Complicity of Sri Lankan state security forces exposed in exhaustive mass graves report

From Mannar to Matale the story is similar. Mass graves are found, but perpetrators are never found and a culture of impunity continues, while those who lost their loved ones are suffering in pain for generations.

Every skeleton found in such mass graves clearly points out the complicity of the state security agencies be it during the JVP uprising or the armed struggle in the north and east.

Who can forget Chemmani mass graves-its find and ever-enduring investigation with no action to bring out the truth to date.

And, now in Allapiddy a complex has been cordoned off after remains of a body were found during construction.

An exhaustive island-wide investigation by five human rights investigative organisations have exposed the failure of the Sri Lankan government in finding the truth behind the mass graves. This detailed investigation meticulously reveals the government’s systematic interference with investigations — a country the UN rated second in the world for unsolved enforced disappearance cases.

The report pinpoints the continued political interference of the state to protect the interest of the security agencies-who in most cases are the perpetrators-which has led to the absence of accountability and the culture of impunity.

“Accountability remains the fundamental gap in attempts to deal with the past. And, as long as impunity prevails, Sri Lanka will achieve neither genuine reconciliation nor sustainable peace” Nada Youssef A Al Nashif Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights observed in her oral presentation on the Human Rights situation in Sri Lanka on Wednesday(21)

At least 20 mass grave sites have been identified in Sri Lanka and all excavations have been failures, the investigative report has found.

“After three decades and twenty attempted exhumations, only a handful of bodies have ever been identified and returned to families. We all know tens of thousands of bodies lie in shallow graves all over the island, so we can’t describe this dismal rate of progress as bad luck — it’s a clear lack of political will,” said Brito Fernando of Families of the Disappeared.

A chilling documentary “In Plain Sight — Searching for Truth Behind Sri Lanka’s Mass Graves” screened in Colombo on Thursday (22) revealed the connection between disappearances and mass graves in Sri Lanka by focusing on different narratives, including those of affected families and loved ones.

The alleged role of Gotabaya Rajapaksha has been brought to light once again in the report.

The discovery of a Mass Grave in Matale where 155 bodies were exhumed in 2013 implicated ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as a suspect already identified by a Presidential Commission of Inquiry. He was the district military coordinator in 1989 in Matale where hundreds of disappearances happened in 1989. In spite of a group of UN experts writing to the Government of Sri Lanka this year about the status of investigations into him and other alleged perpetrators, there was no reply.

This joint report arose after families of those who disappeared in Matale in the late eighties asked for help on how to move their mass grave case forward.

“If those involved in the JVP era mass atrocities including Gotabaya Rajapaksa had been promptly held accountable, then the mass atrocities in the civil war and further impunity might have been avoided. Accountability is not an optional exercise — it’s essential for building a future for all Sri Lankans,” said Yasmin Sooka, executive director of the International Truth and Justice Project in South Africa.

The guarantee of non-recurrence remains elusive, she further added.

Irrespective of the places where Mass Graves are found, investigations have been stymied. “There is total lack of political will with regard to mass graves investigations and enforced disappearance in Sri Lanka,” said K.S. Ratnavale, executive director of the Centre for Human Rights and Development who has represented families in mass grave cases.

If the Sri Lankan Government is serious about dealing with the past, it must commit to having international observers at all exhumations of mass graves, the authors and the institutions of the report have stressed.

“We are good at burying in this country but not at unearthing the truth,” said Bashana Abeywardane of Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka who co-authored the report.

Documenting the crimes, collecting the evidence, and preserving it was among the huge challenges the investigative faced, the authors of the report said.

The report also draws parallels from Yugoslavia, Guatemala, Argentina, and Rwanda where successful exhumations took place and bodies were returned to the families. “The fact it hasn’t happened here is not because Sri Lanka isn’t capable but the system simply does not allow it, a co-author of the report Ingrid Massage points out.

It also highlights the inadequate legal, policy and operational frameworks in Sri Lanka. Key bodies, such as the All-Island Commission of Inquiry into the Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of Persons as far back as 2000 and the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances have made detailed recommendations for their reform. Though a new inquest law and standard operating procedures have been drafted, they have not been made public, nor have the families been consulted.

If the Sri Lankan Government is serious about dealing with the past, it must commit to having international observers at all exhumations of mass graves, said five civil society groups which resonate with the comments of the Deputy High Commissioner of the UN Human Rights Council.