Effectiveness of Payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka

The number of transitional justice initiatives in Sri Lanka, in the previous decades, ;at different times  have explored the conflict of reparations. Many in ad-hoc forms with no comprehensive policy yet to be presented which meets the basic international standards. Past commissions of inquiry (COIs) including the All Island Commission of Inquiry into Involuntary Removal and Disappearance of Certain Persons of 1998 (Disappearances COI) and the later Lessons Learnt Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) perceived the requirement for reparations and made some helpful proposals including legal and policy reformation and provide guidance to victim (Boyle, 2013). There have additionally been government circulars and projects to grant remuneration and issue death certificated involving crafted by the Rehabilitation of Persons, Properties and Industries Authority (REPPIA). Rehabilitation of Persons, Properties and Industries Authority (REPPIA) it consist to be an authority which is designed by an act of parliament in 1987. presently the authority of REPPIA gives appropriate financial assistance to people who are affected by any kind of issues. The authority offers assistance to all 25 districts which are entitled to get rehabilitation guidance in the form of compensation and loan as per the destruction, damages and loss that are estimated by the appropriate authorities.  This paper talks about a portion of these activities, some which keep on being important and essential today, and gives proposals that ought to be analysed and executed immediately.

Evidence to support the existence of the problem

The research into consideration is based on  the effectiveness of Payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka. The country has faced various issues in regards to terrorism in the year of 1983. The issue in between of the government of Sri Lanka and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has lasted nearly three decades and it is considered as the most largest running civil wars in Asia. For the purpose of gaining peace, political experts says that the government of Sri Lanka, required to find a political solution to the ethnic issue among the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils which has plagued the country since its freedom. The Canada and European Union have joined the United States, Australia and India in labelling the LTTE a terrorist firm, that has create it more difficult for the group to get financing from the abroad. In the civil war seventy thousand people were killed and defender groups have accused both the Sri Lanka and LTTE military of human rights, violations, including abduction, extortion, and the use of child soldiers. After this war reparation payment has decide to provide to the victims who are get affected with the issue of war. In 2^nd June 1987, an act is established as an authority to guide in the Rehabilitation of the certain persons and the repair, restoration and Rehabilitation of some particular properties, industries or business and to render more matters that are connected with the incidents. Rehabilitation is considered as a social services which is based on humanitarian approach. This social services has become a most integral part of services in regards to sporadic violence and intermittent related to ethnicity, religion, politics or terrorism.    The government of Sri Lanka is only offering compensation as to opposed to the entire package of reparation. Even the compensation mechanism is not clearly explained, streamlined, communicated and administered (Ekpa and Dahlan, 2015). So people faces various kind of issues and conflicts in regards to gaining the reparation package. Due to some major errors people are not able to take the benefits of reparation payments like issue with application form as people are not aware about the facilities which are offered by the government to the victims. Thus due to lack of information they are not even registered their self in the application of reparation. An another issue which is faced by the victims were evidentiality forms as, people are not able to providing appropriate evidence to prove that they are affected by the issue and need compensation to overcome with the issue. One more issue which is lack of government as well as civilian knowledge has also affect the payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka. Due to the reason of less government records people are not able to justify their self as a victim and not even able to get the amount of reparation. In civilians, the lack of knowledge has impacted the life of victims as they are not aware about such kind of acts and policies so they are failed to taking benefits of such kind of policies like payment of reparation. There are various principles which are determined by the CPA as a key in moving forward to getting the reparation payments are described as below:

• Reparations needs to be implemented without discrimination or prejudice on the behalf of ethnicity, gender, age, political affiliation, class, marital status, sexual orientation, nationality, religion and disability, or any other status.    
• The process needs to be recognise the role of victim and their major participation in the transitional justice.
• Reparations process required to be gender sensitive and address the requirement of individual headed households and victims of sexual violence, with measures taken to prevent intensification of injury and mark.
• Reparation process needs to be avoid conditions that lead to foster discrimination and marginalization and should not be seen as a form of revenge.

Signification of the Research

The present research is based on the riots which began as a response to a deadly ambush on 23 July 1983 by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam, it considered as a Tamil militant group which killed 13 Sri Lanka Army soldiers. On the night of 24 July 1983, at the the very first in the capital Colombo an anti -Tamil program spread to other part of the country. For any consist post war society struggle with the issues and consequences of past violence and engaged in exploring modalities for transitional justice, reparations is an essential tool. The major purpose of the research is to providing a brief discussion on analysing the effectiveness of Payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka. This investigation is effective in enhancing the knowledge base of learner in the specified area of study (Evans and Evans, 2012). This particular study is effective in providing a knowledge in regards to gaining the payment facility of reparation and passing the reparation bills. Management practices and theories are effective in providing a huge contribution in completion of the investigation work in appropriate manner. BPR model is effectively applying model which is effective in improving the government services in Sri Lanka.

Business process re-engineering is consist as a process, which could be analysed as a method to develop the management performance by making appropriate changes in the schedule of the available management. This model is effective in re-engineering the process of payment of reparation and design it is more effective manner so that delivery of government facilities can be made in appropriate way. The present area of study helps in developing the management base skills and knowledge of learner and also provides guidance to conduct their future projects in effective manner.

Research objectives

• To identify the inadequate payment of reparation to the victim affected in Sri-Lanka.
• To review the payment mechanism distributed to the victims.
• To analyse the challenges in context of payment of reparationfor the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka.

Research Questions

• What is the inadequate payment of reparation to the victim affected in Sri-Lanka?
• How to review the payment mechanism distributed to the victims?
• What are the major challenges occurs in context of payment of reparationfor the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka?

LITERATURE REVIEW 

The inadequate payment of reparation to the victim affected in Sri-Lanka.

Reparation simply means to consider all the legal responsibilities of a state, or individual(s) or group to repair consequences of violations. which could arise due to their negligence or directly committed it. Reparation ultimately assist to the victims for rendering the most appropriate services to them. They also express to victims and society more generally that state is committed to address the main reasons of past violations and ensuring they do not happen again. the government enforced reparations process via administrative programs as the outcome program. At the time of such incident occurred, need of the victims could change over the time. Reparation program could be used in order to identify the inadequate payment of reparation to the victim which were affected in Sri- Lanka. State would make an appropriate mechanism in order to know the victims compensation so that they could fix the compensation criteria and distribute accordingly (Jayawardena and Pinto-Jayawardena, 2016). Now, this can simply been said that the appropriate committee would make certain payment of reparation to the victim in order to satisfy them and act accordingly. Now, new office of reparation would help out in a transparent and inclusive manner which ultimately assist to address the issues on inadequate payment to the victim.

The payment mechanism of reparation distributed to the victims.

Reparations needs to be created and implemented with links to other transitional justice initiatives like as trials, truth telling procedure and institutional reform. Reparation on its own can be construed as ‘buying victims’. Reparations is an essential part of transitional justice and focus on recognising and remedying losses from abuses or disasters. It is one of the four pillars of transitional justice which construct the other three: justice, truth and non-recurrence. In many post-war and post-conflict settings like as Colombia, Guatemala and Sierra Leone, reparations have been introduced to assist victims by way of providing material and symbolic support to assist with rebuilding their lives. With the help of traditional procedure of payment of reparation the distribution of the government facilities are not reached in appropriate manner and it is essential for the government of Sri Lanka to use an appropriate mechanism in respect to providing potential benefits to the victims and their families. Business process re-engineering is the most effective method which is appropriate in making improvement in the distribution of the government facilities like payment of reparation (Moffett, 2014).

The challenges in context of payment of reparation for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka.

As per the views expressed by Michelle Maiese, 2018, There is a effective and growing awareness which addressing the past injustice is a critical part of the process of healing and reconciliation. In order to providing effective benefits of payment of reparation to the victims, the government of Sri Lanka has created an act which is REPPIA and it is effective for rendering potential benefits to the victims who are affected through the disaster. Different kind of challenges are faced by the people in the context of payment of reparation for the victims of the conflict in Sri Lanka. Some are described as below:

• Issue of application form like individuals are not able to fill the forms in appropriate manner. Due to lack of sources the people are nit very much aware about the services which are offered by the government of Sri Lanka so they are failed to taking benefits of the facilities.  
• Issue with providing evidentiality forms, in this victims are not able to provide relevant information in regards to the issue as original information are miss placed due to disaster.
• Another challenge which is faced by people is that due to emergence of fake identify actual victims are not able to gaining the justice and remuneration of the services which are offered by the government in the form of payment of reparation.

METHODOLOGY/ RESEARCH DESIGN

Type of Investigation

This considered to be the most essential part of research work and in this the potential concern of the investigator is to make sure that the research needs to be completed by applying appropriate tools and techniques. There are two measures that act as a basis for conducting research work. The first one is Qualitative research where investigator will focus on analysing the theoretical aspect of issues in an effective way. While second one is Quantitative study where researcher will be using mathematical and statistical tools and techniques for analysing huge amount of data in appropriate manner. In the current research work, Qualitative method is chosen as it will assist in understanding of the effectiveness of Payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka through conducting  proper theoretical frame work.

Research Philosophy

A research philosophy is a belief in regards to the way in which data about a phenomenon needs to be gathered, analysed and used. The element epistemology in against of doxology is encompasses on the different philosophies of the research. Research philosophy is determined as a summary of the investigation experience and the research interest, involving past, present and  future affects. This section is categorised among two major types such as positivism and interpritivism research philosophy (Powers and Proctor, 2016). Positivism is consist as an approach to social science which is based on natural phenomenon and their properties. On the other side interpritivisim philosophy is based on the Interpretivists argue that only through the qualitative interpretation of and intervention in reality which can be understood in effective manner. In the present research work  Interpretivism philosophy has been used by the researcher as a tool to state about the ways that can be used for dealing with qualitative factors and stating about thing from different point of view. It acts as a basis for whole study and without it researcher will be misguided.

Research Design

This is a section which will state about as how study work can be conducted in an effective manner. Research design is a way which assist investigator in outlining a blueprint according to whole research work will be conducted. This piece of work will focus on utilising exploratory mode of design as it will emphasis on analysing the effectiveness of payment of reparation for the victims of conflict in Sri Lanka.  It will assist researcher in describing as how qualitative aspect can be understood. There are other methods too, like exploratory and experimental but they will not be used in current study as the present research work is based on case study or in this theoretical frame work is created through the use of qualitative analysis (Seneviratne, 2012).

Relevant concepts in the Research

The present study is based on effectiveness of Payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka. This investigation includes various concepts and the following re discussed in terms of what is relevant and approbate in the present case.

Compensation: The payment of money by the state in recognition of the false and losses. Rehabilitation: The restoration of a victim’s physical and mental health involving the provision of psychosocial care.

Satisfaction: This element of reparations is more symbolic in nature and involves an apology, recognition, depository and other forms of the memorialization of the past and victims.

Rehabilitation of Persons, Properties and Industries Authority (REPPIA):  It is an Act may be cited as the Rehabilitation of Persons, Properties and Industries Authority Act (Sliwa and Wiig, 2016).

Operationalisation of variables

In a research project research aim is consist to be the key element as the whole activity of research is based on the aim of the research. An aim is a combination of dependent, independent, moderating, intervening variables etc. The research into consideration is based on the effectiveness of payment of reparation for the victims of conflict in Sri Lanka. In this independent variable is reparation, dependent variable is victim of conflicts (Vanhullebusch and Pushparajah, 2016).  

Research Problems

Researcher face multiple issues at the time of conducting an investigation as the present research work is based on a case study and it is critical for the investigator to gather appropriate statistical information in regards to the specified area of study (Somasundaram, 2014). Researcher faces issues at the time of gathering real data like lack of information about the victims, the process of payment of reparation, details of affected people, detail of their injury and damages of property or business losses etc. Time management is also considered to be the major problem of the researcher as the allotted time for the proposal is less and it is important for the researcher to conduct all the research activities in appropriate manner. It is the major obligation of the investigator to design an appropriate time frame in which all the activities are assigned as per the priority of task.

DATA REQUIRED AND METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION 

Unit of Analysis

It considered to be the major key of research which is being analysed in a particular area of study. In the present the analysis is done on  determining the effectiveness of Payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka. In this study the the appropriateness of payment of reparation for the benefits of the victims who are effected by the issue that are faced by people in Sri Lanka.

Methods of Data Collection

This is a fundamental piece of an investigation as in a research data and information plays significant role in carry out the research activities in appropriate manner. In a research work data is being gathered through primary as well as secondary source of data collection. Primary method is effective in gathering the data through self administrated questionnaire as it is effective in summarising the data that are gathered by analysing the opinion of victims of conflicts in Sri Lanka (Torne, 2017). On the other side secondary source is effective in gathering data and in formation thorough different sources like books, journals, article, case study and previous research work.

Data Sampling

This is a section that will focus on getting right people to respond to questions which are put up in this research work. There are two different approaches which will be used, such as probability and non-probability. In former one respondents will be chosen as per want of researcher while in later concept, investigator will set a specified way that will be used for choose people. In this present research work random sampling method has been applied by the investigator as, in this report information is gathered through the victims who are facing the issue of payment of reparation.  A brief sample size of 555 is used for conducting research work that will assist in understanding of analysing the effectiveness of Payment of Reparations for the Victims of the Conflict in Sri Lanka.

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REFERENCES

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• Bakiner, O., 2013. Truth commission impact: An assessment of how commissions influence politics and society. International Journal of Transitional Justice. 8(1). pp.6-30.
• Boyle, F., 2013. The Tamil Genocide by Sri Lanka: The Global Failure to Protect Tamil Rights Under International Law. SCB Distributors.
• Ekpa, S. and Dahlan, N. H. M., 2015. Towards the evolution of right to reparation for loss of housing and property of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPS) in Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. 6(3). p.380.
• Evans, C. and Evans, E. C., 2012. The right to reparation in international law for victims of armed conflict (No. 91). Cambridge University Press.
• Jayawardena, K. and Pinto-Jayawardena, K. eds., 2016. The Search for Justice: The Sri Lanka Papers. Zubaan.
• Moffett, L., 2014. Justice for victims before the International Criminal Court. Routledge.
• Powers, K.  L. and Proctor, K., 2016. Victim's Justice in the Aftermath of Political Violence: Why Do Countries Award Reparations?. Foreign Policy Analysis. 13(4). pp.787-810.
• Seneviratne, W., 2012. Continued Relevance of International Humanitarian Law in Post-Armed Conflict Situations: A Critical Analysis with Special Reference to Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka J. Int'l L.. 24. p.33.
• Sliwa, M. and Wiig, H., 2016. Should I stay or should I go: The role of Colombian free urban housing projects in IDP return to the countryside. Habitat International. 56. pp.11-19.
• Somasundaram, D., 2014. Scarred communities: Psychosocial impact of man-made and natural disasters on Sri Lankan society. SAGE Publications India.
• Torne, C. F., 2017. How Truth Commissions Promote Accountability: An Assessment of the 1994 Zonal Commissions of Inquiry in Sri Lanka.
• Vanhullebusch, M. and Pushparajah, N., 2016. The Politics of Prosecution of International Crimes in Sri Lanka. Journal of International Criminal Justice. 14(5). pp.1235-1260.

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