By M.R. Narayan Swamy, IANS
New Delhi : A former Indian chief justice who presides over an international panel overseeing probes into rights abuses in Sri Lanka has taken strong exception to a harsh attack on him by a top official in Colombo.
P.N. Bhagwati said that Sri Lankan Attorney General C.R. de Silva made "very indiscreet observations" while criticising reports put out by the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), which the Indian heads.
De Silva "should not have made the very indiscreet observations," Bhagwati told IANS here. "He has every right to make his own submission or even to give a different opinion. As a judge, I have always welcomed dissent because dissent helps to discover the truth.
"But such criticism should be in proper language, respectful language. If it extends to abuse, it is wrong," added Bhagwati, 84, who headed India's Supreme Court in 1985-86.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse set up IIGEP in February to oversee the investigations carried out by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which came up in November 2006 to look into several high-profile human rights violations.
This month, IIGEP, which also has eminent jurists from other countries, said the Presidential Commission had not made noticeable progress in investigating rights abuses and that its independence, timeliness and witness protection did not meet international standards.
It also sought an international human rights monitoring mechanism to be set up in Sri Lanka or be invited to the war-torn country.
In response, de Silva alleged that Bhagwati's remarks were based on ignorance, were not in good faith and that it would have been far more prudent if Bhagwati had personally observed the proceedings of the Presidential Commission.
Speaking in the Indian capital, Bhagwati found fault with de Silva's language.
"I don't mind the attorney general criticising IIGEP, after all I represent the committee. It is not a personal thing. If he thinks we are wrong, he should say so in proper, dignified language."
Asked if he would talk personally to the attorney general, Bhagwati replied: "Why should I descend to this? I have all the support of my colleagues in IIGEP. We have the support of the (Sri Lankan) president.
"We are independent persons, what does it matter to us? I have an international reputation."
Soon after he was offered the job of heading a body of jurists from various countries to oversee investigations into growing human rights violations in the island nation, Bhagwati had told IANS in November last year that he would throw it off if there was interference in his work.
Bhagwati maintained now that he had not studied the rights situation in Sri Lanka thoroughly.
"I have not really studied the situation, yet. It is just the beginning. The Presidential Commission of Inquiry has just started work."
But he made it clear that the job of international jurists, including him, was only to see if the investigations were being done properly and not to do any probing themselves. "Ours is a supervisory body."
Bhagwati explained that he had gone to Sri Lanka "twice or thrice, but every time only to organize the things" related to IIGEP whose members, he said, were people of "high standing, independent and fair-minded".
Nearly 5,000 people have been killed and many more displaced in Sri Lanka since the end of 2005 in mounting violence for which the military, Tamil Tigers and Tamil groups opposed to the Tigers have been blamed. Brazen rights violations have led to global concerns over the Sri Lanka situation.