Ceylon Today Editorial

Have Police a licence to kill?

28 February 2017

It's not every day the Sri Lanka Police get commended and appreciated for a job well done. Rarely does the occasion arise where the media (or even the general public) praise the Sri Lanka Police for their service. And sadly, this is not such an occasion either.

The week began with a serious black mark on the Sri Lanka Police. Notably becoming the first major Police brutality case reported for this year, a sub inspector and four constables, of the Peliyagoda Police were arrested in connection with the death of a 41-year-old suspect who had died while in Police custody.

The deceased suspect, arrested for robbery last week had been admitted to the Colombo National Hospital last Saturday (25).

The Police officers who had admitted the suspect to the hospital had claimed that he had suddenly fallen ill while in Police custody.

The suspect, however, died a few hours after being hospitalized under questionable circumstances, which led to the obvious examination of events that led to the final outcome. The post-mortem examination into the death revealed that the suspect's death has been caused by either dehydration or internal bleeding. Furthermore, the autopsy report had shown that the suspect had serious bruises on his torso which had led to a theory of assault prior to his death.

The fact that he was under Police custody has led to the obvious assumption that the suspect might have been assaulted by his captors and that has caused grievous bodily injuries, thus leading to the arrest of the five Police officers who were on duty at the Peliyagoda Police Station during the crucial period of time. Surely, no one from outside would dare enter a Police Station to murder or maim a suspect in custody.

This incident comes after the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture reported on the still existing culture of Police torture of suspects in Sri Lanka. The report that was made public earlier this year, for the current United Nations Human Rights Council session, which commenced yesterday and will continue till 24 March, has addressed the matter of Police torture of suspects and various other matters rigorously.

Furthermore, the report also calls for an extensive redo of the current legal framework that would demolish this persistent Police torture culture in the country, which is expected to be brought for discussion at the Council meeting. And any layman would note how this latest incident with regard to the Peliyagoda Police Station would reflect badly on the entire country when the report is brought up for discussion.

Surely the government should address these matters more rigorously and immediately before jumping on to the propaganda wagon that paints a pretty picture of the country. Before boasting about 'ensured human rights among all citizens in the country' they should pay more attention to incidents such as this latest one, which could, despite being an isolated incident, have dire negative repercussions in the long-term.

Furthermore, one should also note that the Sri Lanka Government, let alone the Sri Lanka Police or the National Police Commission, publishes no record to the deaths of every person killed by Sri Lankan Police officers. Yes, they would deploy all kinds of resources into investigating into such incidents but it is rarely do we see any long-term permanent steps being taken to resolve the matter of Police brutality and Police torture. The National Police Commission, when inquired about the matter, is likely to say that the Commission is powerless against such cases until the point where someone – the victim, the family of a victim, interested party or a high ranking member of the government – would lodge a complaint on it, where they could intervene. Even then, the most powerful form of action that has been taken against a perpetrator of Police brutality is suspension from work, which needless to say, is temporary and useless.

Most of the cases of Police brutality go unnoticed because the victims dare not file a complaint that could be traced back to them, which will result in more danger to visit on the victim. Or they have lost all faith in the system that allows them no justice for their grievances. This is also correlated with the number of recorded cases that are being investigated. If there are no complaints, there's no investigation and therefore no record of Police brutality being reported. The loophole is easy as that.

Daily News Editorial

GMOA, a willing tool of JO?

28 February 2017

The GMOA, it appears, is hell bent on crippling all government hospitals by its trade union action against SAITM. It is obviously testing the waters for a full blown strike. First, it struck work at the Uva, Southern, North Central and Eastern Province hospitals. Yesterday, it launched the fourth phase in the Wayamba Province.

The signs are all there. Medical students of the state run universities are distributing leaflets in their thousands while candle light vigils too are being held. Which begs the question as to who is funding the whole project? The GMOA, for the first time, had resorted to hoisting black flags at government hospitals, demeaning themselves to the level of just another run of the mill trade union.

The doctors’ agitation against SAITM is bound to dovetail with the signing of the ECTA agreement, slated for April and it is clear that the twin issues are being planned to cause the maximum effect to bring the government to its knees.

Which also begs the question, if the doctors’ campaign is solely based on altruistic reasons to provide a better health service to the public by opposing the SAITM, which the GMOA claims has fallen short of standards, or is there another motive behind the whole exercise to cause destability in the country and assist in the political project of the government’s opponents. We say this based on a newspaper interview given by JO firebrand Vasudeva Nanayakkara that it had targeted toppling the government this year. Asked how they were going to get about this business the maverick politician said that they naturally could not disclose their plans but that the growing dissatisfaction of the people with the government was clearly apparent and they would naturally seize upon the opportunity to bring their plans to fruition.

Obviously, the JO is waiting for the public dissatisfaction to reach a crescendo to seize on the opportunity to topple the government (although how they would get about this business is not clear) and is banking on the creation of the ideal scenario for this dissatisfaction to reach boiling point.

What better way to create such a background by paralyzing the country’s health service and cause the public to direct its wrath against the government and also by drumming up the ECTA goni billa to fever pitch to say that the county’s youth will lose their jobs to the Indians who will flood the country’s labour market, with the signing of the agreement. There is no other rationale for the doctors’ strike. We say this because there was no agitation by the good doctors when SAITM came into being under Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2008. Certainly not the type of protests we see today where the entire academic community has joined in the party to cause the maximum difficulty for the government. No standards were insisted by the GMOA when the Kotelawela Defence Academy was established, at the instance of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and, as Dr. Rajitha Senaratne observed, the inference was inescapable that the good doctors dare not mess around with Gota.

Be that as it may, the SAITM issue had been decided by the Court of Appeal and the doctors who are learned professionals ought to abide by the court ruling. If not, they would be opening the floodgates for lesser minions to disobey legal judgements and take to the streets, throwing open the doors for chaos and anarchy. Or, is this what the GMOA really want?

More of the same

National Freedom Front spokesman Mohammed Muzammil has once against accused the government of a witch-hunt against members of the military intelligence, following the arrest of five Intelligence operatives, including a major, over the abduction and torture of journalist Keith Noyahr. We have been arguing ad nauseam in these columns that fighting in the Eelam war did not give any member of the security forces a license to commit acts of crime. Military personnel are also not immune from prosecution when found out about their involvement in criminal activity.

Muzammil says that the witch-hunt against the military Intelligence officers was carried out to appease the enemies of the state. Is the former MP suggesting that these ‘enemies of the state’ had planted the evidence that led to the arrest of the military Intelligence officers responsible for abducting Noyahr? Is the NFF spokesman denying that there was no Special Unit set up, composed of military operatives, to target journalists, as unraveled by the CID?

Let Muzammil be reminded that a soldiers committed suicide, by hanging himself, after writing a letter, begging to exonerate another military colleague taken in, in connection with the Lasantha murder? Does this not tell a tale about military collusion in the crime?

The Island Editorial

Bang, bang, bang

28 February 2017

 

The country is not yet free from terrorism. Thankfully, the JVP and the LTTE were defeated militarily in 1989 and 2009 respectively, but the law-abiding citizens are still living in fear of a different brand of terrorism. The underworld has emerged stronger than ever. In what looked like a scene from a Hollywood action flick, a group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on a prison vehicle in Kalutara yesterday morning. Seven persons including a notorious underworld character, who was targeted by the assailants and two prison guards perished in the ambush.

Daring attacks on prison vehicles are of not recent origin, though. Ratnaweera, a hardcore criminal, who once terrorised Hambantota, was pulled out of a paddy wagon which was stopped by his rivals in Ridiyagama and done to death in the early 2000s. A jailer also died in that Wild West style attack. Another underworld figure was targeted inside a prison vehicle last year in Dematagoda. He was lucky to escape death. There have also been several grenade attacks inside court houses owing to gang warfare.

Sadly, the law and order situation hasn’t improved in spite of the conclusion of the war and the 2015 regime change. Given the ease with which underworld attacks are carried out and armed assailants flee, how vulnerable the ordinary public vis-à-vis powerful crime syndicates goes without saying. They live in well fortified houses which resemble prisons with high walls and steel bars while criminals are moving about freely. Successive governments have done precious little to protect the citizenry against criminals who have demonstrated their ability to strike at will.

The prison authorities have said they had asked for police protection for their vehicle carrying dangerous criminals on Monday, but to no avail. Police have denied this claim. Both parties are playing Sri Lanka’s national sport—the blame game. It is doubtful whether regular police personnel would have been able to face the gunmen involved in yesterday’s incident even if they had been deployed in sufficient numbers. Only the STF is capable of countering such threats effectively.

The Joint Opposition (JO) yesterday blamed the present administration for having disbanded the prisons intelligence unit. Whether the JO is telling us the truth or not we don’t know. But, there is little such an outfit can do to ward off well organised criminal gangs.

Decades of armed conflicts have left the country awash with illegal firearms and the underworld is full of trigger-happy military deserters and former terrorists. Lapses on the part of police and links between criminals and politicians have made it well nigh impossible to neutralise the underworld.

It may be recalled that during the previous regime, when the STF, carrying out a raid in Negombo, was about to descend on an SLFP politician with underworld links, the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa rushed there and gave the cornered party man a bear hug, thus sending a very clear message to the police commandos. Today, that politico is in the SLFP’s Maithri faction, which is advocating good governance!

The present administration came to power, promising to restore the rule of law among other things. Its big guns flogged the issue of the rising crime rate under the Rajapaksa government very effectively to turn public opinion against their political rivals. But, there has been no let-up in the underworld operations; criminals who had fled the country during the previous administration returned after the change of government in 2015 and some of them openly clashed in Colombo in the run-up to the last general election. Police are busy doing political work and criminals are having a field day.

It is incumbent upon the government to remain focused on the need to neutralise the underworld and protect the citizenry instead of faulting the media for ‘negative reporting’. The yahapalana leaders claimed during the Rajapaksa government the then rulers were protecting criminals. They are now in power and the question is why they don’t order a crackdown on the underworld to make the country safe for the ordinary people who are living in eternal fear of criminals.