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SRI LANKA: One man killed after abduction and his brother complains of his possible forced disappearance

November 10, 2006

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

10 November 2006
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UA-368-2006: SRI LANKA: One man killed after abduction and his brother complains of his possible forced disappearance

SRI LANKA: Abduction and killing; early warning of possible forced disappearance
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the killing of a young Tamil ethnic man after being abducted by four unidentified men in one of the notorious 'white vans' in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 19 October 2006. It is alleged that army personnel also visited his elder brother's residence and looked for him two days after the victim's body was found. Fearing for his life, the elder brother has gone into hiding. He believes that his younger brother was killed due to his previous record of arrest and detention in 2000 by the Sri Lankan army who accused him of a Tamil terrorist.  

According to Ponawattar Albert, his younger brother Baskar Sothi Balanandam Ponwattar Regis, a young Tamil ethic Sri Lankan, has been abducted by four unidentified men in a white van without a number plate near the gate of the house where he was staying at around 9:55pm on 19 October 2006. The house address is No. 360/1 Joe Perera Mawatha, Colombo 12, Sri Lanka.

At around 10am on the next day (October 20), the victim's sister received a phone call from a man, who identified himself as the victim's colleague. He said that the he was informed by the Modera police that Ragama police found the body of Ponwattar Regis and had it in their custody.

In order to participate in his brother's funeral, Ponawattar Albert left for his ancestral home at Mannar town in Vavuniya district on at about 10:00pm on October 22. He later learnt from his landlord Jayaratnam that army personnel had visited his rented residence at No. 123/14, Station Road, Vavuniya and searched for him on the same day. 

Ponawattar Albert alleges that the abduction and subsequent killing of his younger brother might be due to his previous record of having been accused of being a Tamil terrorist (armed insurgent). Ponawattar Albert was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Department on suspicion of being a terrorist at around 23 June 2000 when he was studying at the University of Moratuwa. He had been detained for nearly seven months until he was discharged from the accusation against him by court. While in detention, he was reportedly subjected to torture and ill-treatment during the interrogations.

Ponawattar Albert said that his younger brother was not involved in any terrorist activities. He believes that the victim's abduction and murder was caused due to his previous record of arrest and detention in 2006. Due to fear for his life, Ponawattar Albert has gone into hiding and stays in another place.

Recently several abduction and forced disappearances have been taking place against Tamil ethnic minorities in the Colombo area. Human rights groups are accusing the government that they are using these brutal methods to frighten Tamil residents in northern Jaffna area in order to prevent their migration to Colombo.

The AHRC has recently reported several forced disappearance cases in Sri Lanka. These cases are as follows:

UA-317-2006: SRI LANKA: Another abduction case by a white van without a number plate
UA-310-2006: SRI LANKA: Another forced disappearance in Jaffna
UA-305-2006: SRI LANKA: Alleged abduction of three brothers by the Navy officials
UA-288-2006: SRI LANKA: Sri Lankan Army allegedly kidnaps 17 year-old boy
UA-280-2006: SRI LANKA: One Catholic priest and a man disappear

Please also refer the AHRC statements on this matter:

AS-277-2006: SRI LANKA: Commission to investigate disappearances - real or fake
AS-260-2006: SRI LANKA: Judicial role and the failure of investigation into of crime including gross human rights abuses
FS-030-2006: SRI LANKA: International Monitoring Mission for Sri Lanka

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please immediately write to the relevant Sri Lankan authorities listed below and demand a prompt and through investigation into this case. Please urge them to find whether any state agents are involved in this alleged abduction and killing and if it is proven, to take proper action against those responsible. Please also urge them to ensure that the full security of the victim's brother. Please also urge the Sri Lankan government to take immediate and strong measure to stop the astonishingly increasing number of disappearances in the country. 

To support this appeal, please click:

Sample letter:

SRI LANKA: One man killed after abduction and his brother complains his possible forced disappearance

Name of victim: Baskar Sothi Balanandam Ponwattar Regis
Complainant: Ponawattar Albert, aged 22, Tamil ethnic Sri Lankan, agricultural technical project engineer in the Agricultural Development of the North and South Highways by occupation, residing in Nanattath, Sri Lanka (the victim's elder brother) 
Alleged perpetrators: Four unidentified men in a white van
Place of abduction: Near the gate of the house where the victim was staying; No. 360/1 Joe Perera Mawatha, Colombo 12, Sri Lanka
Time of abduction: At about 9:55pm on 19 October 2006

I am shocked to learn another alleged abduction of a Tamil ethnic Sri Lankan mentioned above by four unidentified men in a notorious 'white van' near from his residence in Colombo, Sri Lanka on 19 October 2006. His dead body was found by the Ragama police on the following morning.

Even though there is no sufficient evidence to identify the alleged abductors, I suspect that the Sri Lankan army personnel might be involved in this case, considering the fact that the victim was abducted in a 'white van' without a number plate that is a symbol of terror and the disappearances. 

The victims brother Ponawattar Albert (the complainant) also complains that army personnel visited his rented residence at No. 123/14, Station Road, Vavuniya and searched for him on October 22 three days after his younger brother's abduction.  

Ponawattar Albert says that he had been arrested by the Sri Lankan army at around 23 June 2000 and accusation of beng a Tamil terrorist, when he was a student at the University of Moratuwa. He also says that he had taken in army custody for nearly seven months until he was discharged by court and that he was tortured and ill-treated during his detention.

Ponawattar Albert said that his younger brother was not involved in any terrorist activities but might be abducted and killed due to his previous record of arrest and detention in 2000. Ponawattar Albert has gone into hiding and stays in another place due to fear for his life.

I am very concerned by the sharply increasing number of alleged abductions and enforced disappearances against mainly Tamil ethnic minorities in Sri Lanka. However, few cases have been properly investigated or prosecuted.

In light of the above, I request you to immediately order an impartial and thorough investigation into the case, identify alleged perpetrators and take action against them. If it is proven that any of state agents are involved in this case, they should be punished by law without delay. I also request you to take proper action to ensure the full security of the victim's brother who complains possible his enforced disappearance. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka should also immediately inquire into this case. Lastly, I again urge the Government of Sri Lanka to take genuine action in investigating and prosecuting the reported disappearance cases and take all efforts to stop systemic disappearances in the country.

Sincerely yours,


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SEND YOUR LETTER TO:

1. 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
Email: secretary@presidentsoffice.lk

2. Mr. Ratnasiri Wickremanayake
Prime Minister
Temple Trees
Galle Road, Colombo 03
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 575317-8 or 370 737-8
Fax: +94 11 2 575454

3. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa
Minister
Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law and Order
15/5, Baladaksha Mawatha,
Colombo 03,
Sri Lanka.
Tel: 94-11 2 430860-9, 430878-9 or 435879 (for the secretary)
Fax: 94 11 2 446300 or 421529
E-mail: secdef@sltnet.lk

4. Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe, MP
Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights
Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights
383,Bauddhaloka Mawatha
Colombo 07
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 390895, 384116

5. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421
Email: attorney@sri.lanka.net

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

7. Secretary
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


Thank you.

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

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-368-2006
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.