By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO, Dec 18 2001 (IPS)

The United National Party (UNP) scored a comfortable victory in Sri Lankan national polls earlier this month, reflecting people’s desire for change amid a flagging economy and a costly war, but human rights activists are not rejoicing.

Rights groups are in fact concerned that the same regime which launched a brutal crackdown on left-wing rebels in the 1980s, is back in power. Activists have been pressing demands for compensation for young persons who disappeared during that period.

“The old notorious regime who ruled the country from 1988 to 1994 got a resounding victory at the general elections,” said a worried Chandra Peiris, chairman of the Organisation for Parents and Family Members of the Disappeared (OPFMD), in an appeal to international human rights groups including Amnesty International (AI).

“It is important to recall that a highest number of disappearances were recorded during their rule. Fear of death or disappearances had become an inevitable factor with uncertainty during this period of UNP rule,” he noted.

The OPFMD has many reasons to worry. It is leading a group of families of the disappeared to seek justice against the killers of thousands of young people who died at the hands of the military and pro-UNP death squads between 1988 to 1990.

The crackdown was ordered by then President Ranasinghe Premadasa as the Marxist People’s Liberation Front or JVP caused mayhem and terror across the country in a bid to oust the government.

Estimates of missing persons have ranged from 10,000 to 60,000 over the three-year period in the bloody downfall of the JVP, now a respected third political force in the country.

The crackdown and resultant fear psychosis that spread across the country led to the downfall of the then UNP government, which lost both parliamentary and presidential polls in 1994.

The UNP is now back in power and it is interesting to see how it would tackle the issue of justice for suspected perpetrators against whom the Attorney General’s office is preparing indictments. Some cases against army and police officers have already been filed.

According to official figures, close to 500 cases have been filed against military and police officers but the process is slow, say rights activists.

Peiris said he was worried that the new regime might re-impose restrictions and prohibitions earlier imposed by the 1980s UNP government on human rights activists and organizations.

“We are appealing to all human rights activists to participate in exposing possible human rights violations,” he told IPS.

The OPFMD is also keeping its options open and not ruling out the possibility that the new government — though responsible for atrocities in the past — might be conciliatory.

“We are trying to contact some people in the government. Some UNP parliamentarians like Mahinda Samarasinghe, who is serving on an international parliamentary committee on human rights, have been outspoken on human rights and recognized abroad and we would like to discuss these matters with them,” Peiris said.

Things have changed since the leftwing JVP revolt in the 1980s, which followed a similar rebellion by the front against the government in 1971 that was also crushed by the military.

The Marxist front is now a strong political force, raising its number of parliamentary seats to 16 in the 225-strong assembly in the Dec 5 poll from 10 in the December 2000 election.

The UNP under Ranil Wickremasinghe, now the prime minister, has painstakingly tried to erase the ugly scars of the 1988-1990 era by promising better governance. It has in fact been the People Alliance’s (PA) most bitter critic on human rights flaws.

The UNP has promised a new political culture without lawlessness and thuggery, that has dogged Sri Lankan society and elections in recent years during the PA rule.

The new government, while in opposition, accused the PA — particularly the notorious Presidential Security Division (PSD) — of harassing and intimidating political opponents. Independent journalists were assaulted and at least two killed by unknown gunmen suspected to be linked to the PSD.

The UNP’s Samarasinghe, now labour and employment minister in the new government, said the PA went on a witch-hunt in attempts to bring to book offenders of human rights violations. “They were using the investigations for political purposes.”

“We are not going to sweep anything under the carpet. We will look at the (1988-1990) issues on a case-by-case basis and not only provide compensation but also rehabilitate families of the victims, which is important,” he told IPS.

“But remember there is also the argument that the military response at that time (in 1988) was to preserve democracy,” he added.

The PA, whose leader Chandrika Kumaratunga is still the country’s president, promised to prosecute human rights offenders after winning power in 1994. She appointed special commissions to probe disappearances, punish the killers and offer compensation to the families of the dead.

The process has dragged on even though the commissions identified some 3,000 people, including officers of the armed forces and the police, as being responsible fully or partly for the killings. Those named included an officer who was subsequently promoted to the rank of major-general in the army, and now serving as an ambassador.

“We protested against the appointment of Major-General Janaka Perera as high commissioner to Australia because of his alleged involvement in disappearances,” Peiris said.

Expatriate Tamil groups in Australia also protested against Perera’s appointment accusing the latter of crimes against Tamil civilians during the 18-year ethnic conflict.

Tamil rebels are fighting for a separate state for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority community in a campaign that has cost the lives of more than 60,000 people since 1983.

The war has devastated the economy, which has been further rocked this year by lower export earnings owing to a global recession. Economic growth is set to grow by below one percent this year from 6 percent in 2000.

OPFMD laments that the process of compensating victims of the military crackdown is taking a long time.

The three commissions appointed by Kumaratunga to probe the disappearances reviewed 32,000 complaints but only recommended compensation for the kin of 12,000 victims. Compensation payments also varied for married, unmarried, non-adults, married government officials and non- married government officials who vanished without a trace.

“”The payments were worked on a very unfair formula. An unmarried man got less than 30 percent of what the family of a married, government official was entitled to. Is this how they value life?” asked Peiris.

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