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Our Neighbours -- Sri Lanka
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Asian Legal Resource Centre -- ALRC
EMBARGOED FOR
RELEASE:
Friday, 26 March 2004, 0200GMT
For more
information, please contact:
In Hong Kong, Basil Fernando: +852-2698-6339
In Sri Lanka, Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena: 011-282-4444
New report
on torture by the police in Sri Lanka released
(Hong Kong, 26 March
2004) -- The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has today released its
second special report on torture by the police in Sri Lanka.
Entitled 'Endemic
torture and the collapse of policing in Sri Lanka', the 100-page report
is published in the latest edition of article 2 (February 2004,
vol. 3, no. 1).
"What we are
emphasising in this second report is that the gruesome torture still
being practiced in police stations across Sri Lanka indicates the almost
total breakdown in policing in the country," remarks Basil Fernando,
Executive Director of ALRC.
"To describe policing
in Sri Lanka as being in crisis would be to understate the current
situation; it is nearing collapse," continues Fernando. "That an officer
who has forced a TB sufferer to spit into the mouth of another detainee
can continue in service despite widespread knowledge of what he has done
speaks to an organisational disaster, and its utter degradation in the
eyes of the public."
The report describes
31 recent cases of torture or killing by the police of 29 police
stations in Sri Lanka, involving 46 victims, all of whom appear to have
been innocents. It also contains extensive discussion of the
institutional collapse behind these acts, including submissions by ALRC
and the World Organisation Against Torture to the UN Committee on Human
Rights, and a proposed police complaints procedure submitted by ALRC to
the National Police Commission.
The report comes at a
critical time for Sri Lanka, going into a general election, and the
peace process in danger, and is of vital relevance.
"Everybody agrees that
the situation is bad. What we desperately need now is a strategy for
change. That can only come with intense dialogue between civil society
groups, the National Police Commission and National Human Rights
Commission, with a view to putting pressure on the government for
immediate drastic measures, and the resources to make them work,"
concludes Fernando.
The report is being
launched today, Friday 26 March, at 2:30pm (0630GMT), at the Conference
Room of the Asian Legal Resource Centre, 19th Floor, Go-Up Commercial
Centre, 998 Canton Road, Mongkok, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
The report is also
available now online, at
www.article2.org,
in PDF and HTML formats. The Introduction is attached to this document.
Printed copies may be obtained by contacting ALRC in Hong Kong, or in
Sri Lanka through one of the following organizations: People against
Torture, SETIK, Torture Victims Forum, Families of the Disappeared,
Right to Life, Rule of Law Centre, Janasansadaya. For more details, call
Janasansadaya: 038-22-35919.
Asian Legal Resource
Centre -- ALRC, Hong Kong
--END--
INTRODUCTION:
ENDEMIC TORTURE AND THE COLLAPSE OF POLICING IN SRI LANKA
-- Editorial Board,
article 2
This is the second
special report released by the Asian Legal Resource Centre in article
2 on torture and policing in Sri Lanka. 'Torture committed by the
police in Sri Lanka', released in August 2001 (vol. 1, no. 4), was the
first serious attempt at recording the routine use of torture by police
there. It was widely received and publicised within the country and
internationally. At that time, there was no public discussion on torture
in Sri Lanka. The situation has since changed dramatically. Torture by
the police is now almost daily reported in newspapers, television,
radio, and other media. Public actions have been held against torturers.
Heavy pressure has been placed upon defective state institutions. The
judiciary is under attack for its failure to deal effectively with the
problem. Internationally, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on
torture, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers,
and Human Rights Committee, among others, have all commented on the
practice and made recommendations for change. The government of Sri
Lanka has come under global criticism.
Despite these intense
efforts, torture by the police continues to be endemic in Sri Lanka. In
fact, that it has now received such widespread attention and yet
continues unabated speaks to an immense crisis of policing in the
country. The police force in Sri Lanka as it now exists is in no
position to protect the rule of law and citizens' rights; on the
contrary, it is a profound threat to the security of both.
The contents of
this report
All of
the 31 cases--involving 46 victims of 29 police stations and two other
state institutions--contained in this report indicate a collapse of
disciplinary control and basic procedures in the Sri Lankan police
force. Among them, two recent stories are particularly disturbing. In
one, an officer at Matale police station poured boiling water on his
victim (case no. 28). In the other, an officer at Welipenna ordered a
detainee believed to be suffering from tuberculosis to spit into the
mouth of another detainee (case no. 29). These officers are obviously
psychologically unbalanced, and yet they are allowed to function as
criminal investigators, exercising enormous power over the people they
arrest. That such officers retain their posts even after their cases
have been reported to the highest authorities suggests a degree of
tolerance of such behaviour that is difficult to comprehend.
Apart from the cases
of torture, this report contains a number of important sections and
appendices. It opens with the first part of a detailed report on
state-sponsored violence in Sri Lanka submitted to the United Nations
Human Rights Committee by the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) and
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT). Then, following the cases,
Basil Fernando comments on aspects of the current situation. After his
remarks are the general recommendations ALRC and OMCT submitted to the
Human Rights Committee in their report on state-sponsored violence in
Sri Lanka. Five appendices follow. The first consists of the draft
complaint procedure for implementation of article 155G(2) of the 17th
Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka submitted by the Asian Human
Rights Commission (AHRC) to the National Police Commission. The second
contains extracts from the concluding observations of the United Nations
Human Rights Committee on the periodic report of Sri Lanka in 2003. The
third describes a public hearing about the torture of children held in
December 2003. The fourth reproduces a pamphlet by local human rights
organisation, Janasansadaya, on the rights of victims of crime. The
fifth, on guarantees for individuals deprived of their liberty, si drawn
from the most recent report of the Special Rapporteur on torture.
The purpose of this
report
The contents of this
report are not controversial. The Attorney General of Sri Lanka has
himself publicly accepted that the lack of proper law enforcement in the
country is due to institutional problems. He has admitted that his
department is understaffed and the cause of delays. He has also pointed
to the shortage of courts as a cause for delays. In fact, no one would
deny that these delays have become intolerable. There is also a
consensus, even in the police force, that forensic and police training
facilities are grossly inadequate, bordering on primitive. Likewise,
there is general agreement that torture serves no legitimate purpose,
and must be eliminated.
Despite all this,
there are at present no ideas on how to make the necessary changes. The
purpose of this report is to argue that those responsible for bringing
about changes, among them the NPC, National Human Rights Commission and
civil society organisations, must now put their energy into making a
strategy for effective police reforms and elimination of torture. This
must include putting serious pressure on the government, and all
political parties, to provide adequate resources for this task.
Under international
law, torture is considered one of the most heinous of crimes. In some
countries, perpetrators are punished with life imprisonment, and victims
receive huge compensation payments. By these standards, both on paper
and in terms of judicial precedent, the law in Sri Lanka falls far
behind. Although the Convention against Torture Act (No. 22 of 1994)
prescribes a mandatory seven-year sentence, there is undue hesitation
about applying the law. This must end. Judicial attitudes about torture
can have a strong effect on the wider society. It follows that efforts
by the Sri Lankan judiciary to bring domestic law into line with
international developments in this area are long overdue.
Acknowledgments
As previously, this
publication is the result of hard work by many local organisations and
concerned persons, some of whom can be mentioned as follows: Centre for
Rule of Law, Families of the Disappeared (Kalape Api), Human Rights and
Development Centre (SETIK), Janasansadaya (People's Forum), and People
against Torture (PAT). Our appreciation also goes to ALRC's partner
organisation in Europe, OMCT, for its assistance in bringing these
issues to the international community. Finally, thanks to Anju
Srivastava for her assistance during initial preparations of the
material in this report.
It is the willingness
of the victims and their loved ones that has made all this work
possible. The government of Sri Lanka, and even the Department of the
Attorney General, has in the past claimed that victims of torture have
been unwilling to come forward and fight for their rights. This has not
been the experience of ALRC and its partners in Sri Lanka. As manifest
by this and the previous report, victims are not only coming forward to
reveal their stories; they are also enduring intense harassment--even
risking life and limb--in their struggles for justice. The sheer
determination of these persons makes this report possible and gives rise
to hope that change can be brought about to end the torture and
attendant abuses persisting in Sri Lankan police stations. Our highest
appreciation goes to all these persons who, despite suffering so badly,
have asserted their dignity by demanding that justice be done. |