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SRI LANKA: Brutal torture by the police puts the victim in critical condition

October 28, 2003

URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION URGENT ACTION

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAM

28 October 2003

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UA-68-2003: SRI LANKA: Brutal torture by the police puts the victim in critical condition

SRI LANKA: Illegal arrest; Torture; Rule of Law

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Dear friends

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information on another serious torture case in Sri Lanka. According to information we have received, an innocent man was brutally tortured by the police personnel attached to the Bentota Police Station including its Officer In Charge (OIC) and a Sub Inspector (SI). In particular, the way of torturing the victim was so cruel that the victim is currently in critical condition. Your urgent action is required to stop the custom of illegal arrest and torture by the police which has been practiced for a long time in Sri Lanka.

Urgent Appeals Desk

Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

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DETAILED INFORMATON:

Brutal torture by the police puts the victim in critical condition


- Name of the victim: Dope Pathiranyalayage Lasantha Priyankara, 33, daily paid laborer and a married man with two children (aged 2 years and 6months)
- Alleged perpetrators: Officer in Charge, Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Silva and two other personel attached to the Bentota Police Station
- Date of arbitrary arrest and torture: 22 October 2003

Dope Pathiranyalayage Lasantha Priyankara was brutally tortured by the Officer in Charge (OIC), the Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Silva and two other personnel attached to the Bentota Police Station and he is currently in critical condition.

At about 1:30pm on 22 October 2003, Dope Pathiranyalayage Lasantha Priyankara went to the Bentota Police Station to inquire as to why some policemen had come. When he asked the OIC why he was wanted, OIC, SI Mr. Silva and the other two policemen directed him to a back room of the police station, without giving any explanation. At that time, all of the perpetrators were in civilian clothes.

As soon as they entered the room, all of them started to assault him with a cricket bat, wooden clubs and rubber hose. While they assaulted him, they kept asking the victim whether he had broken a house and stolen some goods. When the victim refused to accept the charges against him, the OIC and others stripped him, tided his thumbs together and hung him up by his thumbs. While he was in that position all four policemen assaulted him again with clubs, a rubber hose and a cricket bat, telling him to admit that he had broken a house.

He repeatedly stated his innocence, even in that position, and then the OIC and the others brought him down, untied him and threatened to kill him. The OIC pressed his trousers and T-shirt to the victim's face until he was nearly suffocated. When they failed to get a confession, they twisted his arms behind his back, tided his thumbs together and hung him up again. They again started assaulting him. SI Silva took a broken bottle and started to stab the victim's belly. They continued assaulting him until he went unconscious.

After that he was taken to a rural hospital several kilometers away from Bentota passing Bentota Government Hospital. He was administered a saline injection and brought back to the police station. Then the OIC told him to go back home. The victim told them that he could not even move and showed them blood still coming from his stab wounds.

Then they took him to the Bentota Government Hospital. While he was in the police vehicle, the OIC went inside and spoke with the District Medical Officer (DMO). After some time, the OIC brought some medicine and gave it to the victim. Then, the police told him to get out of the vehicle and go home. He went back home with great difficulty, and his family then rushed him to the General Hospital Kalutara. He was admitted to the hospital and warded in 5B ward. His situation remains very critical.

SUGGESTED ACTION

Please send a letter, fax or email to the addresses below and express your concern of this serious case.

1. Hon. Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe
Prime Minister
Cambridge Place, Colombo 7
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 1 2 682905
E-mail: secpm@sltnet.lk or 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: attorney@sri.lanka.net or 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: 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

Sample letter:


Dear

Re: Brutal torture by the police puts the victim in critical condition

- Name of the victim: Dope Pathiranyalayage Lasantha Priyankara, 33, daily paid laborer and a married man with two children (aged 2 years and 6months)
- Alleged perpetrators: Officer in Charge, Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Silva and two other personel attached to the Bentota Police Station
- Date of arbitrary arrest and torture: 22 October 2003

I am so shocked to learn about another brutal torture case in Sri Lanka.

According to the information I have received, Dope Pathiranyalayage Lasantha Priyankara, 33, was brutally tortured by the Officer in Charge (OIC), the Sub Inspector (SI) Mr. Silva and two other personnel attached to the Bentota Police Station, and is currently in critical condition.

The perpetrators severely tortured him with a cricket bat, wooden clubs and a rubber hose, and tiding the victim's thumbs together and hanging him up by his thumbs. They also nearly suffocated the victim and stabbed his belly with a broken bottle. More seriously, the perpetrators did not give the victim access to an appropriate medical treatment, even though he was in critical condition. The manner in which the police inhumanly treated the victim clearly illustrates the continuing custom of torture by the police and weakness of the rule of law in Sri Lanka.

I strongly urge you to order an immediate investigation of this serious case and bring the perpetrators to justice. The perpetrators should be brought before an impartial tribunal and applied the penal and/or administrative sanctions provided by law. I also urge you to provide compensation to the victim and to assist him in accessing full and immediate medical treatment.


Torture is an all too common practice which must be eradicated. I urge the Sri Lankan government to take genuine steps and strong action to stop this ongoing and brutal abuse.

Sincerely yours,

 

 

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Thank you.

Kim Soo A

Urgent Appeals Programme

Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-68-2003
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.