Questions and Answers
Gareth Evans, President and Chief Executive Officer, International Crisis Group; IISS Member
My question is to Minister Bogollagama, and relates to the reconciliation process to which I know he is personally committed to ensure the non-recurrence of the Tamil insurgency. You are very well aware that among moderate Tamils, and many in the international community who have never been apologists for the LTTE and fully accept the legitimacy of a strong response to such terrorist insurgency, there is none the less major concern about multiple breaches of international humanitarian law that appear to have been committed during the course of the war, not least during the recent end game involving the deaths of many civilians caught between the two forces. No doubt as a result of action on behalf of the Tamil Tigers, but also apparently as a result of indiscriminate shelling and mortaring from the government of Sri Lanka’s forces. In the interests of reconciliation and laying a foundation towards more confidence by the Tamil community in the government in the future, will the government now establish an independent commission of enquiry, with or without international participation, to address these concerns? Will the government also ensure the previous commissions of enquiry and processes that have been established to address particular allegations of atrocity in past years; will they be now actually allowed to complete their processes in an independent way?
Dr Dana Allin, Editor, Survival; Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Affairs
My question is for the Pakistan Secretary of Defence, there is a great deal of appreciation for the many difficulties that Pakistan faces and the efforts that have been undertaken to deal with them. In your remarks you prescribe ways that Afghanistan must put its own house in order, and you insisted that it is a misconception, if I understood you correctly, to tie Afghanistan’s problems to Pakistan. Bearing in mind that negative blow back is complicated, and can go in both directions, can I ask you to clarify, are you really suggesting that there is no deep connection between the instability in Pakistan and the problems in Afghanistan?
Ambassador Rajiv Sikri, Former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, India
I have a question for General Syed, he mentioned that we must make the Afghan economy viable, and wean Afghan farmers away from poppy, which is a very valid point. I would like to suggest that in addition to whatever the Pakistan international community is doing in Afghanistan, we might consider re-linking Afghanistan economically to India, as it was for centuries; that would require that there be overland transit facilities between Afghanistan and India. Secondly, recognising that Pakistan does have legitimate security interests and concerns in Afghanistan, I would like to request his reaction to a suggestion whether India and Pakistan actually share the same interests in Afghanistan, and can they not work together in Afghanistan?
Dr Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, Executive Director, Centre for Peace Alternatives, Sri Lanka
The question is to Minister Bogollagama, you pointed out that the Sri Lankan case would be a kind of textbook study from now on, in terms of successful counter-insurgency. In that context would you accept that at the present moment in Sri Lanka we are in a post-war situation, and yet to go into a post-conflict one. Therefore, in that particular context, as to whether we did incur, as the government of Sri Lanka, any kind of human rights and governance costs in this counter-insurgency operation, and in terms of moving from post-war to post-conflict, what really needs to be done in respect of that?
Salma Malik, Lecturer, Department of Defence & Strategic Studies, Quaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan
My question is addressed to the Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka and the Defence Secretary of Pakistan, because there are a lot of similarities that these countries fear. To the Foreign Minister, the efforts by your government are highly commendable, but as you must agree that it is just the tip of the iceberg and there is a lot to come. Has the government set a framework for the post-conflict reintegration and rehabilitation process? Secondly, when you talked about the role of international actors, we have seen that the problem also got exacerbated because of intervention by international actors to an extent, which had their own agendas. What kind of role do you envisage for international actors, and would they be regional actors per se, or international in general? I would like to address a similar set of questions to the Defence Secretary as well, and secondly, there has been an insistence by India for us to carry out more substantive actions as regards anti-terrorist operations. Can you spell out what Pakistan is doing in that regard, and what kind of better and more effective border controls can be placed at the eastern end?
Lieutenant General Athar Ali Syed
I am sure everybody knows that this problem dates back to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, when the international coalition spearheaded by the US, had initiated a process to which there was an effort to contain the Soviet Union and fight it out in Afghanistan, so that Communism did not spread. At that time Afghanistan Taliban, which was already an entity in reality in Afghanistan, they have already been there, they were energies and inducted into jihad against the Soviet Union. Pakistan was also asked to join in, which Pakistan did, and the two countries combined trained, equipped and helped in the execution of jihad against the Soviet Union. As I also said in my talk, the training camps and other related activities had been orchestrated in further areas from where they would emanate and conduct the operations, and in Afghanistan there were a lot of sanctuaries where the Taliban were being trained. The origin of the problem, as far as the Taliban and Al-Qaeda were concerned, because Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden were funding, assisting and equipping the Taliban in consultation with the US authorities; those are the historical facts.
After the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan the bigger actors abandoned the Taliban as regards the situation in Afghanistan, and it was not taken to a logical end. That is where the whole society got disturbed and destabilised. The problem originated from Afghanistan, and after 9/11, when the global operations took place, a lot of these fighters fled to the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan, so the problem lies in Afghanistan, and that is what I will insist, and that is a historical fact.
Dr John Chipman
Can India and Pakistan cooperate in Afghanistan?
Lieutenant General Athar Ali Syed
Why not? I never said that India should not be there in Afghanistan; India is making good progress in Afghanistan, and they are helping rebuild Afghanistan. My point was that Pakistan must also be included, and I asserted that we have made tangible offers of millions of rupees of gratis assistance in training, not only to the military personnel and police, but also to civilian students, to come and study in Pakistan, and to rebuild and restructure their society. If the international actors and coalition considers it appropriate, it will help in quickly putting Afghanistan back into its place, and its governance will improve, and there will be an overall positive effect on the society if Pakistan is allowed to play its role.
Minister Bogollagama
Looking at the need for reconciliation has to be addressed in the spirit of reconciliation. The civilians who were entrapped by the LTTE have voted with their feet by coming over to the control of the government, and have been cared for by the government today. That will be the way forward for us to address the reconciliation process, and in that regard there are many facets, including the political dimension that will engage an inclusive process that will address the concerns of the civilian population, particularly in the Province of Sri Lanka, and take that forward in a structured manner through a consultation process, after the full implementation of the devolution of power that already provided for in the constitution of Sri Lanka. We will even go beyond that and will review the current things that are needed once power is devolved to secure that in the hands of the regions.
We will address the enquiries that you mentioned, but in terms of international humanitarian lobbying we express our sovereign rights in confronting the LTTE and rescuing the civilians numbering over 300,000, which was our mission in this humanitarian exercise. Today, still, when I am speaking here, there would have been 300,000 civilians entrapped by the LTTE, suffering even to the extent of losing their lives. We have seen what they have gone through, they experienced all this, and it is nothing new to us.
Coming to the issue in terms of the high profile enquiries that are presently ongoing, we will have the results very soon; the investigative process is over; the judges are sitting on the enquiry panel; and soon the reports will be out. I do not want to precipitate in terms of their conclusions that are coming from an independent body of inquiry, and we will await the findings, particularly in terms of the ACF that you mentioned, and which concerns us, because we want to get to the bottom of it. That is why we are addressing it in the framework of our legal system; as you are aware there has been a high improvement in our legal system.
In terms of whether there have been any violations of human rights, Sri Lanka has the judicial process to address every concern of every citizen of our country. The constitution provides for the guarantee of fundamental rights, and they have recourse to the supreme court, which everyone will know has a very independent application. The highest court in the country, in terms of jurisdiction, handles all matters concerning their fundamental rights, the right to life, the right to speech, the right to engage in any political activity, and all these rights are embodied in terms of the constitution, and I can share the details with anyone who is interested, a copy of the constitution is right before me.
There are also areas that we are conscious of, from the north to the south we do not want to have any minorities in the sense of the minority word being used, in terms of enjoying equal rights as much as equality before the law, and opportunities for people in Sri Lanka. To see that development take place is our future action plan, to see that the rule of law applies in all parts of Sri Lanka, which was hindered by the presence of the LTTE, and that will be the past, and the future lies in terms of an integrated, reconciled, and a way forward in terms of economic pursuits and political empowerment of all our people.
Dr John Chipman
Thank you for that strong, optimistic statement at the end, and thank you to our four panellists; it was a complex debate that we managed.
