Reconciliation cannot happen without accepting past mistakes - CBK

Reconciliation cannot happen without accepting the mistakes of the past or the injustices that have been carried out against the minorities and then making amends for it, says former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. 

“So that is the truth and accountability process and that is beginning to be operative now,” she said at a press briefing of the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), the main agency in the government which is coordinating, facilitating and working on the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka. 

“We have also discussed it with our friends in the international community and they agree with what we have suggested,” she said. 

Kumaratunga, who is the Chairperson of ONUR, said the agency does not want to “duplicate” anything that other agencies are doing. 

“We want to formulate a comprehensive policy for reconciliation, find the funding for it, find partners from civil society or government who are able to implement our programmes, then farm out the programmes, the moneys to them and get them to implement the programmes,” she said. “We will monitor.” 

However, a few urgent programmes will be implemented by the ONUR, the former President said. 

“Since we have started we have had many dialogues with wide ranging groups and organizations from the civil society, intellectuals, artists and government departments in order to get ideas and formulate our policies.” 

“We are looking at the possible political solutions, final constitutional solutions, to the ethnic question.” 

Asked whether the solution will strengthen the 13th amendment, she said the 13th amendment will certainly be the base from which they will “take off.” 

When inquired by a journalist as to whether there will be a dilution of the 13A, she said: “definitely not.” “The 13th amendment is dilute enough,” she laughingly said. 

Kumaratunga added that the victims are not going to accept to be reconciliated until the crimes that have been perpetrated upon them are in some way or the other dealt with. 

“Unless that issue is dealt with the minorities that have been victimized do not fully come into the process.”

Regarding the issue of political prisoners, she said there are three categories of prisoner suspected of links to the LTTE. 

There is some where there is no evidence and they can be released, then there are those who can be indicted with serious crime and those who are still being investigated with some amount of evidence but investigations are progressing very slow, she said. 

“If we are going to indict military people for war crimes, how can we justify releasing LTTE murderers against who there is clear evidence?” she inquired.