AKD’s Jaffna visit, the UNHRC sessions and justice delayed

From the beginning of this month, our president Anura Kumara Dissanayake has engaged in visiting the northern capital of this country. Dissanayake’s visit needs to be appreciated. No other head of state has visited the peninsula so many times as President Dissanayake has done during the short time since he was elected to power.

The people of the north –- who voted him and his government into power over  regional political parties - - have responded to the president’s overtures positively. Through their actions, they have shown that ethnic and politics of division will no longer work as a vote garnering machine. 

During his visit, the president launched a series of development projects, most importantly the development of the third stage of the Fisheries harbour at Myliddy. He also visited the Jaffna Library – burnt at the instigation of Cabinet ministers of a different era -- where he inaugurated an e-library programme.

The president perhaps also helped build the best bridge between  Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim communities when he laid the foundation stone for the proposed Jaffna International cricket grounds. People still recall how while an international match was in progress during the war-torn era of our country, guns – both LTTE and government -- fell silent while Muthiah Muralitharan was bowling. Our love for the game surpassed even the anger and hatred bred by war mongers of that period.

A single short-coming during the visit was Dissanayake’s failure to visit the mass grave at Chemmani. Perhaps he avoided the visit to prevent political opportunists from claiming he was running down the role played by so-called ‘Ranaviru’ or military personnel who defeated the LTTE. 

Let’s face it; all over the world rogue elements exist among the security forces of any country. Soldiers are skilled at killing. They are not trained to keep the peace. It is for this reason we have trained police personnel. Criticising rogues elements in the armed forces is not to tar all members of the three forces. In reality, it has to be  accepted that there are bad apples in any society.

What needs to be done is to expose the miscreants, hold them accountable for the foul evil deeds they have done and make them face justice. It is the one and only way to bring closure to the sufferings of the victim mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of the deceased.

Avoiding the issue is akin to burying one’s head in the sand ostrich-like. Justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done.  

Apart from missing out on visiting the Chemmani mass graves, there is little to criticise in the president’s visit to our country’s northern capital. A few cynics point out that the president’s trip to Jaffna came in the shadow of the UNHRC sessions on Sri Lanka in Geneva.

They allege the visit was staged in an effort to cover the abomination of  mass graves in the eyes of the UNHRC. What many forget is that the government itself  facilitated UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk to visit the site while he was in the country. It also helped create conditions for him to visit the parents of missing persons.

Ignoring Israeli war crimes

What is surprising is that none of our politicians seem to take umbrage at the UNHRC which is selectively picking on past human rights violations in Lanka, while at the same time continues to ignore the ongoing genocide Israel is committing in Palestine.

Reuters reported on the 29th of July that Israel had killed more than 60,000 people in Gaza.  Of those, 18,592 or 30.8% were under 18.The UN has verified that up to March this year,  nearly 70% of Israel’s victims were women and children. Al Jazeera on  April 13th 2025 reported Israel’s military had bombed Gaza’s health facilities including 36 hospitals. Targeting health facilities and patients are war crimes. 

The crimes committed during the ethnic war in Lanka pale into insignificance when compared to those committed by Israel in Palestine. But the crimes were committed and justice needs be served. Perhaps it is only because of the UN’s constant needle pricks that even today,  the war crimes committed here are not buried, as appears to be the fate of the victims of the insurgency 1988 -1990.