Batalanda is only the tip of the iceberg Three presidential commissions found 16,800 enforced disappearances

The report detailed in gruesome detail the torture inflicted on the detainees and repeated instances of extra-judicial killings, which the police at that time called “removing

In another statement, Ayurvedic Physician Nimal Attanayake, who treated the torture victims, described torture victims with open wounds with maggots and mouths burnt

The new government has presented the commission report to Parliament, and a Parliament debate on the subject is scheduled for April

The history of Presidential Commissions in Sri Lanka is one of brazen political opportunism and travesty of justice. They were the oft-deployed tools in the government’s arsenal before local and international outcry, as an eyewash and distraction from its grim human rights record. As a general rule, they are toothless and devoid of powers to take legal action against perpetrators. Very presidents who established presidential commissions had rarely followed up with their recommendations. At other times, they are used as a political tool to malign political opponents. The Batalanda Commission falls into this category- not due to the absence of guilt, but due to the sheer and sickening hypocrisy of the political leadership. Officially known as The Commission of Inquiry into the Establishment and Maintenance of Places of Unlawful Detention and Torture Chambers at the Batalanda Housing Scheme, it was appointed by  President Chandrika Kumaratunga in December 1995. Its final report was submitted to her in April 1998.

The Commission was initially seen as an effort to implicate Ranil Wickremesinghe. Yet, once the commission report was out, President Kumaratunga, instead of following up with its recommendations, used it as part of a smear campaign against Ranil Wickremesinghe.

 What is disturbing, though, is while she was petty politicking with it, the report found:

“Ranil Wickremesinghe and SSP Nalin Delgoda are indirectly responsible for the maintenance of illegal detention centres and unofficial torture chambers in the houses bearing No B2 B8 B34 and A 1/8.”…

“ASP Douglas Pieris and  CI Ranjith Wickremesinghe directly responsible for maintenance of aforementioned places of illegal detention and torture chambers…”

Gruesome detail of the torture

The report detailed in gruesome detail the torture inflicted on the detainees and repeated instances of extra-judicial killings, which the police at that time called “removing.”

Earl Sugi Perera, one of the victims who survived the torture, described harrowing cries in the night and two persons hung upside down and bleeding. 

In another statement, Ayurvedic Physician Nimal Attanayake, who treated the torture victims, described torture victims with open wounds with maggots and mouths burnt. 

The Commission also observed that police officers could not have obtained housing from the Batalanda housing scheme without the approval of Ranil Wickremesinghe.

The Commission noted, based on evidence from a victim who survived torture and escaped detention,  that a house (B2) where Mr. Wickremesinghe chaired meetings with police officers was used as a torture chamber.

It questioned: “Can anyone who attended meetings in the said house claim that they were unaware that  people were detained illegally and tortured there in the house?”

In a statement to the media, Mr Wickremesinghe refuted allegations of his complicity. 

He said the report only referenced his involvement in facilitating housing for Police officers during the 1988-1990 insurgency without implicating him in any other allegations. 

The sudden emergence of the  Batalanda Commission report was not due to the renewed interest at home to hold the perpetrators of these gruesome crimes accountable. Instead, it was due to  Ranil Wickremesinghe’s disastrous performance in an interview with Al Jazeera host Mehdi Hasan.

That also raises concerns about whether the Batalanda Commission would become a political football for yet another time. If that happens, that would be a grave injustice to the victims of harrowing acts of torture and extra-judicial killings. 

The new government has presented the commission report to Parliament, and a Parliament debate on the subject is scheduled for April.

Three Zonal Commissions and All Island Commission

The Batalanda Commission, as graphic as in its details of horrific violence, is only the tip of the iceberg of Sri Lanka’s horrific rights abuses during its darkest period of 1988-1990.

In order to capture the full scope, or at least a part of it, of the horrific state of violence and complicity in extra-judicial killings, the government should table the reports of three Zonal Commissions of Inquiry into the Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of Persons (1995-1997 and the All Island Commission ( 1998-2000).

The three zonal commissions were appointed by President Chandrika Kumaratunga to investigate enforced disappearances in the country after January 1988. 

16,800 disappearances

The three commissions investigated 27,526 complaints, of which 16,800 were established as amounting to enforced disappearances. Of the 16,800 incidents of enforced disappearances, the Commission also identified perpetrators of such action in 1681 cases.

Among those implicated included 27 members of Parliament, 14 provincial council members, 12 Grama Niladaris, 20 police superintendents, 51 police officers in charge, 12 army captains and four majors.

The three zonal commissions were overwhelmed with complaints of enforced disappearances, which they could not fully investigate during their term despite extensions. Hence, an all-Island commission was appointed to investigate additional complaints, including  10,135 complaints forwarded by the three zonal commissions for further investigation. It established evidence of 4,473 disappearances in addition to the cases documented by the other commissions. When completing its work, the “All Island” Commission referred 16,305 additional complaints, which it was precluded from reviewing per its mandate to the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission.

In 1994, the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission started processing the 16,305 complaints referred to it by the “All Island” Commission and eventually identified 2,127 cases to be investigated further. However, in July 2006, the Human Rights Commission decided not to pursue the analysis of these cases “unless special directions are received from the Government”.

A Presidential Commission with sentencing power

The President can establish a commission similar to the Criminal Justice Commission of 1972 ( which sentenced JVP leadership of the 1971 uprising)  with sentencing power, and that could accept evidence which is otherwise inadmissible under the Evidence Ordinance and of which decision is final and can not be appealed.

Should such a measure require a two-thirds majority, the NPP has enough numbers in the House. It only needs political will to deliver justice to its own fallen comrades and, of course, many thousands of innocents. 

Sri Lanka is no longer constrained by security concerns of a long-running war in the North to hold back on its accountability process. Probably, President Kumaratunga’s failure to take decisive action against military and police personnel implicated in enforced disappearances was partly due to national security concerns. 

That is no longer a reason to let the killers roam free. All that is needed is the government’s will to act decisively to bring closure to many thousands of victims.

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