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SRI LANKA: Two men are abused by police for carrying opposition posters during the presidential election; one is arbitrarily arrested

March 4, 2010

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-021-2010



4 March 2010
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SRI LANKA: Two men are abused by police for carrying opposition posters during the presidential election; one is arbitrarily arrested

ISSUES: Administration of justice; torture; arbitrary arrest
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) would like to report a case of police brutality against members of the United National Party who were in possession of lawful posters for a rally supporting the presidential opposition candidate in December. One man from the party has been arrested and charged with carrying illegal political posters.

CASE DETAILS:

According to the information we have received, retired school teacher Mr. Kankonana Arachchige Hemasiri is the manager of the United National Party in Hakmana constituency. On the 19 December 2009 at around 10:30pm he was waiting opposite the Singer Showroom in Hakmana town with two other party members, Mr. Somadasa Jayasuriya and Mr. Jayatissa Palagasinghe when four police officers in a jeep stopped to look at the posters they were carrying.

The Officer-in-charge (OIC) of Hakmana Police Station Mr. Kamal Amarasinghe, supported by three constables, questioned Hemasiri roughly about the posters and cursed the men. The victims informed him that they were waiting for Pradeeshiya Saba council member Mr. Alahaengoda, who the police then derided before telling Palagasinghe to get into the jeep because, the OIC said, such posters were not allowed after the 17th.(According to Sri Lankan law posters that carry symbols of political parties or photos of their candidates cannot be shown publicly between the time of nomination and voting).

Palagasinghe was then reportedly pulled towards the jeep by OIC Amarasinghe and beaten. When Hemasiri tried to intervene he was also beaten and started to bleed from the mouth (pictured below). The OIC reportedly drove off with Palagasinghe in the jeep.

Hemasiri admitted himself to the Allewalla Rural Hospital for treatment and then went to Matara Hospital the next day, where three of his teeth had to be extracted as a result of the beating. Hospital police took down a statement before he was discharged on the 23 December. He has since filed charges against OCI Amarsinghe in a fundamental rights case (FR 12/2010), which was granted by Chief Justice Shiran Thialakwardena on 20 January 2010 for violations of article 11 and article 14. The case will be taken up on 3 May 2010.

Palagasinghe was released on 20 December on police bail after being charged with crimes relating to his possession of illegal political posters; he claims that the content of the posters, publicizing a rally, was legal. He was produced at the magistrate court in Matara on 6 January on Rs10,000 personal bail and the case has been postponed until 30 September 2010.

There has been no criminal investigation into the maltreatment of these men, which amounts to torture under international standards. It is the obligation of the state to launch one immediately under act 22 of the 1994 penal code. The tenuous and politically- motivated charges against Mr. Palagasinghe must be dropped, and compensation arranged.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to the authorities listed below to demand a criminal investigation into the actions of the police officers involved in this case and for disciplinary and legal action, should they be proven to have acted against the law and guilty of torture.

The AHRC has written to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, informing him of this case.

To support this appeal please click here:

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear __________,

SRI LANKA: Two men are abused by police for carrying opposition posters during the presidential election; one is arbitrarily arrested

Name of victim: Mr. Kankonana Arachchige Hemasiri, resident of Mahakandarawa Wathta, Western Weipathara, Hakmana
Name of alleged perpetrators: Three constables and Officer-in-charge (OIC) Mr. Kamal Amarasinghe of Hakmana Police Station, Southern Range, Matara Division
Date of incident: 19 December 2009
Place of incident: Hakmana

I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding a case of politically motivated police brutality and arbitrary arrest that took place in the lead up to the presidential elections.

According to the information I have received, retired school teacher Mr. Kankonana Arachchige Hemasiri is the manager of the United National Party in Hakmana constituency. On the 19 December 2009 at around 10:30pm he was waiting opposite the Singer Showroom in Hakmana town with two other party members, Mr. Somadasa Jayasuriya and Mr. Jayatissa Palagasinghe, when four police officers in a jeep stopped to look at the posters he was carrying. The men were questioned roughly by the Officer-in-charge (OIC) of Hakmana Police Station Mr. Kamal Amarasinghe, supported by three constables, regarding the posters that they were carrying. The victims informed him that they were waiting for Pradeeshiya Saba council member Mr. Alahaengoda, who the police then derided.

OIC Amarasinghe allegedly then ordered Mr. Palagasinghe to get into the jeep since posters were 'not allowed after the 17th.' Palagasinghe was then reportedly pulled towards the jeep by the OIC and beaten. When Mr. Hemasiri tried to intervene he was also beaten and started to bleed from the mouth, and the police drove off with Mr. Palagasinghe in the jeep.

Hemasiri admitted himself to the Allewalla Rural Hospital firstly for treatment and then went to Matara Hospital the next day, where three of his teeth had to be extracted as a result of the beating. I understand that hospital police took down a statement before he was discharged on the 23 December.

He has since filed charges against OCI Amarasinghe in a fundamental rights case (FR 12/2010), which was granted by Chief Justice Shiran Thialakwardena on 20 January 2010 for violations of article 11 and article 14. The case will be taken up on 3 May 2010. However there has been no criminal investigation into the maltreatment of these men, which in Mr. Hemasiri's case amounts to torture under international standards. It is the obligation of the state to launch one immediately under act 22 of the 1994 penal code.

Mr. Palagasinghe was released on 20 December on police bail after charges were filed against him relating to his possession of the political posters; he claims that the content of the posters, publicizing a rally, was legal. He was produced at the magistrate court in Matara on 6 January 2010 on personal bail RS 10,000 and the case has been postponed until 30th September 2010. I am deeply skeptical of the grounds for these charges and urge that a criminal investigation be conducted into the actions of the police officers involved. Disciplinary and legal action must follow, should they be proven to have acted against the law and perpetrated torture. I understand that the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture has been informed of this case.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

Mr. Mahinda Balasuriya
Inspector General of Police (IGP),
New Secretariat,
Colombo 1,
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440
Email: igp@police.lk

Mr. Mohan Peiris
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department,
Colombo 12,
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421

Secretary,
National Police Commission,
3rd Floor Rotunda Towers,
109 Galle Road,
Colombo 03,
SRI LANKA
Tel/Fax: +94 11 2 395960
Email: polcom@sltnet.lk

Secretary,
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka,
No 108 Barnes Place,
Colombo 07
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
Email: sechrc@sltnet.lk

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP)
Office of the Senior Superintendant of Police
Matara
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 41 2222113

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Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-021-2010
Countries :
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.