Implement Yahapalanaya against police excesses - EDITORIAL
26 June 2015 03:10 am
The rise of violent extremism and unprecedented levels of forced displacement in our world demand a comprehensive response – and no aspect is more urgent than assisting the many victims of rising levels of torture that these and related trends generate, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a message to mark the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. As the world community observes this day today millions of people are displaced without even basic facilities in Iraq and Syria while tens of thousands of people are selling whatever they have and paying thousands of dollars to people-smuggling ghost ships which take them to Italy, Greece, France and other European countries.
Most of these victims of the continuing 24-hour torture are poverty stricken people from Libya and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. During the past few days we also saw how thousands of such displaced people who were accommodated at Calais in France are jumping into huge moving trucks or clinging onto the undercarriage in a bid to go to Britain through the channel tunnel. They believe conditions in Britain may be better than in France but the conservative British government is taking a tough stand against immigrants.
According to a UN statement, torture seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being. The UN has condemned torture from the outset as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings.
Torture is a crime under international law. According to all relevant instruments, it is absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances. This prohibition forms part of customary international law, which means that it is binding on every member of the international community, regardless of whether a State has ratified international treaties in which torture is expressly prohibited, the UN says.
In Sri Lanka even after the election of the Yahapalanaya government on January 8 this year police torture appears to be continuing apparently it is because part of a system and attitude that cannot be dismantled or changed in six months but may take at least two years. We wish to spotlight today one particularly bad case that underlines the need for the President and the government to act fast in eradicating this barbaric crime.
According to the Right to Life Human Rights Centre, the case of the police torture and killing of a Colombo Dockyard cook dragged on for 11 years before justice was finally done last Monday. After a prolonged hearing at the Negombo High Court, Judge M.Z. M. Razeen on June 22 sentenced to death two policemen who were found guilty of murdering Gerald Mervin Perera in November 2004. Mr. Perera, a father of three and residing at Makewita in Wattala was shot dead while travelling in a bus.
Wattala policemen Suresh Gunasena and Ajit Nishantha had arrested Mr. Perera on a mistaken identity and severely tortured him at the Wattala police station. After being in intensive care for nineteen days, Mr. Perera filed a fundamental rights case against the police officers. The eminent Supreme Court judge justice Mark Fernando ruled that Mr. Perera’s fundamental rights had been violated and he was awarded compensation of nearly Rs.1.5 million.
Justice Mark Fernando also ordered the Attorney General to file a case under the Convention against Torture Act of Sri Lanka. The AG filed the case in 2003 against the two suspects and six other police officers. While the case was being heard at the Negombo High Court and Mr. Perera was to give evidence before the courts on December 2, 2004 he was shot dead in the bus while travelling to work on November 21, 2004 by the two suspects. According to reports it is alleged that a lawyer had told the policemen that the only way out of the case was to stop Mr. Perera from giving evidence. One of the policemen and provincial council member had approached Mr. Perera and allegedly offered him a bribe of Rs. 300,000 to withdraw the complaint. When they failed, they decided to get rid of him.
We thank the Asian Human Rights Commission, other human rights defenders, Mr. Perera’s wife Padma Wickramaratne and her three children who despite threats and other dangers fought for justice for this victim of torture. May all civic minded Sri Lankans also do so.