Sri Lanka justice mechanisms keep failing, says HRW
In a Letter to the Editor of The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), James Ross-Legal & Policy Director of Human Rights Watch has reinstated the call for the deployment of an international human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka under the auspices of the United Nations.
“National justice mechanisms, including a presidential commission of inquiry, have failed utterly”, James Ross said while voicing concern for the plight of civilians amidst mounting abuses.
Full Text of Letter:
Bring Human-Rights Monitors Back to Sri Lanka
January 23, 2008
Your editorial on the continuing tragedy of Sri Lanka’s civil war (”Rajapakse’s Big Bet,” Jan. 11) depicts a situation that is likely to get worse before it gets better. Both the Tamil Tigers and government security forces are committing serious abuses, but national justice mechanisms, including a presidential commission of inquiry, have failed utterly. The cessation of the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement and the resulting departure of the Nordic truce monitors means that civilians facing the greatest risk of abuses will have few options when their lives are threatened. Now is the time for the Sri Lankan government to agree to the deployment of an international human-rights monitoring mission under United Nations auspices, an idea that has the support of the United States and the European Union, among others. While a U.N. mission cannot end Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, by establishing a presence on the ground and monitoring abuses by both sides, it can provide a significant measure of security to Sri Lanka’s embattled civilians.
James Ross
Legal & Policy Director
Human Rights Watch
New York, New York
