Cosmetics

AS the November Sri Lanka Paris Aid Group meeting draws closer, there is hectic activity in government circles to present a fair face of Sri Lanka. The power of Parliament to punish journalists for breach of parliamentary privileges of MPs was removed by an amendment to the Parliament (Powers and Privileges) Act and a Parliamentary Select Committee was appointed to study media law reforms. In late September Sri Lanka finally ratified the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which will enable individual victims of violations of any of the rights under the Covenant to make complaints to the Human Rights Committee. The three commissions appointed in November 1994 to probe disappearances after January1988, submitted reports to the President on 3 September. The commissions recorded evidence in 16,750 cases out of 19,079 complaints. The Presidential secretariat announced the following day that the reports will be made public and identified offenders prosecuted. Complaints which the three commissions were not able to enquire will be investigated by a new commission. The procedure for prosecution is yet to be announced and there is grave doubt that security force members responsible for disappearances will be brought to book while the war continues.

Amnesty International says that government intentions on prosecutions are of paramount importance to reinforce the rule of law in Sri Lanka and break through the lingering climate of impunity among security forces. The Jaffna University Teachers for Human Rights (UTHR) has condemned the government as showing singular lack of conviction and for foot dragging in the cases of the Bolgoda Lake murders, the Kumarapuram massacre and a number of other cases of rape and murder brought against security forces.

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