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SRI LANKA: A 52-year-old man allegedly tortured to death by the Peliyagoda police over a trivial complaint

July 18, 2005

URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION  

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

19 July 2005
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UA-122-2005: SRI LANKA: A 52-year-old man allegedly tortured to death by the Peliyagoda police over a trivial complaint

SRI LANKA: Extra judicial killings; Torture; Rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission has been informed that 52-year-old Hettiarachchige Abeysiri residing at 506/1 Delgahawatte Wanawasala, Kelaniya was tortured to death by the Peliyagoda police on 14 July 2005 after being illegally arrested on 13 July 2005. The police allegedly arrested him on the very trivial grounds that his neighbor complained against him for the loss of a mobile receiver of a telephone. Instead of conducting a proper investigation, the Peliyagoda police brutally tortured Mr. Abeysiri with cricket wickets. He was later taken to hospital where he died soon after. The postmortem report stated that the victim's death was due to injuries caused by blunt instruments.

We call for your urgent intervention in this matter. Please urge the Sri Lankan authorities to inquire into this case thoroughly and arrest/prosecute responsible officers. Please also urge them to take action against the Officer in Charge (OIC of the Peliyagoda Police Station) who neglected command responsibility under the Convention Against Torture Act (Act No. 22 of 1994)

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
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DETAILED INFORMATION:

Name of the victim: Hettiarachchige Abeysiri, 52 years old, married with one child
Address of the victim: 506/1 Delgahawatte Wanawasala, Kelaniya
Period of arbitrary detention and torture: 13-14 July 2005
Case status: The victim died on 14 July 2005 after being brutally tortured by the Peliyagoda police

Case details:

Hettiarachchige Abeysiri was a hardworking daily paid labourer and he worked in the house of neighbor Mr. Ratnayake, a former police officer who has gone abroad and is due to return home soon. One day, Ms. Ratnayake made a complaint to the Peliyagoda police stating that she had lost her mobile receiver of a land phone, which cannot be used outside. On 13 July 2005 at about 11:30pm, the police arrived at Mr. Abeysiri's house. Mr. Abeysiri was sleeping at that time and the police awoke him and took him into custody saying that he was wanted for theft. According to Mr. Abeysiri's elder sister, the police did not produce any warrant and that they, except the driver, wore civilian clothes at the time of his arrest. They also slap Mr. Abeysiri hard several times.

The next day (July 14), the police took Mr. Abeysiri back to his house and his sister's son saw that he was handcuffed. The police took the son-in-law of Mr. Abeysiri's sister, Mr. Liyanage Pradeep Asokakumara, into custody and demanded him to show the place where the stolen good was sold.  The police then took the two to Ms. Ratnayake's house and she slapped Mr. Abeysiri in front of other people and they were taken to the Crime Section of the Peliyagoda Police Station.  At this time, the police were again in civilian clothes and they are the ones who tortured Mr. Abeysiri.

According to Mr. Asokakumara, the policemen brutally assaulted Mr. Abeysiri with cricket wickets for half an hour in front of him. One Sub Inspector came with another police officer and he also tortured Mr. Abeysiri.  Mr. Asokakumara could not watch the torture because it was too brutal and he moved away from the scene for some time. When he returned to the place half an hour later, Mr. Asokakumara saw that the four policemen in civilian clothes were carrying Mr. Abeysiri's body to hospital. Mr. Asokakumara was not tortured and the police recorded his statement and released him at 7:30pm. When he asked to the police about his uncle, they said that he was hospitalized because he was sick. 

In the meantime, at 5:00pm, a policeman went to Mr. Abeysiri's house and asked someone to go to Peliyagoda Police Station. When Mr. Jerome Allistace, a relative of Mr. Abeysiri, went to the police station, the police informed him that Mr. Abeysiri was sick and the police therefore took him to hospital where he died. Mr. Allistace went to the mortuary along with other people and the Assistant Judicial Medical Officer (AJMO) Dr. G.A.B. Abeysinghe in the Colombo National Hospital, who examined the victim's body, said that Mr. Abeysiri had died due to injuries.  Mr. Allistace saw that there were several injuries on the victim's body, including to his head and left leg. In his postmortem report, Dr. Abeysinghe stated that it was not a natural death and that the victim died due to injuries caused by blunt instruments. The victim's body was released to the family on July 15 and his funeral took place on July 17.

The AHRC is deeply concerned yet by another case of extra judicial killings in Sri Lankan police stations. As seen in this case, in most of these cases, victims are tortured for the most trivial of reasons, such as stealing bananas or not immediately stopping a vehicle when asked to do so.

The AHRC therefore strongly urges the Sri Lankan authorities to inquire into this case immediately and bring those responsible before court as soon as possible. The Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Peliyagoda Police Station must be charged under the Convention Against Torture Act (Act No. 22 of 1994) for his omission to supervise the lower-ranking officers. Police torture and extra judicial killings should not be treated as isolated incidents caused only by a few lower-ranking officers, but as by-products of a system that deliberately neglects command responsibility.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter, fax or email to the addresses below and express your concern about this case.

Sample letter:

Dear ___________,

Re: SRI LANKA: A 52-year-old man allegedly tortured to death by the Peliyagoda police over a trivial complaint

Name of the victim: Hettiarachchige Abeysiri, 52 years old, married with one child
Address of the victim: 506/1 Delgahawatte Wanawasala, Kelaniya
Period of arbitrary detention and torture: 13-14 July 2005
Case status: The victim died on 14 July 2005 after being brutally tortured by the Peliyagoda police

I am shocked to learn of yet another case of extra judicial killings in Sri Lankan police stations.

According to the information I have received, 52-year-old Hettiarachchige Abeysiri was illegally arrested by the Peliyagoda police at midnight on 13 July 2005 and died the next day after been subjected to severe torture at the hands of the police. The police reportedly did not produce any warrant and wore civilian clothes at the time of his arrest. I was also shocked that the police brutally tortured the victim over the very trivial reason that his neighbor complained against him for the loss of a mobile receiver of a telephone, which cannot be used outside.

In his postmortem report, G.A.B. Abeysinghe of Colombo National Hospital, who examined the victim's body, stated that the victim's death was not natural but due to injuries caused by blunt instruments. The victim's body was released to the family on July 15 and his funeral took place on July 17.

I therefore urge you to order an immediate and proper investigation into this case and prosecute responsible officers under the Convention Against Torture Act (Act No. 22 of 1994). I also urge you to take appropriate action to compensate the victim's family. The Officer in Charge (OIC) of the Peliyagoda Police Station should also be charged under the CAT Act for his omission to supervise the lower-ranking officers. Extra judicial killings are not isolated incidents committed by a few lower-ranking officers in Sri Lanka. The Government of Sri Lanka must treat it as by-products of a system that deliberately neglects command responsibility. Such conduct will continue if the Government does not intervene and enforce command responsibility within the country's policing system.

Yours sincerely,


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SEND A LETTER TO:

1. Mr. Chandra Fernando
Inspector General of Police (IGP)
New Secretariat
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 440440/327877

2. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436 421
Email: attorney@sri.lanka.net or counsel@sri.lanka.net 

3.  Mr. Ranjith Abeysuriya
Chairperson
National Police Commission
3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers,
109 Galle Road, Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 23865
Fax: +94 11 2 669 528
Fax HOME: +94 11 2 674148
E-mail: polcom@sltnet.lk

4. Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy
Chairperson Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
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 

5. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
Attn: Mr. Safir Syed
C/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 917 9016 (general)

6. Mr. Philip Alson
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Atten: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (general)
Email: urgent-action@ohchr.org


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-122-2005
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.