Adama Dieng, a Former UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide said, Justice, cannot be tested by denying memories. Sustainable peace and progress in the present cannot be achieved by opposing or denying the past. Mullivaikkal documentation and related memoirs have become an important part of the human rights movement against such atrocities in the world.
Adama Dieng performed the ‘Mullivaikkal Memorial’ at an online memorial event organized by the US-based Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam.
His speech was aimed at assessing the domestic and international situation of criminal prosecution and justice in Sri Lanka.
He noted the memory of the tens of thousands of people who lost their lives in Mullivaikkal and paid tribute to the plight of the victims, stressing that remedial action in the case of Sri Lanka can only be held accountable when the victims are prosecuted, regardless of whether they are international crimes or subject to national scrutiny.
Adama Dieng stressed that Mullivaikkal is among us as memories of a human tragedy. You can never deny memories and examine the truth. Recovering memories of the past can help bring hope to the present.
In the case of Sri Lanka, we have seen a situation in which the government, which does not want to do justice to its people – government does not want to co-operate. We have to accept that if a government acts in such a way as to deviate from its responsibilities, the responsibility for obtaining justice rests with the international community. But as the government of the country where the atrocities took place, it is not possible to set aside Sri Lanka and pursue accountability.
We see the situation that Government of Sri Lanka should further retreat from accountability and justice activities by using it as a pretext or cause in the aftermath of the ‘Covid’ virus conditions.”
Adama recalled in his speech The former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote a letter entitled “Sri Lanka is sowing the seeds of contradictions” what he had published with the secretaries by explaining that Sri Lanka is in a dire situation under the current regime. Conditions in Sri Lanka foreshadow impending doom. Conditions in Sri Lanka foreshadow impending doom. He further added that the letter was a warning that the gap for democracy was shrinking.
Adama Dieng, a legal expert from Senegal, was appointed Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide by then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He has been a longtime member of the Justice and Legal Department in Senegal and has been the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since 2001. He is also a longtime member of the International Commission of Jurors. He was also an independent expert on the Zakynthos Council for Haiti from 1995 to 2000.
