( November 10, 2012, Colombo/ Hong Kong, Sri Lanka Guardian) Yesterday (9th of October), at least 11
prisoners were gunned down and around 35 were injured by the STF. The shooting
was carried out when the STF entered the Welikada prison for some inspections.
(Photo Courtesy: Sunday Times, Sri Lanka)
According to an eye witness, interviewed by
the BBC Sinhala service, when some prisoners who were in death row were
taken out and handcuffed, the prisoners resisted and then the prisoners were
attacked by the officers who had come for inspection. The dead bodies of 10
persons had been brought to the hospital by that evening and the shooting was
still continuing at the time of the interview. According to the eye witness,
all the prisoners were taking shelter and hiding to try to avoid becoming
victims of the shooting.
The government spokesman, who was
questioned by the BBC Sinhala service, denied that any of the prisoners
have been killed and tried to attribute the reasons for the incident to the
prisoners. He said that around fifteen officers had been injured. It appears
that the officers had entered the prisons for some inspection and the
confrontation with the prisoners had taken place at that time.
The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns
this shooting and calls on the government to institute a judicial inquiry into
the incident. President Rajapaksha himself and the Defense Secretary Gotabaya
Rajapaksha should take the responsibility for this shooting. The use of STF
officers, who are in fact a paramilitary group, for this type of inspections
needs to be scrutinized.
The use of paramilitary forces in policing work
is being witnessed quite often in recent times. The STF started as a
paramilitary force during the conflict with the government and the LTTE, and
they were used for special tasks in the military zone. They were given commando
training. On earlier occasions, when the STF was deployed for crowd control
during demonstrations, there were shootings and these were condemned by civil
society organisations.
Last week, there was also a shooting of
four prisoners in Galle after they were arrested by the police.
The killing of prisoners is a heinous
crime. Where such incidents occur, it requires the most serious kind of
investigations. However, in recent years, Sri Lanka has abandoned the practice
of conducting serious inquiries into incidents where police and military
officers are said to be involved. It is most likely that, instead of conducting
a credible inquiry into the conduct of these officers during this incident, the
government propaganda machine will be employed to create a version of events
that puts the blame for the incident on the prisoners.
The LLRC recommended that the police should
be de-linked from the Ministry of Defence. However, this recommendation is
quite unlikely to be implemented. More and more, military approaches have been
adopted in investigations which should in fact have been done on the basis of
normal criminal investigation methods by the civilian police.
The Asian Human Rights Commission calls on
the government, civil society organizations and international community to
demand a thorough and credible inquiry into all aspects of these killings and
related incidents. -AHRC statement
 Yesterday (9th of October), at least 11 prisoners were gunned down and arou...){kind=link}