Font size: 
Two of Sri Lanka's most distinguished elder statesmen, Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne and Justice C. G. Weeramantry, received the country's highest national award, the Sri Lankabhimanaya, or Pride of Sri Lanka, from President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The award is conferred on those who are deemed to have rendered exceptional service to the nation, and there can only be five such award recipients at any time.
The citations that accompanied the award were short, but contained the core contributions of the two award winners. Sarvodaya leader Ariyaratne's was for peace, nonviolence and social transformation, while Weeramantry, a former judge of the International Court of Justice, received his award for his work in human rights and international law.
Ironically, on the day of the awards ceremony, over 2,000 Tamil people living in Colombo and in various other parts of the country were being rounded up in a swift security crackdown reminiscent of the attempted eviction of Tamil temporary residents of Colombo in June this year. It is likely that the two recent bombings in Colombo, in which over 20 civilians were killed and many more injured, led to the latest phenomenon of mass arrests. The LiberationTigers of Tamil Eelam are suspected of carrying out both attacks.
Like in the case of the attempted eviction, the people who were arrested after being questioned include women with children. The mass eviction of Tamils in June was halted when there was a public outcry and the Supreme Court intervened. The appearance of ethnic cleansing was clearly unacceptable.
However, the government appears to have devised an alternative plan to get rid of the same category of people, this time arresting them. The violation of human rights and international law may be clear to human rights activists. But politically and practically it may be more difficult to make a case of human rights violation this time. The government has been quick to question and release more than 1,500 of those arrested. In court, the government is likely to argue that the terrorist attacks of the LTTE necessitate the most stringent security measures.
However, the fact remains that several hundred Tamils remain in government custody, arrested en masse, and kept in detention in subhuman conditions in virtual cattle sheds until they prove their innocence. This violation of human rights and international law
with the deliberate targeting of civilians taking place on both sides both for legal measures and for violent actions must necessarily shock the conscience of those committed to democratic values and indeed, those who lead the country.
A major problem today is that government leaders appear to believe that the exigencies of actual governance call for actions that are at complete variance with the higher values they idealize. The main failure of the present government is that it has permitted the LTTE to set the agenda for its own conduct. The government has become dependent on making the war against the LTTE, whatever its cost, the main plank in its strategy of governance.
In this context, an interesting concept sketched out during the course of the informal discussions at the awards ceremony was that of "13th Amendment + 1," which was articulated by the president. This could be the beginning of a political process that could eventually overtake military confrontation as the main determinant of the future.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed into law as a direct consequence of the Indo-Lanka Peace Accord of 1987. Under that accord India agreed to commit peacekeeping troops to disarm the Tamil militants, while Sri Lanka committed to devolving power to the regions on a significant scale. The 13th Amendment took the devolution of powers to the very limits of the unitary state, as the Supreme Court agreed that it was in conformity with the constitutional principles of a unitary state by the narrowest of margins, 5-4.
Under President Rajapaksa, the government has taken the position that any political solution has to be within the framework of the unitary state. As explained by government representatives in various forums, the political leadership appears to believe that the present political realities in the country do not permit them to go beyond the unitary framework, which to the prevailing majority Sinhalese mindset is synonymous with the unity of the country. The only option that the government appears willing to consider is to work within the framework of the 13th Amendment and endow the provincial councils with the full range of powers and resources.
In this context the concept of "13th Amendment + 1" can be meaningful if it also incorporates a governmental approach that is in harmony with the values of peace, nonviolence, social transformation, human rights and international law recognized by the government at the national awards ceremony for Dr. Ariyaratne and Justice Weeramantry.
If the full and genuine implementation of the provincial council system under the 13th Amendment had commenced two decades ago, it could have gone at least part of the way toward addressing the grievances of the Tamil people. On the other hand, the upholding of human rights must begin now and cannot wait for the future.
--
(Dr. Jehan Perera is executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, an independent advocacy organization. He studied economics at Harvard College and holds a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. ©Copyright Jehan Perera.)
