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SRI LANKA: Torture of a husband and wife by the Wanduramba police

April 24, 2006

URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

25 April 2006
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UA-134-2006: SRI LANKA: Torture of a husband and wife by the Wanduramba police

SRI LANKA: Torture; police misconduct; collapse of rule of law
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the brutal torture of Mr. W. Sunil and his wife, Wasanthi by the Wanduranba police on 17 March 2006.

On March 17, at around noon, two policemen from the Wanduramba police visited Mr. Sunil’s vegetable farm. As he was not in, they hid themselves nearby. When Mr. Sunil returned to the farm and heard his wife Wasanthi shouting, he went to investigate. Suddenly the two policemen jumped onto him and assaulted him with a wooden club. While torturing him they demanded illicit liquor and implements. When Mr. Sunil denied any knowledge of this, he was assaulted once again.

Later Mr. Sunil noticed that the police were forcing his wife to kneel down in front of their home. When he was placed alongside her, the police then proceeded to torture the couple before forcibly taking them away from their home. When the couple asked for some water, the police told them to drink muddy water and then forced them to do so.

The police then forced Mr. Sunil and his wife to get into an open-top vehicle - thus, publicly shaming them - and took them to the Wanduramba police station. At the station, again they were forced to kneel down and remain so for over one hour. Sub-Inspector Panawela moved towards the victims and struck them with a muddy shirt. The police then wrote something down on paper and forced Mr. Sunil’s signature onto the document. At around 8pm, the couple was released on police bail.

That night, as Sunil’s wife’s condition worsened, he took her to the Karapitiya hospital. Both husband and wife were admitted to the hospital where they were treated for three days. At the hospital they complained to the Judicial Medical Officer, as well as the hospital police about the torture.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write a letter to the relevant authorities listed below and condemn the actions of the alleged perpetrators. Please urge them to ensure that an investigation is launched into this incident and that the alleged perpetrators, if found guilty, are prosecuted as soon as possible; as public officers such conduct should be subjected to the provisions of the Convention Against Torture Act No 22 of 1994 which states a minimum seven year sentence for torture conviction. Also please ask that the concerned officers be suspended or transferred from their duty while the investigation is going on. Adequate compensation should also be afforded to the victims.

Suggested letter:

Dear __________,

SRI LANKA: Torture of a husband and wife by the Wanduramba police

Names of victims:
1. W Sunil, 31-years-old, married with one child; occupation: farmer; address: higher Kihimbiya, Galle
2. Wasanthi Sunil
Names of alleged perpetrators: The Sub-Inspector and policemen attached to the Wanduramba police station
Date of incident: 17 March 2006

I am writing to you with deep concern regarding the torture of Mr. W. Sunil and his wife Wasanthi by policemen attached to the Wanduramba police.

According to the information I have received, on March 17, at around noon, two policemen from the Wanduramba police visited Mr. Sunil’s vegetable farm and proceeded to torture him and his wife, Wasanthi. The police demanded illicit liquor and implements from Mr. Sunil, but when he denied any knowledge of such things, the police assaulted him once again.

After some time the police forced Mr. Sunil and Wasanthi to get into an open-top vehicle – thus publicly shaming them- and took them to the Wanduramba police station. At the station, they were forced to kneel down and remain so for over one hour. Sub-Inspector Panawela moved towards the victims and struck them with a muddy shirt. The police then wrote something down on paper and forced Mr. Sunil’s signature onto the document. At around 8pm, the couple was released on police bail.

That night, as Wasanthi’s condition worsened, she was taken by her husband to the Karapitiya hospital. Both husband and wife were admitted to the hospital where they were treated for three days. At the hospital they complained to the Judicial Medical Officer, as well as the hospital police about their torture.

I light of this, I am calling on you to intervene in this matter. I ask that you ensure an immediate investigation into this matter. Legal action must be taken against the perpetrators and as public officers their conduct should be subjected to the provisions of the Convention Against Torture Act No 22 of 1994 which states a minimum seven year sentence for torture conviction. I also ask that the concerned officers be suspended or transferred from their duty while the investigation is underway. Lastly, adequate compensation should be afforded to the victims.

I trust your intervention will be forthcoming in this matter.

Yours sincerely,
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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421

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

3. 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 

4. Mr. J Thangawelu
DIG Legal
Police Headquarters
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA
Fax: 94 11 2381 394
Email: legaldiv@police.lk

5. 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: polcom@sltnet.lk

6. Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse
President
Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka
C/- Office of the President
Temple Trees
150, Galle Road
Colombo 3
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2472100 / +94 11 2446657 (this is contact for Secretary to President) 
Email: secretary@presidentsoffice.lk

7. 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)
E-mail: ssyed@ohchr.org

Thank you.

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

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-134-2006
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.