Sri Lanka: UN experts say army
chief appointment is “affront to victims” of rights abuses
GENEVA (27 August 2019) - A group
of UN experts expressed serious concern at the appointment of Lieutenant
General Shavendra Silva as Sri Lanka’s army chief, and urged the Government to
advance long overdue reforms of the security sector and investigate past
abuses.
On 18 August 2019, President Maithripala
Sirisena appointed Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva as Commander of the Sri
Lanka Army, raising concerns of numerous actors, including the HighCommissioner for Human Rights, due to his alleged involvement in serious human
rights violations during the 25-year long civil war.
“The appointment of Lieutenant
General Silva to the highest ranks in Sri Lankan’s Army, while facing
allegations of this nature, is an affront to the victims and a harrowing sign
of the perpetuation of impunity in the country, which risks undermining the
trust of Sri Lankan society on state institutions and fuelling further
destabilization,” said the experts.
Lieutenant General Silva was the
Commanding Officer of the 58th Division of the SLA during the last stages of
the conflict that ended in May 2009. UN reports have implicated him and his
troops in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 2012, Lieutenant
General Silva was removed from the UN Special Advisory Group on Peace Keeping
Operations due to the allegations. “The allegations against Lieutenant General
Silva and his division have not been properly investigated to date,” the UN
experts said.
The experts recalled that the
Government of Sri Lanka had voluntarily committed to provide accountability for
all serious human rights violations and abuses committed during the war, as
reflected in Human Rights Council resolution 30/1. “We express serious concern
at the lack of progress in investigating and prosecuting these crimes, and in
reforming the country’s security sector despite the serious allegations against
some of its members. We urge the authorities to urgently move forward in these
areas,” the experts said.
The lack of tangible progress on
emblematic causes and the serious limitations of the justice system in
addressing human rights violations was raised with the Government by the
Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations and
guarantees of non-recurrence, at the end of a country visit in October 2017.
“If Sri Lanka is unwilling and unable to investigate these and other
allegations the international community must explore other ways to achieve
accountability including universal jurisdiction principles”, said the experts
referring to the process which enables war crimes to be prosecuted in a court
of any country regardless of where the crimes were committed.
“It defies understanding that a
person suspected of leading in the commission of serious violations of human
rights and international human rights law will be put at the head of an
institution which stands to be investigated for these violations and reformed
to avoid their recurrence,” said the UN experts.
“We recall that the comprehensive
adoption of transitional justice measures such as accountability and guarantees
of non-recurrence, including security sector reform, are essential in any
endeavour to strengthen and consolidate the rule of law and avoid a relapse
into violence. The recent measures and the lack of commitment to a genuine
transitional justice process preposterously aim to the contrary.”
ENDS
(*) The UN experts: Mr. Fabián
Salvioli, Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation andguarantees of non-repetition; Mr. Bernard Duhaime (Chair), Mr. Tae-Ung Baik
(Vice Chair), Ms Houria Es-Slami, Mr. Luciano Hazan and Mr. Henrikas Mickevičius
(members) of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; Ms
Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions; and Mr. Nils Melzer, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of
what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special
Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights
system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and
monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or
thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures experts work on a
voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their
work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in
their individual capacity.
UN Human Rights, Country Page – SriLanka
For more information and media
requests, please contact: Ms Brenda Vukovic (+41 22 917 9635 /
bvukovic@ohchr.org).
For media inquiries related to
other UN independent experts, please contact:
Mr. Jeremy Laurence, UN Human
Rights – Media Unit (+41 22 917 9383 / jlaurence@ohchr.org)
Follow news related to the UN’s
independent human rights experts on Twitter@UN_SPExperts .
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