SRI LANKA – An Open Letter to all Parliamentarians on the need to urgently deal with Lawlessness in the Police

By Basil Fernando

(August 24,Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) I am writing this on behalf of the Asian Human Rights Commission on a matter that is, I am sure that of great importance and urgency to all the members of parliament, whatever political party they might belong to. This is the issue of extreme lawlessness within the policing system which is causing shock, scandal and fear among the people. There is no doubt that you will agree on the seriousness of the problem and there is a need to act decisively to change this situation.

The executive president and the prime minister have acknowledged the problem and made public statements regarding the issue. However, there is no sign of any serious effort or an indication of a plan to deal with this national problem. Mere prosecution of a few police officers of lower ranks relating to a few incidents is no real response to this enormous crisis.

All the newspapers have been forced to recognize the extent of the problem and even judging by the coverage of almost all the papers this weekend it is quite clear that the people in all parts of the country are agitated by the extent of the abuse of power by police officers and the threat they pose to the lives of the people. That the people need to be protected from the police is becoming a common saying repeated frequently.

In the year 2001 members of all political parties tried to address the collapse of many public institutions including that of the police. By rare unanimity all parliamentarians adopted an amendment to the constitution known as the 17th Amendment which created some limited approach to bring about meritocracy instead of politicized institutions so that these public institutions could in some way be revived. For a short period the 17th Amendment was implemented to a limited degree. Among the commissions appointed was the National Police Commission and in the short period of the existence of an independent National Police Commission many of the serious problems of the policing system began to be addressed to a limited extent. However, this effort was abandoned and there was a return to the pre-2001 situation. This situation became even worse with the intensification of the internal civil conflict when, due to the climate of war, all others problems were forgotten.

Today, Sri Lanka’s policing system has been described as completely lawless, corrupt and having no regard for human life. Extra judicial killings often disguised as some sort of self defense killings, torture and extortion have become the common feature exhibited at all police stations. The absence of even limited discipline within the police has also become visible where even person who are charged with murder at high courts and facing trial continue to work as police officers. While there have been allegations of extremely serious crimes from all parts of the country there are hardly any serious investigations into these crimes.

A few years ago a former Attorney General, K.C. Kamalasabeyason started the initiative of referring all serious allegations of extra judicial killings and torture to Special Investigation Units of the Criminal Investigation Division. Within a very short time over 60 inquiries were conducted by the SIUs where there was adequate evidence to indict the officers. Over 60 indictments were filed under the Convention against torture, cruel and other inhuman punishment Act, No. 22 of 1994. Many of these cases are still pending before trial courts. However, later the Attorney General’s Department ceased to refer these complaints to the SIUs and now the inquiries are handed back to the senior officer of the stations where the offenses are committed. This practice of the senior officers of the same police area conducting inquiries has been condemned as not being impartial and as a means of intimidating and harassing the complainants and the witnesses.

Further the government’s promise to pass a witness protection law has not been honoured. The bill that was proposed for this purpose is still pending in parliament. In several instances persons who have complained against the police have been killed and many others have been harassed and seriously harmed.

The absolute impunity that is given to the police has contributed to the absolute loss of discipline. Drunkenness has become a common feature and bribery and extortion by abuse of powers of arrest and detention is now also a common feature. The OIC and other officers who are accused of killing two young persons in Angulana have also been accused of being drunk. The member of parliament of the area has publicly stated that he earlier received complaints of these officers being drunk in the evening and assaulting people. He said he complained about the matter but that nothing happened. Throughout the country such drunkenness is widespread and these officers often assault people in the most ruthless fashion. There is hardly anything anyone can do about this situation.

As you would very well know, links with criminal elements and the police are visible everywhere. It is a common saying that now the criminals receive protection whereas complainants are often harassed. When there is such high perception of links between criminals and the police naturally the confidence in the institution is going to be extreme low.

It has been revealed in the cases before the courts that the police often tamper with documents. False entries are made in order to make people suspects of grave crimes such as possession of large doses of drugs for which there is no bail. In other cases where people have made complaints against the police entries are either removed or in other ways tampered with in such a way to obstruct the administration of justice. Despite of this problem being highlighted so often no police officer has yet been charged in court for obstruction of justice by tampering with the police books. This practice of tempering with books is treated as a joke.

In 2004 the Ministry of Justice appointed a committee to inquire into the delays in adjudication. One of the causes they found was the police officers who are supposed to attend court failing to attend or seeking dates in order to attend to other matters. The lack of cooperation between the police and the courts has not only caused delays but also affected the criminal justice process in particular because the investigating function relating to crime is in the hands of the police.

Much of the problem of policing in Sri Lanka is due to the neglect of the high ranking officers from ASPs to the IGP who have failed to carry out their duties of supervision and monitoring. Instead when there are complaints many of these higher officers unscrupulously cover up the errant police officers. If there is to be any solution to the lawlessness within the police, and there must be such a solution, the persons who should be dealt with at the very start are the high ranking officers beginning with the ASPs up to the IGP. If this is not done nothing will change despite of public statements of the government and others.

As parliamentarians of this country it is your duty to discuss this affair in the parliament as a matter of extreme national importance and therefore without any political bias on the basis of parties. The type of unanimity that existed in 2001 needs to be repeated but with a better form of intervention on the issue with the better knowledge of the problem and determination to resolve it.

Perhaps the immediate appointment of a parliamentary sub committee to discuss the needed police reforms with the adequate mandate with a duty to report within the shortest possible time should be at least a beginning to deal with this problem. Calling for public views on the subject will without doubt bring in many interventions on this issue. What is of paramount importance is to take the first step without delay and to start dealing with the problem of police lawlessness decisively. If there is no real intervention on your part on this crucial national issue it will be letting down the people and will cause greater problems of insecurity and loss of life, liberty and property.

Basil Fernando,Director, Asian Human Rights Commission

-Sri Lanka Guardian