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| The ninth conference of the police chiefs of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) commenced in Colombo. |
(April 06, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian ) Police officers from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries are holding a two-day meeting in Colombo to discuss issues concerning policing in the region since yesterday. The Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, inaugurated the meeting. It is reported that the officers participating in the meeting are discussing ways and means to counter drug trafficking and terrorism in the region. It is indeed good that such a meeting, ninth of its kind organised by the SAARC, is being held. However, the logical question that could be asked about the meeting is that would it mean anything further other than the formal gathering?
" The Sri Lankan example is proof to the fact that having merely a law against police violence would not suffice. What is required is an overall change in the manner in which the institution and its role in the society is conceived, so that the police is equipped and expected to discharge its duties with responsibility fitting a legally and morally accountable institution of the 21st century."
Though the capacity of police in discharging its mandate varies between the nine SAARC countries, they share several common characters, most of it unfortunately negative. Police, as it exists today as an institution in all the SAARC states, is a creation of the colonial regime. To say the least the institution continues to suffer from the colonial mindset in terms of its mandate with the people. Probably Afghanistan is the only exception to this general rule, though after the Second Anglo-Afghan war, colonial policing was introduced to most of what is today known as Afghanistan, which, after the Saur revolution, underwent drastic changes to fit the 'Soviet model' dynamics of the cold war era. The Afghan police continued to suffer even after the end of the cold war from the Talibanisation of the country starting from 1996 and the subsequent change in the political atmosphere since 2001. Afghanistan today is in the process of setting up of civilian institutions, including the country's police, from what is left after more than half a century of the externally sponsored and internally facilitated turmoil.
The Nepal police share a similar pathetic history, mostly due to the utter neglect of the institution by the past governments and the heavy toll inflicted upon it during the Maoist insurgency. The never ending squabble for power in Kathmandu, Nepal's curse that has haunted the country for the past four generations, has contributed to the deterioration of Nepal's civilian institutions, including its police.
In India, Bangladesh and Maldives, police is one of the most corrupt and dreaded institution, a character the institution shares sans jurisdiction within the SAARC states. Police also lack independency in the region, a character otherwise essential for the proper functioning of a civilian institution mandated with the enforcement of law. In all the SAARC states it is the powerful political parties that reign absolute control over the police, depending upon their tenure in power. In Bangladesh, it is common for the ruling political regimes to use the police to wreck vengeance upon political opposition. In India police is used like a guard dog by the political parties and the powerful elite, a character the institution shares and let continue in the SAARC states. In that, a person like Gotabaya inaugurating the conference suits the overall character of the institution in the region.
Yet, it is only in India where there has been an intervention, ordered by the Supreme Court, directing changes to the scenario, that too at the request of a former police officer, Mr. Prakash Singh, more known for his integrity as a gentleman officer and his intellect and capacity to lead his force to discharge duties respecting the constitution of the country. However, the directions of the Apex Court are yet to be practically implemented by the state governments in India. In fact many state governments approached the Supreme Court with a review application, claiming that the Court has no business to tell the states how to run the police, which was summarily dismissed by the Court.
In other SAARC states, unfortunately the integrity and independence of the judiciary also have suffered adversely at the hands of the ruling elite, that today, in these states there is hardly any difference between the police and the judiciary in terms of their pre-destined and ill-fated trajectory to oblivion as civilian institutions. The subjugation of the judiciary in Sri Lanka to the Executive President's office underlined by the Supreme Court's assertion to this unquestioned servitude; the non-existence of a justice institution in Afghanistan; the militarily subjugated and weathered, and intellectually corrupt judges of Pakistan; the undereducated and ill-equipped judiciary of Nepal; the underdeveloped and politically controlled judiciary of Maldives and the completely corrupt judiciary of Bangladesh do not paint a promising picture of justice in the region.
In Bhutan, the security apparatus is subservient to the government of India, and thus emulates their Indian counterparts. Though much less is documented about the Bhutan's police, the atrocities that they commit against persons of Nepali origin and how it collaborates with its defence units and their Indian counterparts in carrying out extrajudicial execution of suspected militants are infamous. The failure to prosecute police officers committing crimes and the vacuum of a functioning and credible justice framework is character Bhutan shares with the rest of SAARC states.
The widespread use of torture and other forms of violence is yet another character that the police in the SAARC states share. Videos and reports showing police torture from Pakistan and India will shock humanity. Due to their sheer incapacity to investigate crimes owing to reasons ranging from political interference, ineptitude and the lack of training and equipments, often the investigation of a crime starts and ends with a confession. Extrajudicial executions, euphemistically known as encounter killings, is common in all the SAARC states. There are several instances reported each month from the region, where the police kill innocent persons not only at the behest of the government, but also as a form of punishment for not paying bribes. In some instances, like the cases reported from Gujarat and Manipur in India, police officers murder innocent persons as an incentive for promotions.
Of the SAARC states, only Sri Lanka has criminalised torture. Yet, only in less than 20 cases the officers accused of having committed torture have been convicted by the courts in Sri Lanka, despite the country having a law criminalising torture since 1994 and the use of torture rampant in that country. The Sri Lankan example is proof to the fact that having merely a law against police violence would not suffice. What is required is an overall change in the manner in which the institution and its role in the society is conceived, so that the police is equipped and expected to discharge its duties with responsibility fitting a legally and morally accountable institution of the 21st century.
It is reported that the Sri Lankan delegation is offering training to their counterparts in the region on combating terrorism and the Bangladeshi police offering assistance and training, claiming that they have the expertise to combat international organised crime. Looking at the records of police in both these countries one cannot help but laugh at the proposition.
Combating terrorism in Sri Lanka has not evolved beyond mere killing with or without suspicion and organising enforced disappearances with impunity. In a country that has recorded the highest number of disappearances, for which none have been punished so far despite government sponsored bodies recommending the same, combating terror the Sri Lankan way is relatively easy. The former Secretary of one such commission that inquired into disappearances in Sri Lanka had to flee from the country since he was certain to be killed by the police and/or politicians who were exposed as being behind enforced disappearances, murder, rape and robbery through the statements of victims to the commission, which the Secretary was unfortunate to serve.
Gotabaya, the Defence Secretary of Sri Lanka is alleged to be one of the 'bullies' of his brother, the President, and has a reputation of silencing journalists who criticise the government, with death threats. Combating terror outfits or anything for that matter in such an environment does not require the skill of an investigator. What is required in an environment where fair trial has no place, like Sri Lanka at the moment, is the wolfish shrewdness of a street thug, which writs large within the police of that country. The Sri Lankan judiciary has only played muffled background tunes to the executive, a fact proved by the dismissal of more than 400 habeas corpus writ applications by the country's court, without allowing a single one among them. Legal experts in Sri Lanka itself has written and published about this.
In Bangladesh there is not a single police station that is free from corruption. Those who have dared to expose police corruption, like their counterparts in Sri Lanka, had to either flee the country or face threats from the police. Even for registering a complaint Bangladeshi police demand and accept bribe. One has to wonder what crime could be prevented and which order be maintained with a force having officers that would tamper police records and evidence for bribes as small as Rupees 150.
Organised crime syndicates operating in the region are thousand times sophisticated, informed and above all 'organised' than the entire police force in the SAARC region. They use modern communication technologies for business, which the police force in the region that even lacks enough telephones to function or vehicles to travel, could dream of. Their cadres are physically fit than the potbellied local police officer. Organised syndicates have sometimes the support of the government. In some countries they are the government. It would be sometimes hard to say who represents what. Sri Lankan Minister, Mr Mervyn Silva, or Mr. A Raja, the former Indian minister for Communications and Information Technology are fitting examples of these amphibious personalities.
Crime could be controlled only if the crime control agency is equipped to discharge its mandate, psychologically, technically and intellectually. Police in none of the SAARC states at the moment could claim that they have a working environment in which they could discharge their official mandate with integrity. In fact in all the SAARC states police officers risk punishment if they honestly do their job. The social status of a police officer is thus in the region, that today, police is considered to be uniformed criminals.
It is a change to this unacceptable and shameful status quo that any self-respecting police officer must discuss if they have a chance. But neither the states nor the SAARC, which has done nothing sensible so far to promote the welfare of its people through peace, stability, amity and progress in the region, would want this to happen.
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