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SRI LANKA: A man allegedly killed in police custody at the Polonnaruwa Police Station

October 4, 2004

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

5 October 2004
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UA-132-2004: SRI LANKA: A man allegedly killed in police custody at the Polonnaruwa Police Station

SRI LANKA: Custodial death; Attempt of covering up the case
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a man named Mr. Herman Quintus Perera was allegedly killed by the Polonnaruwa police while in the police custody on 3 October 2004. The reason for his arrest was merely the victim, who was a restaurant manager, allegedly refused to sell liquor to the police on October 3 which was a Poya Day on which the sale of liquor is prohibited by law.

Even though three co-workers who were arrested along with Mr. Herman Quintus Perera by the police have given the facts of the incident, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) claimed that the victim was killed during a fight when the police raided his restaurant where they suspected of illicit liquor was being sold. 

The AHRC is deeply concerned about the attempt by the police to cover up this serious case. Please send a letter to the government of Sri Lanka urging them that a proper and immediate investigation into this case should be conducted by an independent body such as a Special Investigating Unit, not by officers of the same police station where the death has taken place.  

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

Name of the victim: Mr. Herman Quintus Perera, 40 years old, a restaurant manager, married with two children
Alleged perpetrators: Officers attached to the Polonnaruwa Police Station
Date of arbitrary arrest: 3 October 2004

Case details:  

On 3 October 2004, Mr. Herman Quintus Perera (40), a restaurant manager and father of two children, was allegedly killed by the Polonnaruwa police.

According to the restaurant owner, he closed the counter, which sold liquor at the restaurant, on October 3 as that day was a Poya Day on which the sale of liquor is prohibited by law. However, in the evening, two police officers came by a motorcycle to the restaurant and asked for a bottle of liquor. Mr. Perera, who was the manager, explained to them that he could not accommodate their request as the counter has been closed. The two police officers then left the restaurant but they soon returned with a large number of other officers in a police jeep and allegedly assaulted Mr. Perera and the other workers in the restaurant. After that, the police put Mr. Perera and three other workers into the jeep and took them away.

On the following morning (October 4), the restaurant's assistant manager went to the Polonnaruwa Police Station to see the arrested persons and learned from the other workers that Mr. Perera was not in the police cell. The assistant manager then went to the local hospital and checked the register to see whether Mr. Perera has been admitted but could not find any information about him. Thereafter the assistant manager went to the mortuary where he found Mr. Perera's body.

The police version given by an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) to several media channels is that there was a fight when the police raided the restaurant where they suspected of illicit liquor was being sold and Mr. Perera died during the fight.  However, none of the officers at the Polonnaruwa Police Station, where the death has actually taken place, has confirmed the ASP's version of the story. 

Deaths in police custody have become a common occurrence in Sri Lanka. In many of these cell death cases, the people severely assaulted. Many victims have lost their lives merely for trivial reasons. In particular, all deaths in police custody have been usually accompanied by attempts to cover up such crimes. Even the Judiciary and the Attorney General's Department have acknowledged about the inadequate nature of the inquiries into the deaths in police custody in several occasions, but the Police Department has failed to establish a credible inquiry procedure to deal with this phenomenon.  

The AHRC urges the government of Sri Lanka to have a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) take over an inquiry into this case, which is currently being conduct by local police. Because the ASP, a direct supervisor of the Polonnaruwa police, has already expressed his particular view on the events leading to Mr. Perera's death, he should be removed from leading the inquiry.

In such matters, it is quite essential for the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to instigate a credible procedure for dealing with allegations of deaths in police custody.  The AHRC suggests that the prescribed procedure should specify that the inquiry into police custodial deaths be handed over to a SIU within 24 hours after the case has been reported. Further, such procedure should prohibit the officers, from the local police station where the death has taken place, from being the investigators into the alleged offense.  Furthermore, immediate supervising high-ranking officer of the police station where the death has taken place should also be excluded from being in charge of an inquiry.  All officers of the local police station where such a death has taken place should be obligated to divulge the facts of the deaths they know, and every attempt to create false evidence for covering up the case should be seriously punished.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter to the addresses below and express your concern about this serious case.

Sample letter:

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Dear Sir,

Re: SRI LANKA: Death of Mr. Herman Quintus Perera while in police custody at Polonnaruwa Police Station

Name of the victim: Mr. Herman Quintus Perera, 40 years old, a restaurant manager, married with two children
Alleged perpetrators: Officers attached to the Polonnaruwa Police Station
Date of arbitrary arrest: 3 October 2004

I was shocked to learn about another custodial death in police custody in Sri Lanka. The triviality of the reason of the victims arrest and death makes the incident even more shocking. According to the information received, Mr. Herman Quintus Perera has been allegedly killed by the Polonnaruwa police while in the custody on 3 October 2004 merely because he, as a restaurant manager, refused to sell liquor to the police on a Poya Day on which the sale of liquor is prohibited by law.

That the law enforcement officers can be a treat to the life of an ordinary citizen with such callousness reflects the extreme degeneration in the police in Sri Lanka. Though reports of such events leading to death or causing of serious injuries are reported almost every day, no serious action has been taken to correct the situation and protect the citizens from unruly elements in the police.

I strongly urge the government of Sri Lanka to have a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) take over an inquiry into this case, and bring responsible officers to justice as soon as possible. A proper and impartial postmortem of the victim should be ensured, and its report should be accessible to the public including the victim's family.

I also urge that the Inspector General of Police and the National Police Commission to lay down a procedure for inquiries into deaths in police custody without delay with cooperation of other agencies like the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and the Attorney General's Department. The prescribed procedure should specify that the inquiry into such deaths be handed over to a Special Investigating Unit within 24 hours after the case has been reported. I also suggest that the procedure should prohibit the officers from the local police station where the death has taken place from being the investigators into the alleged offense.  Furthermore, the immediate supervising high-ranking officer of the police station where the death has taken place should also be excluded from being in charge of an inquiry.  All officers of the local police station where such a death took place should be obligated to divulge the facts of the deaths they know, and every attempt to create false evidence for covering up the case should be seriously punished.

Sincerely yours,

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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 440440/426711/327877

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 PC
Chairperson
National Police Commission
69-1 Ward Place, Colombo 7
SRI LANKA
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. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
Att: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016, c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (general)
E-mail: lventre@ohchr.org

6. Ms Manuela Carmema Castrillo
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Chairperson
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10,
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917 9006


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-132-2004
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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.