The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned from several newspaper reports that the former President of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Kumaratunga, has been appointed as senior consultant to UNESCO for education in Asia.
The AHRC is surprised and shocked that a person with a record of grossly violating human rights, abusing power and displacing the rule of law in Sri Lanka has been appointed as a senior consultant to a UN agency.
If Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines or Suharto of Indonesia had been given such a post there would have been international outrage. However, as Mrs. Kumaratunga’s record outside the country is not so well known, UNESCO may have taken this decision without being beware of her past acts.
We are therefore bringing this matter to your attention so that you will have the necessary background information to enable you to take responsibility for the appropriate measures.
Having come to power through populist policies in response to the massive disappearances and other abuses of power by the previous regime, Mrs. Kumaratunga went back on all of her election promises to investigate and prosecute the offenders of gross human rights abuses. While 30,000 disappearances were recognised by her government through fact-finding commissions, none of the cases were prosecuted. The state machinery was mishandled to ensure that no criminal investigations have taken place. For tens of thousands of families of the disappeared, Mrs. Kumaratunga remains a person who denied them their rights to justice.
She also promised to bring about a peaceful settlement to the ethnic conflict in the North and East of the country, but her period in office saw no attempt to deal with this issue. Instead, deeper militarisation took place, leading to further bloodshed. The fact that today Sri Lanka is one of the most violent places in the world is a direct result of the government of Mrs. Kumaratunga.
Her period in office is also known for its extreme corruption. Mrs. Kumaratunga and a small circle of persons about her are known to have gained considerable wealth through the misuse of their positions. She even obtained a valuable piece of land as her retirement gift from the country; its transfer was stopped only by way of a court decision following action by public interest groups in Sri Lanka.
In a recent book “Choura Regina – Rogue Queen”, a reputed journalist, Victor Ivan, gives a long narrative of the personal wealth acquired by Mrs. Kumaratunga and her close associates during her time as president. The epithet Rogue Queen is used by the author to refer to Mrs. Kumaratunga.
This book also gives alleges that the bomb blast in which Mrs. Kumaratunga lost her eye just three days before the presidential election in 1999 was a political stunt carried out in order to get public sympathy that backfired. Some 26 bystanders died, yet criminal investigations were reportedly stopped in order to prevent the truth from becoming known to the public, and thereby prevent the actual conspiracy and carrying out of this crime from becoming justicable.
Furthermore, Mrs. Kumaratunga is alleged to have used the Presidential Special Security Unit (PSSU) to have her opponents assassinated. Two prominent persons named in Ivan’s book as having been assassinated by the unit are Kumar Ponnambalam, a well known lawyer and Tamil politician, and Rohana Kumara, a journalist. Both murders received local and international publicity. This PSSU is also alleged to have harassed many political opponents, including Anoja Weerasinghe, a prominent actress, and Rukantha and Chandraleka, a couple of musicians. Weerasinghe’s house was completely destroyed in a fire, along with archives of her films. Petrol was poured over Rukantha and Chandralaka in front of their children to make them believe that they would be burned alive.
Mrs. Kumaratunga is also alleged to have plotted the assassination of two prominent journalists, the author Victor Ivan and Vickramatunge, the editor of the Sunday Leader newspaper.
We are sending you a photocopy of “Choura Regina” by ordinary post. It is now a bestseller in Sri Lanka. We hope that you will be able to obtain a translation of it. We are also attaching an AHRC statement calling for the Sri Lankan government to begin investigations into the charges leveled against the former president.
On an aside, UNESCO may be interested to know that while in office Mrs. Kumaratunga gave a false account of her education, claiming to possess qualifications from the Sorbonne in France.
It would be scandalous for a person with such a deplorable background to obtain a post at UNESCO. It is also likely that UNESCO will suffer ridicule both from within Sri Lanka and also internationally if it does not reverse its decision to appoint Mrs. Kumaratunga.
We remain at your disposal should you require further information concerning these matters.
Yours sincerely,
KIM Soo A
Programme Officer
Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong
