🇱🇰 Today, Justice Info makes a stopover in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s bloody civil war ended nearly 16 years ago, with war crimes committed on all sides. Victims have seen no justice. A new President and parliament were elected last year, representing a break with traditional parties and the end of rule by the Rajapaksa dynasty that presided over the war. But will he venture into the arena of transitional justice? Some quotes: Anushani Alagarajah, executive director of the Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research in Jaffna, explains that victims in the Tamil community have lost trust in government transitional justice processes, which she says have not served them. “If the government wants to earn their trust,” says this Tamil activist and researcher, “it can go for the low-hanging fruits” such as releasing land seized by the military and releasing information on the tens of thousands of enforced disappearances during the civil war. “Some of [the National People’s Power (NPP)] party policies and emphasis could give one hope of some movement on questions of human rights, accountability and ending the culture of impunity, ” explains Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka Project Director for the International Crisis Group. But he says the NPP’s roots and traditions come, like previous governments, out of Sinhala Buddhist nationalism, which is “at the heart of the ethnic conflict, the war, and the legitimating ideology against the Tamil militants, justification of terrible violence and war crimes”. “The government is reliant on a lot of economic aid from other countries, so bilateral interventions can also help keep the pressure for justice and accountability before it’s too late. Because people are dying - it’s been decades of chasing justice for the war and discrimination”, says Alagarajah. ➡️ Read our full article here: https://www.justiceinfo.net/en/140999-sri-lanka-break-past.html See you on Tuesday for a new article. In the meantime, you can support Justice Info and our journalists by sharing this one.