ආණ්ඩුව නිහඬ ද?
ඉහත සඳහන් චිත්‍රය ව්‍යාජ එකක් නො වේ. සුදු රෙදි හැඳගත් ඇතැම් දේශපාලනඥයන් මෙන් අපි ව්‍යාජ චිත්‍ර, ඡායාරූප ඉදිරිපත් නො කරමු. මේ චිත්‍රය ජනවාරි 20 දා ඇමරිකාවේ නිව්යෝක් ටයිම්ස් පුවත්පතෙහි අදහස් (opinion) පිටුවෙහි රයන් ගුඩ්මන් නමැත්තකුගේ නමින් වූ ලිපියක් සමග පළ කෙරී ඇත. මේ චිත්‍රය ජාතික කොඩියට අපහාසයකි. අප එය උපුටා දක්වන්නේ ජාතික කොඩියට අපහාස කිරීමට නොව අපහාස කරන්්නන් රටට හඳුන්වාදීමට ය. ආණ්ඩුවට ඒ සම්බන්ධ පියවරක් ගන්නා ලෙස ඉල්ලා සිටීමට ය. ලිපිය ද ඔබේ දැනගැනීම සඳහා උපුටා දක්වමු.
ඒ ලිපියෙහි සඳහන් කරුණු ද අපේ අවධානයට ලක්විය යුතු ය. මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා දේශපාලනයෙන් ඉවත්කිරීම, සුදු කොඩි කතාව, ඊනියා යුද්ධාපරාධ, ගොඨාභය රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතාට විරුද්ධව නඩු පැවරීම ආදිය ගැන එහි සඳහන් වෙයි. ඒ ගුඩ්මන්ගේ මතය වෙයි. අපි ඒ ගැන කතා නො කරමු. අපට වැදගත් ඇමරිකන් රජයේ ප්‍රතිපත්තිය ය. කෙසේ වෙතත් මේ චෝදනා එල්ලවන බව අප කියා සිටියේ අද ඊයේ නොවන බව මේ වෙබ් අඩවියේ ඇති ලිපිවලින් පැහැදිලි වනු ඇත.
ඒ කුමක් වුවත් මේ චිත්‍රය රටට, ජාතික කොඩියට, ජාතියට කරන ලද අපහාසයකි. අද දින (පෙබරවාරි 4) ආණ්ඩුවට වීර කැපේපටිපොළ නිලමෙ තුමාගේ සිට මහින්ද රාජපක්‍ෂ මහතා දක්වා ජාතියේ නිදහස වෙනුවෙන් කරන ලද සේවය ගැන නාම මාත්‍රිකව වුවත් සඳහන් කිරීමට සිදුවෙයි. බටහිර ගැති මේ ආණ්ඩුවට ඔවුන්ගේ අහළකටවත් පැමිණිය නො හැකි ය. ඒ බව අපි දනිමු. එහෙත් අපි ආණ්ඩුවෙන් සුළු මට්ටමක වුවත් රාජ්‍ය තාන්ත්‍රික මැදිහත්වීමක් අපේක්‍ෂා කරමු. අඩුම ගණනේ ආණ්ඩුවට ඇමරිකාවේ ලංකාව වෙනුවෙන් පෙනී සිටින තානාපතිතුමා ලවා නිව්යෝක් ටයිම්ස් පත්‍රයට තම විරෝධයවත් පළ කිරීමට හැකි ද?
නලින් ද සිල්වා
2015 පෙබරවාරි 04
Helping Sri Lanka’s New Democracy
By RYAN GOODMANJAN. 19, 2015
Sri Lanka’s voters
shocked themselves and the world this month by tossing out their president, who
crushed the Tamil insurgency in 2009 and then led the country, along with his
brother as defense secretary, to the brink of authoritarianism. The new
president has promised to restore freedom of the press, independence of judges,
and the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.
Democracy advocates,
including Secretary of State John Kerry, say this is the country’s most
important chance to open a new chapter in more than a decade.
But the country must make
sure that members of the ousted regime do not return to power and that the new
government can secure its authority. The United States — and only the United
States — can do something to help make that happen.
The former president,
Mahinda Rajapaksa, and his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, aren’t politically dead
yet. Critical parliamentary elections are scheduled for April. The new
president, Maithripala Sirisena, rode to electoral victory on the back of a
diverse group of parties. He must now consolidate his power so that democratic
reform can go ahead.
What can the United
States do to help? Mr. Kerry said the United States would take up longstanding
human rights concerns with the new government. The State Department has
spearheaded the creation of a United Nations investigation into war crimes
committed under the Rajapaksa regime during the country’s civil war, which
lasted from 1983 to 2009.
But that inquiry offers
both too much and too little at this point. Too much, because pushing for full,
sweeping accountability in this fragile moment of transition could destabilize
the new government and jeopardize the warming of relations between the United
States and Sri Lanka. Too little, because the United Nations investigation
doesn’t have any teeth — the panel leading it doesn’t have the powers of a
criminal tribunal, and cannot even impose a financial penalty.
Here is where Washington
can play a constructive role.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the
former defense secretary, oversaw the Sri Lankan armed forces’ worst atrocities
during the final stages of the civil war and, as it happens, he is a
naturalized American citizen. (Indeed, he used to live in Los Angeles, where he
worked as a computer systems operator at Loyola Law School.)
As a citizen, Mr.
Rajapaksa can be held liable under the War Crimes Act of 1996, which puts war
crimes anywhere in the world under the jurisdiction of United States courts if
the perpetrator, or the victim, is a United States citizen. Put another way,
the United States has a perfect justification to go after Mr. Rajapaksa
individually.
Independent observers
have long viewed Gotabaya Rajapaksa as an obstacle, perhaps even more than his
brother, to a smooth political transition in Sri Lanka. There is little
indication that he will respect the new government, which has opened an
investigation to look into widely reported allegations that he and his brother
attempted to engineer a military coup to overturn the election results.
It is in the new
government’s interest to move decisively to protect its democratic victory by
eliminating the threat of Mr. Rajapaksa’s return to power. That is a distinct
possibility if his brother, Mahinda, succeeds in a bid to maintain control over
the powerful opposition party.
That’s why marginalizing
Mr. Rajapaksa now is important. The new president, Mr. Sirisena, has signaled
that he is open to domestic criminal prosecutions to ward off foreign war
crimes trials. And the president’s spokesman has indicated that the government
may be willing to prosecute specific war crimes, such as the so-called White
Flag incident, in which surrendering Tamil leaders with white flags were
allegedly executed by soldiers on the final day of the civil war. That’s a
highly significant statement because, as many Sri Lankans know, and as the State
Department reported to Congress, the army chief at the time said that Mr.
Rajapaksa gave the order “they must all be killed,” and later added that he
would be willing to testify in a war crimes trial.
But proceeding against
Mr. Rajapaksa will be politically challenging for the new Sri Lankan government
to do on its own. The United States could help by signaling its own interest in
opening a criminal case against Mr. Rajapaksa in the event that Sri Lanka
doesn’t. That would give the new government both an opportunity and a
justification to clean its house. Because of Mr. Rajapaksa’s citizenship, the
United States would also be less vulnerable to accusations that it was meddling
in the affairs of another nation.
The Obama administration
might even say, in a very public way, that it will decide whether to proceed
with its own criminal inquiry after giving Sri Lanka’s new establishment an
opportunity to move first. Such signals from the United States could help
politically marginalize the Rajapaksas at a critical point in the life of the
country. They would also bolster President Sirisena’s efforts to have the
country repudiate the past and recognize that its best future lies with his
administration. The United States should do its part to bring accountability to
Sri Lanka and assist its transition to democracy.
Ryan Goodman is a professor of law, politics and sociology
at New York University and co-editor in chief of the blog Just Security.
A version of this
op-ed appears in print on January 20, 2015, in The International New York
Times.