The announcement seems to have caught the Government on the backfoot with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) taking nearly 48 hours to respond to the UK action. Yesterday the MFA issued a half-hearted statement after the ‘position of the Government of Sri Lanka was conveyed by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath to British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Andrew Patrick at the MFA. What Herath told the UK envoy according to the press statement was that ‘such unilateral actions by countries do not assist but serve to complicate the national reconciliation process underway in Sri Lanka.’

It’s rather a mild way of putting it across compared to say when the Canadian government imposed sanctions on former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya Rajapaksa and two other army personnel in January 2023 when the then Foreign Minister Ali Sabry summoned the Canadian Acting High Commissioner at the time and expressed the deep regret of the Government.

In 2020, when the US imposed sanctions on Shavendra Silva and his immediate family members, the Government at the time strongly objected to the move.

The NPP Government has not taken such a strong stance against the UK on the sanctions issue but reiterated its commitment to dealing with any past human rights violations through a domestic mechanism.

It is no secret that it is usually domestic compulsions that drive foreign nations to impose sanctions on individuals in other countries or bring about other such punitive actions in international bodies. LTTE lobbyists continue to be strong in the USA, Canada, UK and many other Western countries and have a big say in the electoral processes in some of these nations with political expediency often being the reasons for such actions.

Sri Lanka is a country that suffered due to terrorism for 30 years which ended in 2009 with the defeat of the LTTE. Thousands of people have died in the country due to terrorism. When the war ended in 2009, there were many unanswered questions about the last days of the war in particular, over the use of artillery in areas where civilians were trapped as well as disappearance of several hundreds who surrendered to the military and were never heard of again. These are certainly cases for grave concern and cases where civilians were deliberately targeted must be investigated and culprits punished. The LTTE took hundreds of civilians hostage during the last days of the war but there is little noise from these countries that are eager to impose sanctions on military and political leaders in Sri Lanka. When it comes to dealing with the LTTE members who were funding arms purchases, child conscriptions and many other illegal activities to support terrorism in Sri Lanka and some of who continue to live comfortably in Western capitals, these governments have been impotent. This maybe because it’s easy to arm twist a country like Sri Lanka where political divisions and weak and inconsistent foreign policy make it an easy target.

The UK statement on sanctions said that ‘for communities to move forward together, there must be acknowledgement, and accountability for past wrongdoing. This is certainly important if there is to be genuine reconciliation in the country.

However most Sri Lankans will scoff at the UK talking of ‘accountability for past wrongdoings’ given its track record as Sri Lanka’s last European coloniser. We have yet to hear of ’accountability for past wrongdoings’ by the once Great Britain or even an apology or talk of reparations for their actions in the country. While many decades have gone by, people have not forgotten these past crimes. Hence while the Government has to take steps to ensure that its promises of national unity and reconciliation are not limited to words, the UK isn’t best placed to preach human rights to Sri Lanka or for that matter to many other countries.