Sri Lanka, in a new twist to prove its commitment to justice and accountability has announced that a 'census' counting all those killed in the civil war.
P. B. Abeykoon, reportedly the top civil servant in the ministry of public administration who will supervise the census declared that "the government has nothing to hide".
Another official of the census department said:
"The public will be asked to substantiate the claims of deaths, missing and property damage,"
Not surprisingly, the announcement has been met with scepticism.
Suhas Chakma of the Asian Centre for Human Rights said:
"A number of government inquiries have already been established and there has never been any kind of accountability, so a new one holds no weight whatsoever,"
Sam Pari of the Australian National Tamil Congress said:
"The Sri Lankan government and Sri Lankan officials are known to be corrupt. They are known to swindle a lot of money and they are known to manipulate numbers and statistics to serve their own purpose,"
"Sri Lanka has a history of saying a lot of things and even doing a few things just for a bit of a show. But whether it is genuine, whether the intention behind it is actually to bring perpetrators to justice, is yet to be seen,"
"At the end of the day we have to look at Sri Lanka’s track record, we need to look at who is really in charge of this and whether there is an independent body monitoring it."