Photo courtesy of Kumanan
The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), an independent NGO working since 2013 to protect and promote justice and accountability in Sri Lanka, has submitted more than 60 sanctions and visa ban requests against public and security officials to date as well as a series of universal jurisdiction cases. These have been sent to the governments of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and the EU as well as the UN. The submissions cover gross violations of human rights and significant corruption in respect of the army, navy, air force, police and intelligence officials, Tamil paramilitaries as well as civil servants including judges and former ministers, a press release from the organization said.
“The gross human rights violations and atrocity crimes include extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearance, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, and various forms of sexual violence, perpetrated both during and after the civil war. These range from attacks against civilians that may amount to serious international crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. In addition, the focus is on significant corruption which is structurally embedded in Sri Lankan governance and public institutions which encompasses undue interference with judicial processes that further sets back accountability efforts for underlying human rights violations, as well as abuses of power. In this regard, submissions look at state-owned enterprises and misappropriation of public funds that resulted in huge financial losses for the entire country, and contributed to the economic crisis in the country,” it said.
Furthermore, visa ban requests have been made for a number of identified former Indian Peacekeeping Force officers alleged to have been complicit in gross human rights violations and mass atrocity crimes in the period when deployed in Sri Lanka in the late eighties.
The ITJP has submitted lengthy sanctions dossiers on General Shavendra Silva in 2021 and General Jagath Jayasuriya in 2022 to the UK government as well as sending dossiers to the governments of Canada, Australia and the EU. In 2020, Shavendra Silva was publicly designated in the US under 7031c of the Appropriations Act for his role in gross human rights violations and it is believed Jagath Jayasuriya has also been denied US visas though not publicly named, the press release said.
Another accountability tool that the ITJP has utilised has been filing universal jurisdictions for war crimes: in 2017 the ITJP filed universal jurisdiction cases for war crimes against Jayasuriya in Brazil and Chile based on his role in one of the country’s most notorious army garrisons known as Joseph Camp. This was followed up with a criminal complaint in Australia that the federal police failed to investigate. A Torture Victim Protection Act case was filed in the US against Gotabaya Rajapaksa in 2019 and a criminal complaint submitted in Singapore in 2022. A further universal jurisdiction case is under investigation in an undisclosed jurisdiction against a retired senior member of the Army. Additionally, two linked war crimes cases involving suspects from a Tamil paramilitary group aligned to the military were referred to the UK’s Metropolitan Police which made two arrests and recently put out a public appeal for information, the press release said.
Executive Director of ITJP, Yasmin Sooka, answered questions from Groundviews on what she thinks the response to the call will be, how strong the evidence is against the accused and repercussions of western compliance in Gaza’s genocide.
How confident are you that countries will respond favourably to ITJP’s sanctions and ban requests?
The ITJP has submitted more than 60 sanctions and visa ban requests to the governments of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and the EU as well as the UN. We have focused recently on the US because it is mandatory to designate individuals where there is credible evidence of gross violations of human rights. Some might say a visa ban isn’t enough for people who have been involved in enforced disappearance and torture. But where the visa ban becomes very damaging is where that individual is then promoted to head a unit. At that point Leahy Law kicks in which prohibits US assistance to a unit that is headed by someone who is considered tainted. So for example when he was Army Commander Shavendra Silva was publicly designated in the US under 7031c of the Appropriations Act for his role in gross human rights violations, and one would assume the unit he headed – the Sri Lankan Army – became ineligible for assistance. Of course, Shavendra Silva is not the only person designated by the US. Several members of the Sri Lankan navy and army have also been designated. And on 10 December 2024, that it had sanctioned Kapila Chandrasena and Udayanga Weeratunga making the link between corruption and economic crimes and human rights violations perpetrated in Sri Lanka. What’s significant is only a fraction of the names are made public; nobody knows how many more are banned. Additionally, the visa ban affects the whole family which can be impactful for the children who want to study in the US. Canada of course sanctioned Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa but we
are extremely disappointed that the UK government has failed to keep its to sanction Sri Lankan perpetrators despite the extensive dossiers the ITJP has submitted on General Shavendra Silva and Jagath Jayasuriya, supported by an extensive advocacy campaign by British Members of Parliament led by Tamil MPs and lawyers.
Is universal jurisdiction an effective deterrent?
Under international law, states have a duty to prosecute serious international crimes. Where states are unable or lack the political to do so, then under universal jurisdiction, the international community is obliged to step in, investigate and prosecute such serious international crimes, where perpetrators are on their territories. Universal jurisdiction is important mechanism and often may be the only opportunity one has to hold perpetrators of serious international crimes criminally accountable. In the case of Sri Lanka, we have seen that over the last three decades, the Government has lacked the political will to hold perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity criminally accountable, which has led to the entrenchment of impunity in Sri Lanka. This has led the ITJP to file several cases under universal jurisdiction including in Latin America, Singapore and Europe. The ITJP also filed a claim for civil damages in the United States under the Victims Torture Protection Act against the former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The impact on the perpetrators has been enormously rewarding for victims and their families, as they have watched perpetrators fleeing the countries they had absconded to, out of fear of prosecution. In addition, the ITJP together with REDRESS in the UK provided the Metropolitan Police with information on the murder of Nimalarajan Mylvaganam a BBC journalist killed in 2000 in Sri Lanka. The Metropolitan Police announced they had arrested a suspect living in the UK in 2022 and then another suspect in 2024 in a related case, the Naranthani killings in 2001. This is the first time that British authorities have made arrests over war crimes committed in Sri Lanka.
Do you think the new government will be more responsive than previous governments in addressing past human rights violations given the fact that the JVP were also perpetrators?
Civil society organisations in Sri Lanka and abroad need to urge the new government to address past human rights violations committed over various periods. We would urge them to address not only the end of war violations but the ongoing violations as well to provide justice and accountability to victims and their families, which is critical to the restoration of the rule of law. We have been encouraged by the government’s positive response to the announcement by the US of the sanction’s designations of Kapila Chandrasena and Udayanga Weeratunga.
How does corruption tie in with human rights violations?
A case in point which illustrates this linkage between corruption and human rights violations is that of Udayanga Weeratunga, who is a cousin to Mahinda Rajapaksa, and who is the subject of a visa ban together with his wife and two children by the USA for his alleged role in the MIG deal, which led to Lasantha’s murder. See the link to the ITJP’s press release on this issue.
Is there enough documented evidence to back up the claims in the face of denial by the military and past governments?
Since 2014, the ITJP has documented and amassed one of the largest archives on alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Sri Lanka by the security forces and government officials at the end of the war and in its aftermath, preserving it for future accountability initiatives. The ITJP has been analysing this data and has been able to build up several dossiers on senior military officials having command and superior responsibility for serious international crimes, and which provides an evidentiary basis to negate the denial of the military and past governments.
This is first time that the IPKF have been mentioned. Is there evidence against IPKF officers?
The ITJP has been extremely fortunate to be able to access evidence of the massacres allegedly perpetrated by IPKF officers. This has been based on meticulously documented statements which were preserved in an archive in the UK and have also been the basis for sanction submissions under 703(1)c Appropriations Act in the US.
In the face of western complicity in the Gaza genocide, will countries such as Sri Lanka reject sanctions and bans from countries like the US and the UK citing hypocrisy?
There is no doubt that a great deal of hypocrisy exists in the world and that many countries in the Global South are incensed at the double standards that have been applied to conflicts such as in Gaza. Nevertheless, in the absence of criminal accountability for those who perpetrate serious international crimes, sanctions represent an important accountability mechanism to fill the impunity gap.