Torture chamber at the law faculty

Stories of the Disappeared Told by their Families– Part Three

by Moon Jeong-ho and Bruce Van Voorhis

The disappearance of B. Hemantha Ajith Chandrasiri

(June 03, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) B. Carolis Silva, a resident of Divulapitiya, was in Colombo on 12 October 1989, visiting the member of parliament of the ruling party for the Colombo East electorate. At that time, the universities in Sri Lanka were closed due to clashes on the campuses, and thus, his 26-yearold university-going son, Hemantha Chandrasiri, was at home helping his mother, Asilin Fonseka, watering the plants in their garden.

At about 4:30pm, according to Asilin, two men in civilian clothes approached her son and asked if he was Hemantha. When he responded that he was, they showed him a piece of paper with a name and address on it and inquired whether he knew the identity and the address of the person mentioned therein. Hemantha replied that he did, and the two men asked him to accompany them to that house. Hemantha declined but said that he could give them directions. The men insisted that he go with them, but Hemantha refused and went inside the house. The men followed Hemantha into the house and attempted to force him to accompany them.

At this point, Asilin realized that something was wrong and that her son was in danger. So she began to scream in fear. One of the men pulled a pistol from his hip, held it to her head and ordered her to be quiet, says Asilin. Hemantha told his mother that these men were from the independent student union at the University of Colombo, where he studied. The men then dragged Hemantha out of the house and forced him into a jeep that had been parked outside. As they pushed Hemantha into the jeep, Asilin had run out of the house shouting and chased the jeep as it sped away. Seeing what happened, two neighboring boys mounted their motorcycles and followed the jeep. However, as the roads were crowded, they could not keep up with the jeep and lost sight of it as it turned off the Marandagahamulla junction in Divulapitiya. The boys then returned to tell Hemantha’s mother what had happened.

Asilin immediately called her husband, who raced back to Divulapitiya, and together with other family members and neighbours started the search for their son. Their elder son went to the police station and lodged a complaint, but the police never conducted an investigation, says Hemantha’s father Carolis, adding that this was because the police and the Army were acting in accordance with the wishes of the government in power. He explains that most police and army officers were loyalists of UNP politicians and the government turned a blindeye to the illegal activities of these officers.

“For instance,” he says, “There is a village close to our home called Estella. There were mass graves there where heaps of bodies of people murdered were dumped and burnt. Even Buddhist monks who had been detained for various reasons were murdered by the army and brought to these graves and burnt. These acts were very common in those days as the respective governments in power virtually legalized these horrendous acts.”

Carolis visited several army camps looking for his son. First he went to the army camp at the racecourse, but his son was not there. His family also learned from a relative who was at the Naiwala army camp in the area that Hemantha was not there and villagers told them that he was not being kept in other nearby camps either. Carolis then traveled more than a hundred kilometers away to the army camp at Boossa, near Galle, and to the Palawatte army camp in search for his son. But he did not find him anywhere.

Meanwhile, Carolis and Asilin also found the owner of the jeep in which Hemantha was abducted—one S. M. Kulathilaka. This man had told a relative of Carolis that the government had openly given permission for the police or the army to stop and take into their possession any vehicle travelling on the road to conduct their operations. So while his vehicle was being driven along Galle road, somewhere in Dehiwela, several army or police personnel had ordered the driver out of the vehicle and had taken the vehicle away.

During this time, according to Hemantha’s parents, Champika Ranawaka, a university friend of Hemantha, was also looking for him. Champika, who at present is a member of the Sihala Urumaya political party, had visited the Narahenpita Abayarama Temple’s chief priest, who was known to have close links with university students. The monk had warned Champika to be careful and advised him against looking for missing persons. The monk had then suggested that he leave the temple discretely via the back door, as there might be security checkpoints along the main road, checking people’s identities.Champika quickly left, but did not abide by the monk’s advice. He continued his search for his friend and then while in Borella looking for Hemantha, he was arrested and taken to the law faculty building at
the Colombo campus. Here Champika discovered that the two-story building was filled with people detained by the police or army. And during his detention in the law faculty building, Champika heard
Hemantha’s voice.

Carolis says he discovered the aforesaid information while going through a series of newspaper articles written by Champika Ranawaka, several years after his son’s disappearance. Consequently, Carolis wanted to meet Champika to discuss his son’s disappearance. The opportunity arose when both Hemantha’s parents and Champika were invited by the Colombo University student union to attend a commemoration ceremony in honour of students who had disappeared. At the commemoration, Carolis was asked to garland a picture of a disappeared student from the Peradeniya campus, to which he agreed. Another person was then called to garland a second photograph, which Carolis suddenly recognized as his son. Carolis says he began shivering and fell to the ground unconscious. Asilin also saw her son’s picture and fainted. The students took her to the Colombo National Hospital, where she was treated and then returned to the campus about two hours later.

Due to the delay, Hemantha’s parents missed the opportunity to speak with Champika. However, they were given the names of several people who had been at the campus during Hemantha’s stay and who could give them information about their son. These people were Adams, Parakrama, a bodyguard of a politician who was in control of the student union torture unit, and an Army Captain who it was alleged monitored the activities of this torture unit. Carolis was also invited to see the bloodstained floor of the law faculty building, but he had no desire to do so. After the confirmation of his death, Carolis and Asilin have been performing religious rites for Hemantha.

Hemantha’s death appears to have been caused by his activities in the student union, but why would the participation of a student in such campus activities lead to torture and death? Carolis explains that there had been two student union factions at the Colombo University. The independent student union responsible for his son’s disappearance was a pro-government union and affiliated with the UNP.He adds that student unions linked to the political party in government were always very powerful and influential. However, Carolis had been quite unaware that his son had been a member of the student union; Hemantha had never mentioned it to him.

During this period, why was there no outcry about the massive numbers of people who disappeared? “This was due to widespread fear at the time,” says Asilin. “People were afraid to speak out against these incidents because they feared the government in power. It was a wellknown fact to everyone that all of those who spoke against the government were abducted from their houses and murdered. So people just did not want to comment on anything.” Carolis adds that, “even if any person or group came forward and spoke or held demonstrations about such matters (disappearance of their loved ones) the government would have taken these people and murdered them too.”

Regarding the prevailing justice system in Sri Lanka today, Asilin says, “Even today there is no justice in our country. All around us, we see various types of unlawful activities taking place on a daily basis and injustices being perpetrated on the people. This is definitely due to the so-called political culture in our country. Therefore, it is time for the people to change this. Without using force to get votes, respective governments too must make an honest attempt to change this culture.”

Carolis adds, “Our nation’s main problem is our ailing political system. Different political party leaders practice their own self-centered notions of democracy; real democracy does not exist. As a result, lawenforcement authorities are often rendered helpless when implementing the law. I have lost confidence in the procedures of lawenforcement in Sri Lanka. Most of the law-enforcement officials implement the law in accordance with the wishes and plans of various party leaders in our country. In other words, they have become stooges of the politicians. And they automatically resort to corrupt practices when implementing the laws of the land. In short, democracy here in Sri Lanka has been restricted to a piece of paper. Thus, justice for me is to change the current system.”

Carolis also asserts that abduction and murder must be eliminated and that these unlawful activities must be made criminal offences. “We have lost our son,” he laments, “and we just cannot calculate the value of this life in rupees and cents. We do not need money. Instead, what we need is a full inquiry into what really happened to our son and all those unfortunate people who disappeared. We need to know the reasons behind the abductions and killings as well as the identities of those who were behind them. The findings of these inquiries must be made public. It is only then that change will be possible.”

And if this is not done immediately, he warns, future generations of the country too, will run the risk of becoming innocent victims of similar unlawful activities, and more parents will lose their children. “We,as Sri Lankan people, are now mentally suffering and will thus suffer for the rest of our lifetime because we have lost our son. My fervent prayer is that no other family faces the same plight which we are facing by losing our son.”

_____________________

Editor’s note: We are serializing a series of essays based on the stories told by several Sri Lankan families in the South about the disappearances which took place between 1987 and 1991. They are reproduced from a book published in October 2004 under the title, An Exceptional of the Rule of Law. Many similar incidents would have happened in the North and the East and we encourage the readers to send in their stories known to them. (Contact emails: editor@srilankaguardian.org or feed@srilankaguardian.org)
_____________________