RIGHTS-SRI LANKA: Torture Cases Pile Up Despite Gov’t Commitment

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Jul 14 1999 (IPS) - Sri Lanka may have improved its human rights record in recent years but torture is still a problem with authorities slow in prosecuting members of state agencies who are guilty of abuses, rights activists say.

Prof Ravindra Fernando, director of Colombo University’s Human Rights Centre, says the government is reluctant to prosecute law enforcement officers except in a few “high profile show trials” which are merely to appease public anger and international criticism.

“The government is in a dilemma due to the military situation in the north — taking disciplinary action against security forces might lead to resistance from military personnel,” he is quoted saying in a new book titled ‘Impunity in Sri Lanka’.

Of particular concern also is the growing number of rights violations by members of non-state agencies – Tamil rebels as well as pro-government Tamil groups helping security forces against the rebels.

Earlier this month, global rights watchdog Amnesty International said that there were almost daily reports of torture in the armed conflict between Sri Lankan security forces and rebels in the north and east of the island.

The London-based group said several positive steps had been taken in recent years to stop torture, but the armed forces and police, as well as the rebels continue to resort to torture.

Last year, the Family Rehabilitation Centre (FRC) – which provides medical care and counsels victims of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict – treated up to 3,400 torture and trauma victims and their families.

“Torture is still a serious problem in Sri Lanka. It is a hidden issue – suppressed by the victim and the perpetrator,” says Wimal Diyasena, FRC’s executive director. The FRC, is the Sri Lankan counterpart of the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRTC) based in Copenhagen.

When the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) coalition took power in 1994, it promised to end an era of state terrorism. Since 1983, thousands of people have died or gone missing during twin campaigns by Tamil militants and leftwing Sinhalese rebels to defy the state.

There have been thousands of arrests and detentions without charges or trials. Torture was widespread with extra-judicial executions as well as deaths in custody.

Security forces were allowed to dispose of bodies without reporting to a magistrate or holding a post-mortem, under a law that was later repealed in 1990. Also the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), enacted in 1982 gave security forces wide powers of arrest and detention and also exemption from prosecution.

Though it has not repealed the PTA, the government has taken some positive steps towards rights legislation like ratifying the International Convention on Torture and enacting enabling legislation last year like the Anti-Torture Act. So far 122 nations have ratified the convention.

At a FRC symposium on torture last week, Justice Minister Prof Gamini Lakshman Peiris discussed how the government went about enacting laws. He said that when it set out to take action against several police and military officers for human rights abuses, it was advised that this would be an unwise step.

“But we went ahead against such advise and are filing action against guilty officers,” Peiris said. The government faces the risk of upsetting the military who are engaged in a war with the rebels.

Three presidential commissions probing disappearances during 1988-1991 received more than 30,000 complaints from families of victims. By mid-1997 when their mandate ran out, the commissions investigated about 19,000 cases and submitted reports to President Chandrika Kumaratunga in September of the same year.

The commissions have implicated hundreds of officers in the disappearances but legal action has been slow, prompting rights groups to accuse the government of backtracking on election assurances that the guilty would be found and punished.

A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Department said charges have been brought against 119 officers for abduction and illegal detention. Another 45 cases of murder are pending in the courts against officers.

The government’s stated commitment to stop rights abuses has had some impact on the military. There have been violations in recent years but not of a widespread nature as in the past and there is a general acknowledgment amongst the military that the

rights of individuals must be respected.

Dr Deepika Udugama, another director at the Colombo University’s Human Rights Centre, said there was a great deal of resistance when they ran a series of training courses in human rights for the military and the police, some years ago.

“The perception was that – we (military) were given these sanctions that we had to execute, and now we (officers) are being made scapegoats,” she said, adding however that perceptions have changed dramatically.

Since then many institutions including the FRC and the Geneva- based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) which disseminates rule of behaviour in combat, are conducting training courses on human rights and the law for the armed forces.

FRC’s Diyasena said they held three torture prevention programmes at military camps last year. “The attitude of the military has changed and they are beginning to understand the concept of human rights. There is a much better understanding of an individual’s rights,” he said.

Maj Gen Lohan Gunawardene, security forces commander in Jaffna, corroborates this. “When discussing this subject with subordinates, I often … ask the soldiers what they would expect from the army if they were civilians in an operational area. This often produces results,” he was quoted as saying in an ICRC newsletter.

“Sri Lanka has shown some commitment to eradicating torture – a real achievement given the country’s ongoing conflict,” Amnesty said in its June 1 report.

“However the fact that torture continues to be reported frequently means there is still a long way to go before changes in the law lead to changes on the ground.”

It said despite legal safeguards, torture was committed with relative impunity. Only a handful of cases against police officers were pending in the courts and so far no one had been convicted. “The time has now come to bring the torturers to justice,” Amnesty said.