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SRI LANKA: Grenade attack against lawyer appearing for human rights victims

September 30, 2008

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-218-2008

30 September 2008
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SRI LANKA: Grenade attack against lawyer appearing for human rights victims

ISSUES: Human rights defenders; death threats; independence of lawyers
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to bring to your attention a serious threat to the lawyers who practice their profession independently and particularly those who appear for victims of human rights abuses and in corruption cases in Sri Lanka by way of attacks, death threats and other forms of intimidation. On 27 September 2008, the house of Mr. J.C. Weliamuna, a senior lawyer, came under attack when two grenades when were thrown at it. One grenade exploded while the other was later discovered inside the house by the police. Mr. Weliamuna and the lawyers who are aware of the incident believe that the attack is a result of the cases in which he has been appearing most of which involve the government and agencies of the state.

CASE DETAILS:

Mr. J.C. Weliamuna is the executive director of the Sri Lankan branch of Transparency International. He is also the best known anti-graft lawyer in the country who had been pursuing many sensitive cases. He has also a long track record of making legal representation relating to human rights abuses such as torture, extrajudicial killings, forced disappearances and the like.

The Bar Association of Sri Lanka passed a resolution condemning the attack and calling for inquiries into the incident. The executive committee of the association is to meet the Chief Justice of Sri Lanka to discuss the need to take protective measures to safeguard the lawyers. Three hundred and fifty lawyers have signed a petition calling for the bar association to hold a general meeting to discuss the issues relating to the protection of lawyers. This meeting has been fixed for the 11th October.

The lawyer's petition states:

"We consider this incident not purely as an attack on an individual but against our profession as  a whole, a motivated, concerted and calculated attempt aimed at curtailing, suppressing and hindering their freedom of engaging in the practice of their profession and performing their Constitutional duty towards the citizenry who have cast such responsibilities upon them"

The European Union and the Embassy of the United States in Sri Lanka have issued statements condemning the attack and calling for prosecution of the perpetrators. In its statement the European Union urged the government to bring the perpetrators to justice. “The EU notes with concern the trend in attacks and threats to journalists, civil society organisations and now a lawyer.”

The defence of lawyers who are engaged in matters relating to public interest, human rights abuses and cases involving corruption needs to be of concern to all civil rights organisations, human rights organisations and public interest groups, throughout the world and for the bar associations representing them.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write letters to the President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka expressing support for the strong action that needs to be taken relating to this grenade attack and the threats faced by the lawyers in Sri Lanka in the practice of their profession. They must be allowed to practice independently and for the benefit of all, and more particularly, the victimise4d and marginalised persons.

Please be informed that the AHRC has also written separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, human rights defenders and independence of judges and lawyers calling for their immediate intervention in this case.

To support this appeal, please click here:

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

Mr. W. Dayaratne,
President, Bar Association of Sri Lanka
129 Hulftsdorp Street
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 44 80 90
E-mail: wdaya@slt.lk or udara_4@sltnet.lk (for secretary) or basl.lawnet@stmail.lk (for Bar Association)

SAMPLE LETTER:

Dear Mr. W. Dayaratne,

SRI LANKA: Grenade attack against lawyer appearing for human rights victims

As concerned lawyers, activists, human rights organizations and professionals, I view with great alarm, the grenade attack on the residence of human rights lawyer and Executive Director of the Sri Lanka chapter of Transparency International, JC Weliamuna at 11.40 pm on Saturday, 27th September 2008.

The pattern of threatening lawyers for attending to their professional responsibilities has heightened in recent times and has been characterized by inaction on the part of the authorities in bringing to book, those responsible. In the result, this has had severely negative consequences on the ability of lawyers to appear in good conscience for their clients in an environment where the prevalence of human rights violations is extremely high.

As you are aware, Mr Weliamuna has been appearing in highly sensitive cases involving corruption and human rights violations and there is little doubt that this attack is an attempt to intimidate him. Moreover, the very day of the attack, he had moved a motion at the Bar Council regarding a lawyer who has received death threats due to appearance in an extra-judicial killing case where the victim had been the complainant in two cases regarding police officers, for bribery and torture. The Bar Council unanimously resolved to pursue the complaint of the lawyer and condemned the interference into the work of lawyers and resolved to pursue the matter with the Inspector General of Police and other authorities.

I consider it fortuitous that though damage was caused to physical property, no harm was caused to the life of Mr Weliamuna or the members of his family.

However, it is the bounden duty of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, of which you are the current President, to take immediate action in this regard, including the passing of a resolution of the Bar Council condemning attempts to prevent lawyers from engaging in their professional work and engaging in at least a one day strike at the minimum.

I request the Bar Association to also call upon the Inspector General of Police to hand over investigations in this regard to a Special Investigation Unit (SIU) of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). Further, it is opportune that the Bar bring the matter of continued intimidation of lawyers to the notice of the Judiciary in order that appropriate judicial directions be issued to the investigative authorities to effectively prevent the recurrence of such threats. 

It is imperative that the Bar should closely monitor the progress of these investigations in order to ensure that justice is done speedily and effectively and that human rights lawyers are not hindered from carrying out their professional responsibilities,

I write in expectation of immediate action by the Bar Association of Sri Lanka in this regard.

Yours sincerely,

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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-218-2008
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.