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SRI LANKA: TID officers detain a man for more than two years without a trial and on clearly fabricated charges

September 8, 2009

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-114-2009



8 September 2009
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SRI LANKA: TID officers detain a man for more than two years without a trial and on clearly fabricated charges

ISSUES: Illegal detention; fabricated charges; torture
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that a man has been illegally imprisoned for over two and a half years after his illegal arrest, beating and mock execution by police officers. Although no legitimate evidence has been produced and he was cleared of the charge after two years, a second terrorism charge has been fabricated against him by police officers. He has been given no chance to arrange legal representation or to go to trial and is one of hundreds currently languishing in jails and remand prisons across the country due to the misuse of draconian Anti Terrorism laws. The AHRC firmly believes that these laws need to be reviewed and repealed for the rule of law to be restored in Sri Lanka.

CASE DETAILS:

According to Suresh Kumar Dias, he was in his tailoring shop on 7 March 2007 when about seven men wearing civilian clothing arrived and started to question him about a business contact, who had been accused of being linked to the LTTE. They tied his hands and feet together and searched his shop, beating him with a stick for half an hour and fracturing his left upper arm.

Business documents were taken and Suresh was driven to various spots around town, during which he was beaten again and made to undergo a mock execution. It was only later that he found out that they were police officers.

The men eventually took him to Negombo hospital, and then to the Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) in Colombo the next day, where he was detained without charge for over a month. On 12 April 2007 he was transferred to Boosa Detention Centre where he was illegally detained again until 26 June. He was then transferred to Colombo's New Magazine Prison. He was only able to find out that a B report (B 9681/2007) had been filed, accusing him of unspecified terrorism charges.

Dias was cleared from those charges on February 13, 2009 after almost two years in remand prison, on the instructions of the Attorney General (AG). But he was not released; during his time in prison another case (B 519/2006) had been filed against him at the Pugoda Magistrate’s Court, accusing him of bombing a Dialogue Telecom PLS transmission tower in Radhawan. He has been refused bail and the case is pending.

The AG has not made any representation in this case. No evidence of any sort has been produced against him and the case has not gone to trial, which means that he has been unable to prepare any kind of defense.

However Suresh is a Tamil, albeit one who can't speak or write Tamil; his family migrated to Colombo a long time ago. Because of his birth name he says he faced continual problems at traffic checkpoints—officers would be suspicious when he couldn't answer them in Tamil or give them any information relating to Tamil affairs—so he decided to legally adopt a Sinhala name.
This may well have been the trigger for his arrest.

We urge that he be released immediately from illegal detention and swiftly compensated for the gross violations of his constitutional rights. Representation has been made to the Attorney General on this matter.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please send letters to the authorities listed below condemning the conduct of the Sri Lankan authorities and calling for the release of the victim following a legitimate investigation.

The AHRC has sent a letter to the UN Working Group on arbitrary detention calling for its intervention into this case.

To support this urgent appeal please click here:
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SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear __________,

Re: SRI LANKA: TID officers detain a man for more than two years without a trial and on clearly fabricated charges

Name of victim: Weligarmarachchige Suresh Kumar Dias of 237/4 Diaasnayake Mawatha, Meegahawatte, Delgoda
Name of alleged perpetrators: The Sri Lankan authorities

Date of incident: 7 March 2007 until the present
Current place of detention: New Magazine prison

According to information I have received, Weligarmarachchige Suresh Kumar Dias has been held under anti-terrorism laws without reason or legitimate charge since 7 March, 2007. On the day of his arrest and the days following, he was beaten severely and subjected to a mock execution; police neither identified themselves nor wore uniforms. He has since been transferred to and from various places of detention, at no time clear about the charges against him or given an opportunity to prepare his legal defense.

At no stage has there been any credible evidence to connect him to such activities. This led to him being cleared from his charges on February 13, 2009 on the instructions of the Attorney General after almost two years in remand prison.

However instead of releasing him, Mr. Dias was remanded again, since another baseless case (B 519/2006) had been filed against him at the Pugoda Magistrate’s Court, accusing him of bombing a Dialogue Telecom PLS transmission tower in Radhawan. He has been refused bail and the case is pending.

The AG has not made any representation in this case. No evidence of any sort has been produced against him and the case has not gone to trial. I strongly suspect that the reason for Mr Dias' arrest is the fact that he is a Tamil businessman who took a Sinhala name since he cannot speak or write Tamil.

His years in detention without trial or legal representation are an outrageous violation of his constitutional rights, and I urge that he be released immediately and compensated. The officers responsible for his torture, illegal arrest and mock execution must be thoroughly investigated and brought before the law. Representation has been made to the Attorney General on this matter, and I understand that the Asian Human Rights Commission has sent a letter to the Working Group on arbitrary detention calling for its intervention into this case.

I'd like to take this opportunity to demand the review and repeal of Sri Lanka's harmful, draconian anti-terrorism laws, in the hope that the rule of law can soon be restored in Sri Lanka.


Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. Jayantha Wikramaratne
Inspector General of Police
New Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440 / 327877
E-mail: igp@police.lk

2. Mr. Mohan Peiris
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421
E-mail: ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk

3. Secretary
National Police Commission
3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers
109 Galle Road
Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 395310
Fax: +94 11 2 395867
E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk or polcom@sltnet.lk

4. Secretary
Human Rights Commission
No. 36, Kynsey Road
Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

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Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
AHRC-UAC-114-2009
Countries :
Issues :
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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.