The Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) expressed their opposition to the appointment of former Sri Lankan military and defence officials to the Office of Reparations, in a letter to Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
In their letter, ITAK noted that retired Sri Lankan naval officer Joseph Terence Gnananandan Sundaram and Wasantha Perera, who served as an additional secretary at the Ministry of Defence, have been recommended to be appointed to the office.
Sri Lanka's security forces are responsible for serious human rights violations against the Tamil nation. Therefore, the appointment of individuals from these institutions in bodies tasked with administering justice raises concerns about impartiality and accountability.
"Any person with the security sector background appointed to this position will only go to confirm what our people have been saying all these days and the callousness of the government," the letter read.
The Office of Reparations was established according to the terms of the Office of Reparations Act 2018, with the purpose of promoting national reconciliation and the prevention of any further conflict in future. As outlined on the Office of Reparations website, the need for such an establishment was principally required to “alleviate the loss and damage to victims of the armed conflict that took place in the North and Eastern Provinces and its aftermath, in 1983”.
Posting on X (formerly known as Twitter), ITAK MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam highlighted Tamil victim-survivors lack of confidence in domestic measures for accountability.
"They’ve been clear, they can’t trust institutions led by the same people connected to their suffering. The Government keeps promising domestic process, but if these names go through, it’ll only confirm every fear those families have expressed," he posted.
Rasamanickam also pointed out that the ITAK had also raised this matter in a letter to Dissanayake over 4 months ago, and requested a meeting to discuss these concerns further but had still not received a response.
The National People Power government have rejected any international accountability mechanisms and have instead vowed that domestic initiatives will deliver justice and accountability.
See the full letter below:
