[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 204 (Tuesday, December 12, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5922-S5923]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 493--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE IN SUPPORT OF 
THE PEACEFUL, DEMOCRATIC, AND ECONOMIC ASPIRATIONS OF THE PEOPLE OF SRI 
                                 LANKA

  Mr. CARDIN (for himself and Mr. Risch) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 493

       Whereas, in recent years, Sri Lanka has undergone a 
     political, economic, and humanitarian crisis causing millions 
     of Sri Lankans to live in dire conditions, with the World 
     Food Program estimating that 17 percent of the population is 
     experiencing food insecurity and severe shortages of medicine 
     and fuel;
       Whereas the crisis in Sri Lanka stems from factors such as 
     corruption, financial mismanagement, and failures in the rule 
     of law, further exacerbated by the Government of Sri Lanka 
     entering into expensive projects involving predatory lending 
     by entities associated with the People's Republic of China;
       Whereas, beginning in March 2022, tens of thousands of Sri 
     Lankans participated in largely peaceful protests lasting 
     more than 100 days, leading to the resignation of President 
     Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the appointment of Ranil 
     Wickremesinghe as the new President of Sri Lanka;
       Whereas the Wickremesinghe government, citing economic 
     constraints, indefinitely postponed local elections scheduled 
     for March 9, 2023, in violation of the Constitution of Sri 
     Lanka;
       Whereas, on February 20, 2023, thousands of largely 
     peaceful protestors demonstrated against the decision to 
     postpone local elections, to which the Sri Lankan police 
     responded by firing tear gas and water cannons;
       Whereas the Government of Sri Lanka continues to repress 
     dissent and protest, conduct surveillance and harass members 
     of civil society, and use the Prevention of Terrorism Act to 
     target political opposition members of ethnic and religious 
     minority groups, activists, and journalists;
       Whereas the Government of Sri Lanka continues to 
     participate in and facilitate the illegal appropriation of 
     land in the North and East, areas of historical habitation of 
     Tamil speaking peoples and various ethnic and religious 
     groups;
       Whereas the Government of Sri Lanka refuses to conduct 
     transparent and independent investigations into credible 
     allegations of corruption, historic atrocities, and other 
     gross violations of human rights against Sinhalese, Tamil, 
     and Muslim communities, and the United Nations and others 
     have recognized that longstanding impunity for corruption and 
     other human rights violations and abuses is a root cause of 
     the current crisis and that many actors responsible for the 
     current crisis have been implicated in abuses dating back to 
     the civil war and the JVP insurrection;
       Whereas, for more than 30 years, Sri Lanka was enveloped in 
     a civil war in which, according to United Nations reports, 
     tens of thousands of Sri Lankans died and thousands more were 
     raped, tortured, forcibly disappeared, or went missing;
       Whereas United Nations reports maintain that members of the 
     Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and members of the 
     Government and security services of Sri Lanka were implicated 
     in horrific atrocities and human rights violations and abuses 
     against Sri Lankan civilians during the civil war;
       Whereas, on multiple occasions, the Government of Sri Lanka 
     has publicly committed to pursuing meaningful justice and 
     accountability for conflict-related crimes and grievances, 
     including in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's May 2009 joint 
     statement with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon 
     and in the government of then-Prime Minister Ranil 
     Wickremesinghe's cosponsoring of United Nations Human Rights 
     Council resolution 30/1, committing to a holistic 
     transitional justice strategy, including a commission for 
     truth, justice, reconciliation, and non-recurrence and a 
     judicial mechanism to prosecute violations and abuses of 
     human rights and violations of international humanitarian 
     law;
       Whereas, in January 2016, under then-Prime Minister 
     Wickremesinghe, the Government of Sri Lanka established a 
     Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms led by 
     respected members of Sri Lankan civil society, which spoke to 
     more than 7,000 Sri Lankans and issued a 700-page report with 
     findings and recommendations about what the Sri Lankan people 
     wanted from the Sri Lankan government in relation to justice 
     and reconciliation, including recommendations supporting 
     international involvement in certain transitional justice 
     mechanisms;
       Whereas successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to 
     live up to those commitments and address the desire of Sri 
     Lankan victims and survivors for meaningful justice and 
     accountability for the atrocities, and in March 2020, 
     President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's administration withdrew the 
     Government of Sri Lanka's commitment to implement Human 
     Rights Council resolution 30/1;
       Whereas the majority of the LTTE leadership were killed or 
     disappeared during the civil war and therefore cannot stand 
     trial for their crimes, and despite evidence implicating Sri 
     Lankan government officials and security forces in atrocity 
     crimes committed against Sri Lankan civilians during the war, 
     no such officials or forces have faced justice for their 
     crimes;
       Whereas, in 2020, 2021, and 2022, the Department of State 
     imposed visa restrictions against Sri Lankan officials for 
     their involvement in gross violations of human rights, 
     including torture and inhumane punishment during the civil 
     war, but successive Sri Lankan governments have promoted and 
     empowered those same individuals;
       Whereas, in 2021 and 2022, the United States cosponsored 
     United Nations Human Rights Council resolutions 46/1 and 51/
     1, mandating that the United Nations collect, analyze, and 
     preserve information and evidence of gross violations of 
     human rights and serious violations of international 
     humanitarian law in Sri Lanka for future accountability 
     processes; and
       Whereas, in September 2023, the United Nations High 
     Commissioner for Human Rights,

[[Page S5923]]

     Volker Turk, issued a report that noted, ``The 2022 economic 
     crisis is a demonstration of the indivisibility of human 
     rights and how impunity, corruption and the weakening of 
     democratic and rule of law institutions ultimately impacted 
     the economic situation. In order to achieve a path to 
     recovery and sustainable development Sri Lanka will need to 
     address the longer-term serious governance and accountability 
     deficits, as well as the continuing legacy of the armed 
     conflict.'': Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) supports the peaceful, democratic, and economic 
     aspirations of the people of Sri Lanka;
       (2) urges the Government of Sri Lanka to hold free and fair 
     local and provincial elections without further delay;
       (3) urges the Government and security forces of Sri Lanka 
     to respect the rights of all Sri Lankans, including the right 
     to protest peacefully, associate freely, and commemorate 
     their dead;
       (4) urges the Government of Sri Lanka to institute 
     meaningful security sector reform, including by reducing the 
     deployment of security forces across the North and East to 
     appropriate peacetime levels, and ensure those credibly 
     implicated in human rights abuses are removed from positions 
     of authority;
       (5) calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to promote an 
     inclusive, pluralistic Sri Lanka through structural reforms 
     and confidence-building measures to address corruption, 
     nepotism, outsized expenditures on the military, minority 
     disenfranchisement, impunity, and other issues that hamper 
     the long-term potential growth of Sri Lanka;
       (6) welcomes Sri Lanka's newly passed anticorruption 
     legislation and calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to 
     ensure that investigations and prosecutions of corrupt 
     officials can move forward independently and impartially;
       (7) calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to strengthen the 
     rule of law, including by respecting and reinforcing the 
     independence of the judiciary and independent institutions;
       (8) welcomes the October 2022 passage of the 21st Amendment 
     package by the Parliament of Sri Lanka as an initial step 
     toward reducing centralized power and encourages further 
     measures to alleviate a lack of meaningful checks and 
     balances;
       (9) welcomes the initial agreement by the International 
     Monetary Fund to loan Sri Lanka $3,000,000,000 to help 
     address the ongoing economic crisis and urges the Government 
     of Sri Lanka to address the recommendations of the 
     International Monetary Fund's September 30, 2023 staff 
     report, which notes that the ``absence of visible progress on 
     addressing corruption and holding officials to account for 
     past behaviour raises popular concerns that officials will 
     continue to enjoy impunity for their misconduct'';
       (10) urges the Government of Sri Lanka to immediately 
     repeal or amend the Prevention of Terrorism Act and ensure 
     that the Act or any counterterrorism laws passed to replace 
     it are aligned with international norms and reflect inclusive 
     consultation with Sri Lankan civil society;
       (11) calls for an immediate moratorium on the appropriation 
     of land facilitated by the Government of Sri Lanka in the 
     North and East and restitution of appropriated lands in a way 
     that guarantees effective access and productive use;
       (12) urges the Government of Sri Lanka to fully implement 
     the Constitution of Sri Lanka, including the 13th Amendment's 
     commitments to devolve specified powers over land, the 
     police, education, health, agriculture, housing, and finances 
     to the provinces;
       (13) urges the Government of Sri Lanka to reach a consensus 
     with opposition parties on behalf of all Sri Lankans, 
     including Tamils, Indian-origin Tamils, Muslims, and members 
     of other religious and ethnic minority groups, to address 
     longstanding issues, including those relating to human rights 
     violations and abuses, disenfranchisement, justice, and 
     accountability, and work toward a sustainable political 
     solution that promotes reconciliation;
       (14) calls on the Government of Sri Lanka to accept and use 
     Sri Lanka's own Consultation Task Force report as the basis 
     for taking action in support of justice, accountability, and 
     reconciliation, and further calls on the government to design 
     and implement all justice measures, including a potential 
     truth commission, with input from, the participation of, and 
     support from victims and survivors; and
       (15) urges the Government of Sri Lanka to engage positively 
     and cooperatively with the United Nations' Human Rights 
     Council, agencies, and special procedure mandate holders and 
     facilitate the implementation of their recommendations on 
     good governance, rule of law, corruption, justice, 
     accountability, and human rights.

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