former combatants.
Reintegration process
I got those figures about a year ago, and last week I was given the
current position. Of the 10,790, 9,832 had only undergone
rehabilitation, while 958 had been detained for further investigation,
Of those 586 had gone back into rehabilitation, while 79 had been
released or bailed out.
So of the original figure, only 293 are still under detention.
Inclusive both of those who had only been in rehabilitation, and those
who had been sent for rehabilitation after detention, there are now only
628 being rehabilitated currently.
Or, rather, there are also 34 more, who were sent for rehabilitation
from amongst those who had been in detention before the conflict ended,
but that is another story, and I will have to look later at precise
statistics regarding those earlier detainees.
Insofar as rehabilitation was accepted as a means of dealing with
some of them, 1,257 of them had been placed in the charge of the
Rehabilitation Bureau. Thus, with 34 only still in rehabilitation, we
see that 1,223 of them have gone home, contributing to the figure of
10,973 who are reported as having been reintegrated.
This last however may be the wrong word, since unfortunately
government forgot to specify responsibility for the reintegration
process. While the Bureau of the Commissioner General for Rehabilitation
does what it can, it has no formal responsibility for this. Nor has
anyone else, though I should note that the Rehabilitation Authority is
now responsible for the innovative loan scheme that government began.
It would make sense then for government to give formal responsibility
for Reintegration to the Rehabilitation Authority, and make the BCGR its
operating arm since the Authority does not have the resources to do the
job effectively.
What is required in this regard was specified in the Policy Document
on Rehabilitation and Reintegration prepared by the Ministry of Disaster
Management and Human Rights in 2009, but unfortunately that fell by the
wayside since in theory another ministry was responsible for the
process, and turf wars prevented formal adoption of the policy, though
the CGR carried out whatever in it came within his purview. But he could
do more, including accessing funds from sources such as the UN Peace
Building Fund which is intended for such purposes but, to do this,
specific allocation of responsibility is desirable. |