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SRI LANKA: A 50 year old man killed by the police after arrest and torture

September 10, 2003

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

11 September 2003

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UA-48-2003: SRI LANKA: A 50 year old man killed by the police after arrest and torture

SRI LANKA: Torture; custodial death; danger of police inaction

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Dear friends

Name of victim: Okanda Hevage Jinadasa (50), Married man with 5 children; a mason by occupation

Date of victim's death: 5 September 2003

Address of victim: Okkampitiya, Moneragela District

Alleged Perpetrators: Grama Arakshaka personnel attached to the Okkampitiya Police Post

Details:

On 5 September 2003, Okanda Hevage Jinadasa was returning home by bicycle after work. Two Grama Arakshaka personnel [paramilitaries] attached to the Okkampitiya Police Post stopped him and searched his belongings. They found two packets of illicit liquor, equaling 284ml, in his possession. They beat him and brought him to the Okkampitiya Police Post. At the Police Post they beat him again with fists and poles and squeezed his testicles and neck, until he died. Police personnel took his dead body to the Okkampitiya government rural hospital, making a pretense that he was unconscious. A doctor who examined the body pronounced that he had died before being brought to the hospital.

The police have said that Mr. Jinadasa fell from a chair and died. The Monaragala magistrate who held the inquiry on 7 September 2003 ordered the body be sent to Karapitiya [Galle] Teaching Hospital for an autopsy. The Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) who did the autopsy reported to the magistrate that he found injuries on the victim's body caused by blunt weapons. The JMO further stated that the victim's death was not due to these injuries. The JMO has reserved his decision on the cause of death till further investigation is completed. According to the report of the JMO, the Monaragala Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) has arrested two Grama Arakshaka personnel for questioning. They are still being held at the police station but no serious action to investigate this case has yet been taken by the police.

Meantime, a few days ago the Inspector General of Police (IGP) issued a circular stating that all Officers in Charge (OICs) and other high-ranking officers should take responsibility for custodial deaths and torture that take place at police stations. The perpetrators should be brought to justice and high-ranking officers should take responsibility for this incident in terms of the IGP's circular.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write a letter to the addresses below and express your concern over this serious case. Ask the local authorities to investigate the incident immediately and punish the responsible persons according to the law. A sample letter is attached.

1 Hon. Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe
Prime Minister
Cambridge Place, Colombo 7
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 1 2 682905
E-mail: <mailto:secpm@sltnet.lk>secpm@sltnet.lk or <mailto:bradmanw@slt.lk>bradmanw@slt.lk

2. Hon. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 1 2 436 421
Email: <mailto:attorney@sri.lanka.net>attorney@sri.lanka.net or <mailto:counsel@sri.lanka.net>counsel@sri.lanka.net

3. Mr. Ranjith Abeysuriya PC
Chairman National Police Commission
69-1 Ward Place, Colombo 7
Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 1 2 691 926
Fax HOME: +941 2 674148

4. National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
No. 36, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 1 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 1 2 694 924
E-mail: <mailto:sechrc@sltnet.lk>sechrc@sltnet.lk

5. Mr. Theo C. van Boven
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917-9016
E-mail: <mailto:secrt.hchr@unog.ch>secrt.hchr@unog.ch

6. Ms. Asma Jahangir
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: 92 42 5763 234
Fax: 41 22 917 9006 / 92 42 5763 236
Email: webadmin.hchr@unog.ch / asmalaw@brain.net.pk


Sample letter:

Dear

RE: A 50-year-old man killed by the police after arrest and torture

 

I am wring to bring to your immediate attention a custodial death case involving Okanda Hevage Jinadasa, 50.

Okanda Hevage Jinadasa was arrested by two Grama Arakshaka personnel without the legal power to arrest people, on trivial grounds of having a small quantity of illicit liquor on 5 September 2003. After he was brought to the Okkampitiya Police Post, he was severely tortured by two Grama Arakshaka personnel and finally he died. The Monaragala Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) has held the Grama Arakshaka personnel for questioning, but no serious action has yet been taken by the police to punish the responsible persons.

I am deeply concerned about serious human rights violations committed by the police and security personnel that have sadly been too frequent in Sri Lanka. The tolerance of torture has been widespread among all authorities, including the police and judges, as well as politicians.

I urge you to immediately investigate this serious case and bring the responsible persons to justice. I also urge you to call high-ranking police officers to account for this incident, in keeping with the circular of the Inspector General of Police, which has stated that all Officers in Charge and other high-ranking officers should take responsibility for the custodial deaths and torture at police stations. I further urge the Inspector General of Police to offer an apology to the victim's family, in writing and with due publicity.

A more serious approach to eliminate custodial deaths and torture, and to develop an action plan to impose discipline on law enforcement officers, needs to be taken in Sri Lanka. I again urge the Sri Lankan government to give compensation to the victim's family in keeping with the standards of international law.

Thank you.

Sincerely yours

 

 

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Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-48-2003
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.