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The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) concerning the case of custodial torture and fabrication of a false case against two persons by the officers from Baduria and Basirhat police stations. It is alleged that the victims in the case now face a fabricated charge for possession of cannabis and are detained at the Dum Dum Central Correctional Home in West Bengal. It is reported that one of the police officers involved in the incident has demanded Rs. 3000.00 as bribe from the father of one of the victims to stop torturing the victims in custody.

You can awake a man who is sleeping but you can’t awake a man who is pretending to be asleep. Everyone in the government knows that this is exactly what is happening in Sri Lanka, in terms of governance. Now the government is in not only in crisis but is facing crisis within a crisis. The failure of proper policing has led to the killing of unarmed people were engaged in peaceful protests over mulish management of essential affairs by the ruling party. As this writer has pointed out earlier, the cynical manipulation and unremitting intervention of the regime at every layer of the social structure is continuously damaging to the country’s judicial structure, its independence and even the primary freedom of the public.

සාමකාමී ලෙස උද්ඝෝෂණය කරන උද්ඝෝෂකයින්ට වෙඩි තැබීම ශ්‍රී ලංකා පොලිසිය සාමාන්‍යයෙන් සිදුකරන දෙයක් බව ධීවර සහ ජලජ සම්පත් සංවර්ධන කැබිනට් අමාත්‍ය රාජිත සේනාරත්න මහතා හලාවතදී ධීවරයෙකුට වෙඩි තබා මරාදැමීම සම්බන්ධයෙන් බී.බී. සී. සිංහල සේවයේ වාර්තාකරුවෙකු ඇසූ ප්‍රශ්නයකට පිළිතුරු දෙමින් ප්‍රකාශ කළේය. මෙලෙස ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ පොලිසිය උද්ඝෝෂකයින්ට වෙඩි තැබීම ආරම්භ වූයේ 1953 හර්තාලයේ යෙදුන අය ඉලක්ක කරගනිමින් වන අතර එතැන් පටන් එය අඛණ්ඩව සිදුවෙමින් පවතී. එසේම ඇමතිවරයා ධීවරයෙකු ලෙස තම ජීවිකාව ගෙන ගිය ඇන්ටනි ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතා පොලිසිය විසින් ඝාතනය කිරීම පිළිබඳව වගකීමෙන් ආණ්ඩුව නිදහස් කිරීමට උත්සහ කළ අතර ඩීසල් සහ භූමිතෙල් මිල ඉහල යාම නිසා හටගත් එම සාමකාමී උද්ඝෝෂණයේදී සිදු කළ අපරාධ සම්බන්ධයෙන් කිසිඳු ක්‍රියාමාර්ගයක් ගැනීමට බලාපොරොත්තුවක් නොමැති බවද ඉඟි කළේය.

The Asian Human Rights Commission is writing to you concerning the case of Phyo Wai Aung, the young man whom the Myanmar Police Force have falsely accused of conducting a bombing at the traditional New Year festival during 2010. The AHRC has been closely following this case since the beginning, and has documented multitudinous miscarriages of justice throughout the investigation and trial proceedings.

Mr. Rajitha Seneratne, the Cabinet Minister for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, when answering a question to a BBC Sinhala Service correspondent regarding the shooting of a fisherman at a peaceful demonstration in Chilaw stated that the shooting of demonstrators is a usual practice of the Sri Lankan police. Sri Lankan policemen have shot demonstrators in the past beginning from the 1953 Hartal protest and ever since. The minister was thus, attempting to excuse the government from its responsibility for the shooting and also point out that no action will follow relating to the killing of Anthony Fernando, the young fisherman who was shot dead while demonstrating the increase in the price of diesel and kerosene which affects the fishermen.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a 19 year old woman was abducted, raped for more than a year and sold with the connivance of high officials of the police. The officials of the Citizen's Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), a government agency, were pressuring the young woman and her family not to pursue the case as the perpetrators, particularly a lady who runs a Beauty Parlour, are powerful people who are capable of taking revenge. The family of the victim is facing threats from the perpetrators and the police have refused to include the names of the perpetrators in her old FIR when she was abducted.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is calling for court observers at the resumption of the trial of ten activists, who are being prosecuted under Criminal Code on trespassing and coercion in relation to peaceful protest that was held on 12 December 2007 in Thailand. The Black case No. is 4383/2553. The trial of them case will be on February 21 - 24 and 28 - 29, 2012 and on March 2012 and on April 2012, at the Criminal Court in Bangkok at 9.00am - 4.30pm.

ධීවර කර්මාන්තයෙන් තම ජීවිකාව ගෙනයන ධීවරන්යින්ට ඉන්ධන මිල ඉහළ දැමීම බරපතල ලෙස බලපෑම හේතු කොට ගනිමින් අනෙක් ධීවරයින් සමඟ සාමකාමිව උද්ඝෝෂණයේ යෙදුණු ඇන්ටනි ප්‍රනාන්දු මහතාට පසුගිය 14 වැනිදින වෙඩි තබනු ලැබීය. උතුරුමැද පළාත් භාර නිජෝජ්‍ය පොලිස් පරීක්ෂක රවී විජේගුණවර්ධනගේ අණ යටතේ ක්‍රියාත්මක වූ විශාල සංඛ්‍යාවකගෙන් යුතු පොලිස් කණ්ඩායමක් අදාළ උද්ඝෝෂණය කෙරුණු ස්ථානයේ ස්ථාන ගත කරනු ලැබීය. අදාළ උද්ඝෝෂනය පාලනය කිරීම සඳහා විශේෂ කාර්ය බලකායේ කණඩායමක් මෙන්ම යුධහමුදාවේ බට පිරිස් එම ස්ථානයට රැගෙන එනු ලැබූහ.

On February 14 a young fisherman, Anthony Fernando, was shot dead while he was engaged with a number of other fishermen in protesting the increase of oil prices which would seriously affect the livelihood of fisherfolk. A large group of policemen led by the Deputy Inspector General of Police for the North Western Province, Ravi Wijegunawardena, was deployed at the demonstration. A group of soldiers and STF officers were also brought in to control the demonstration.

In light of your upcoming official visit to Nepal, we would like to draw your attention to several developments which have been of serious concern since your previous visit, in particular such are the attempts by the executive to provide amnesty for human rights violations which occurred during the conflict, further damaging the ability of rule of law institutions to provide redress to the victims. Criminal justice institutions have also proven impotent in curbing the trend of persisting human rights violations such as torture, and to protect the defenders fighting for the defence of human rights from threats and attacks.

Credible action to bring Maina Sunuwar's murderers to trial in Nepal's civilian jurisdiction has been unjustifiably delayed. The government bears responsibility for allowing impunity to become so deeply-entrenched that those who tortured a 15-year-old school girl to death remain unpunished despite arrest warrants pending against them.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that Yusli, a 23-year old man, died while in custody of the Cisauk sub-district police station, Tangerang, Indonesia on 26 December 2011. Several wounds and bruises were found on Yusli’s body, in addition to a shot wound on his chest. The police claimed that Yusli was escaping, so they had to shoot him. However, the reasons for his arrest remain unclear as no arrest warrant was produced.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Santhan Stanys Ramesh (33) was falsely charged by officers of the TID in a fabricated case when he refused to become a witness on their behalf. He was subjected to degrading treatment and remains in detention at the Anuradhapura Remand Prison. The filing of fabricated charges is nothing new in the law enforcement institutions in Sri Lanka. Indeed it is a common complaint and while it mostly affects the underprivileged it is not uncommon for persons from all walks of life to be affected by this blatantly illegal act of the authorities.

M. Nishantha Fernando Jayawardena of Panadura in Kalutara district was assaulted by the Superintendent of Police (SP) for Panadura, Lesly Hamilton Gregory Cooray on 4 June, 2010 when he went to answer a query. For no reason at all the SP grabbed Nishantha's shirt collar and struck him on his chest and face. When Nishantha's wife tried to intervene the SP pushed her out of the way. The victim has now filed a private plaint at the Magistrate's Court of Panadura and this is likely to be sabotaged by the Attorney General's Department who had announced that it is taking over the prosecution.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Ms. Warnakula Gunawardhana Sellapperumage Mangalika Jayasooriya, of 120/1, Bogamuwa, Kalagedihena in the Gampaha District is facing death threats after her properties have been forcibly grabbed by the henchmen of a powerful politician and a deputy minister of the ruling government of Sri Lanka. despite making complaints at several police stations she was informed by the Officer-in-Charge of the Veyangoda Police Station that due to the influence of a deputy minister investigations cannot be initiated.

There is always a fallacious belief that, “It would not be the same here; here such things are impossible”1. The morning of Valentine’s Day (February 14) started with the unwholesome smell of the burnt carcass of a person; the incident took place in the central part of Colombo, which is one of most secure places in the entire country. The body had been tied to a pole and burnt. People are weeping and screaming over the incident, no one has a solution, and all are in a dilemma. Many suspect that the victim is the person who was abducted outside the court by an armed gang yesterday. If this is true, then it is common sense to understand where we are heading.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the bullet riddled bodies of two missing young men from Sindh province were found on the road side. Both young men had been missing for the last six months when they were arrested by the law enforcement agencies while traveling on the Karachi highway. Since January 2012, more than a dozen bullet riddled bodies have been found in Sindh province. The policy of the intelligence agencies to kill and dump been seen in Sindh province and most of the victims have been young students from the nationalist groups. It is evident that the activists are being arrested by Intelligence personnel in the presence of police officers and taken to the torture cells run by military and its intelligence agencies. More than a hundred persons, including members of sectarian religious groups, have been missing since the military regime of General Musharraf but their whereabouts remain unknown.

We have been informed that a man who was tortured and illegally detained for 28 months was abducted before the Supreme Court could hear his Fundamental Rights application. The AHRC has in the past documented similar cases wherein police officials were directly involved in abducting and murdering torture victims to deliberately prevent them from testifying before court.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is deeply concerned with the introduction of the new online service for national elections by the National Election Commission (NEC). The failure of the previous system in October last year during the Seoul Mayor election has raised serious concerns about allegations of election fraud. The National Assembly decided to set up an independent body that would commence its work in early March. Despite the important evidence such as log files of such failure, the NEC may use this technical restructuring process to justify the disappearance of key evidence.

Rotten and maggot-ridden corpses lie scattered in compounds; dogs, crows and other rodents run around with human body parts; tables made of broken wooden planks where putrefied human bodies are cut open by Doms (members of a Dalit community known in India for dealing with dead bodies) with crude tools like a chisel or nail hit hard with bricks used as hammer; human viscera samples lying in unsealed unmarked bottles and plastic containers, with its contents half or completely decayed. These are some of the blood chilling and appalling conditions of what in India is termed a forensic examination.