At the ongoing 51
st session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, India expressed
concern over the non-implementation of the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, which is aimed at a ‘political solution’ to the ethnic issue. However, there is a larger canvas for the Indian suggestion, as the Tamil polity on the ground is not talking anymore about 13-A. Instead, they have switched on to another hobby horse, demanding the abolition of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and stressing ‘accountability issues’, both pet themes of the US-led West.
“India notes with concern the lack of measurable progress by Government of Sri Lanka on their commitments of a political solution to the ethnic issue—through full implementation of the 13
th Amendment…delegation of powers to Provincial Councils and holding of Provincial Council elections at the earliest,” the Indian delegation said whilst intervening in what has become the ritualistic Sri Lanka debate at the UNHRC.
The Indian representative also spoke on how New Delhi has been of the “consistent view” that a “political settlement…has to be within the framework of a united Sri Lanka, ensuring justice, peace, equality, and dignity for the Tamils of Sri Lanka.” Cautiously, New Delhi also reiterated how it has always “believed in the responsibility of States for promotion and protection of human rights and constructive international dialogue and cooperation guided by the principles of the UN Charter” whereas the West has only been going hammer and tongs at it, without offering a permanent political solution.
Moral responsibility
In January, seven Tamil parties had written to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking Indian assistance in obtaining the full implementation of 13-A, which New Delhi had helped to put in place through the
Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987. In private, many Sri Lankan Tamil leaders and commentators have pointed to India’s ‘moral responsibility… as the co-author’ to ensure full implementation.
Seven Tamil parties had written to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking Indian assistance in obtaining the full implementation of 13-A, which New Delhi had helped to put in place through the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of 1987.
The focus in Sri Lanka has shifted, ever since it has been embroiled in internal strife in the form of the
mass struggle), which alone caused the forced exit of an entire government and its replacement with another. Tamil leaders have since argued about how the government leadership change had not changed their situation, especially in terms of power devolution.
With the result, or so it seems, much of the Tamil polity in the north and the east have taken to demanding the abolition of the dreaded PTA, which has become a popular issue for the political Opposition even in the ‘Sinhala South’. The three-party Tamil National Alliance (TNA), has launched a signature campaign against the PTA, commencing from the Tamil North to the southern-most Kadargama, which has religious significance for both the Tamils and the Sinhalas.
Accountability issues
The hype, if any, about the signature campaign may dry up as they move beyond the cosmopolitan capital Colombo—its strong civil society movement had pioneered the Aragalaya protest. In the Sinhala South, it may be counter-productive as people still associate the TNA and the PTA with the dreaded LTTE. This is so, notwithstanding their own support for and participation in the Aragalaya protests.
Meeting with visiting USAID administrator, Samantha Power, the Tamil leaders, along with counterparts from the Sinhala Opposition
pressed on ‘accountability issues’ pertaining to alleged ‘war crimes’ involving the Sri Lankan armed forces as far back as 2009. “Good discussion along with other Opposition party leaders. I brought to her attention that accountability must be pursued at UNHRC and elsewhere,” TNA’s international spokesperson and parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran tweeted after the Colombo meeting.
Power, before concluding her brief visit, tweeted how “leaders and representatives of Opposition parties…shared their views on how the government must enact long overdue reforms to protect human rights and govern with transparency and accountability.” She also met President Ranil Wickremesinghe, when she “affirmed the US’ commitment to helping Sri Lanka weather the current complex emergency”, according to a USAID press release.
China factor
Samantha Power also said that
China must cooperate with Sri Lanka in debt restructuring—a condition for the International Monetary Fund to step in with the promised US$2.9-billion aid package. She also reiterated that political reform and economic recovery should go hand-in-hand.
It is here again that India’s mildly-worded statement at UNHRC has a meaningful application on the ground. In an obvious reference to China without naming it, India told the UNHRC, how the “current crisis in Sri Lanka has demonstrated the limitations of the
debt-driven economy and the impact it has on the standard of living.” New Delhi noted that “it is in Sri Lanka’s best interests to build the capacity of its citizens and work towards their empowerment.”
On the face of it, apart from the forgotten Tamils’ appeal to Prime Minister Modi, the Indian concerns also seem to flow from the Chinese adversary’s constant forays into Sri Lanka’s Tamil areas in recent months. After undertaking a much-publicised visit to
Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority North in December last year, Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong
went to the multi-ethnic East, days ahead of the commencement of the UNHRC session.
Apart from the forgotten Tamils’ appeal to Prime Minister Modi, the Indian concerns also seem to flow from the Chinese adversary’s constant forays into Sri Lanka’s Tamil areas in recent months.
so to say. This was because, India had provided humanitarian assistance, comprising food, fuel, and medicines to Sri Lanka when the unprecedented and unprepared-for economic crisis hit the nation earlier this year, whereas no other nation had extended the same.
President Wickremesinghe acknowledged it as such, inside and outside Parliament.
Subtle yet significant
New Delhi said,
“devolution of power to the grassroots level is a pre-requisite”. India, thus, concluded that it was in “Sri Lanka’s best interests to build the capacity of its citizens and work towards their empowerment, for which devolution of power to the grassroots level is a pre-requisite”.
“In this connection, operationalisation of Provincial Councils through early conduct of elections will enable all citizens of Sri Lanka to achieve their aspirations for a prosperous future,” India said, in what’s still a subtle yet significant expansion of New Delhi’s 13-A reference to cover the entire island-nation, not stopping with the Tamil North-East.
As may be recalled, the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord had focused mainly on the ethnic issue and the empowerment of the Sri Lankan Tamil (SLT) community, as well as the exclusion of the ‘Upcountry Tamils of Recent Indian Origin’ popularly known as ‘Indian-origin Tamils’ (IoT) or ‘Estate Tamils’. However, the relevant provisions of the
13th Amendment that the Accord facilitated, and the accompanying
Provincial Councils Act (PCA) of 1987, apply to the whole of Sri Lanka.
The laws applied to the formation of new provinces across the country—of which there is a total of nine, now—and the devolution of powers equally to all the provinces. However, in practice, the non-Tamil Provinces, including a majority in the multi-ethnic East, were not for it. They were conditioned by the two
‘JVP insurgencies’ (1971 and 1987) and more so by the
decades-long ‘ethnic war’ involving the terror group, LTTE.
Unkept poll promises
There are two poll promises that all sections of the majority Sinhala-Buddhist polity have indulged in: one is the abolition of the all-powerful Executive Presidency. The other is the full implementation of the 13-A, even if selectively, to the Tamil areas.
Despite the Aragalaya protests and the issues of over-centralisation that it highlighted, the ground realities are still different. Over the past 35 years since 13-A came into force, there is no appetite in the non-Tamil areas for the provincial autonomy that the 13-A promised. Power devolution, therefore, remains unimplemented, with shrill and distracting demands coming only from the Tamil polity.
The Indo-Sri Lanka Accord had focused mainly on the ethnic issue and the empowerment of the Sri Lankan Tamil (SLT) community, as well as the exclusion of the ‘Upcountry Tamils of Recent Indian Origin’ popularly known as ‘Indian-origin Tamils’ (IoT) or ‘Estate Tamils’.
The UNHRC is expected to produce yet another resolution at the end of the current session, in October. The focus then again may be on ‘accountability issues’, which would now cover post-war episodes and development, even of the post-war Aragalaya-centred arrests and PTA detentions.
Empowering provinces
In its preliminary response at the Geneva session, the Sri Lankan government has clearly reiterated its decade-old opposition to any ‘independent probe’ into human rights violations that involved foreign investigators or guidance.
At the end of it all, any purposeful solution to popular demands for the abolition of the all-powerful Executive Presidency and its promised replacement of an empowered Cabinet with the Prime Minister at its centre and top alike, would not have any meaning without empowering the provinces through the Provincial Council. It is already contained in 13-A.
Against the West’s interventionist initiatives that do not have (m)any takers among the Sinhala majority, especially over the past decade, India has slipped an idea very quietly at the UNHRC. It is an idea of least resistance in Sri Lanka, where no new laws or constitutional amendments need to be enacted for empowering the people in real and meaningful terms—which is what the Aragalaya protests too aimed at, ultimately—but without violence and bloodshed.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
PREV
