Jungle laws of Sri Lanka

| by A Special Correspondent

( August 7, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Four Innocent Muslim men have been jailed in Sri Lanka on a false accusation. It is reported that these four men have been spreading false information about an anticipated communal violence that would take place among different communities on 10th, August. It is alleged that these four men have spread false information via SMS texts message to create disharmony among communities in Sri Lankan. Based on this allegation these four men have been jailed until court gives a verdict on their case. According PC Zuhair who appeared on behalf of these four men argued that these four men have done no any criminal act or any act to incite communal disharmony among communities. Rather they have been arrested on the basis of false News Item that appeared in Lanka-e-News: I shall reproduced that News Item as it appeared in that Newspaper to tell the world that Sri Lankan police arrested these four men without any substantiated evidence to prove that they have committed any crime in this regard. It was reported that by Lanka-e-News on 30-7-14 that,

“The Criminal Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse sponsored paramilitary monk squad alias the Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS) organization (internationally condemned as a terrorist organization) which was used by Gotabaya to cause murder and mayhem via racial violence in Alutgama recently ,temporarily halted its murderous violence. However they are planning to hold meetings Island wide after 10 th August and wreak havoc, according to reports reaching Lanka e news inside information division. A secret meeting was held at the defense Ministry last Monday evening (28) in this connection. Galagoda Aththe Gnanassara , Dilantha Vithanage the BBS Secretary, and other monks of the BBS, as well as Gotabaya along with chief of the army staff, Jagath Jayasuriya , IGP Ilangakoon, senior DIG Gamini Navaratne , and State intelligence service cum Terrorist investigation chief DIG Chandra Wakishta participated in this meeting.

At this meeting it was discussed and proposed that BBS should speak against the government with a view to rescuing the country. It was pointed out through the Geneva international investigation into war crimes attempts are being made to bring the country’s military officers under the ‘guillotine’, and the UN is supporting this via America. It was decided by highlighting this the people are to be aroused, and at the rallies of the BBS the government shall be criticized. Gotabaya explained, otherwise , people will come to know that this is orchestrated by the government. .When the IGP questioned whether this is practically possible while the Uva provincial council election is in the offing ,and soon after the Alutgama violence , Gotabaya replied , ‘that is no issue’ , and instructed the IGP to provide full security to execute these plans. Gotabaya insisted that it should be 100 % and not 99.9 % security . At this juncture , when Gnanassara said , some police officers don’t care two hoots for his orders, Gotabaya told the army security council chief to provide a security contingent of 20 army officers at every meeting.Jagath Jayasuriya requested Gnanassara to furnish him ahead with full details of what he is going to speak at the meetings . Gnanassara agreed to comply with this request. Jayasuriya who was pleased with the answer, told Gotabaya , ’in that case we can deploy that team.’ Nevertheless the team was not identified at the discussion. Gota also ordered Wakishta to give him a comprehensive report on the meeting.

The army commander, the IGP and other commanders of the forces had to make a record when entering the defence Ministry to attend the discussion that lasted about two hours. Gnanassara and his clan however were allowed to enter and exit without any record.

It is significant to note that after the gory violence and mayhem at Alutgama , Gotabaya Rajapakse when interviewed by the Daily mirror newspaper said , there is no connection whatsoever between him and the BBS. He challenged anybody to prove that there is , if anybody can”.

This quotation I have given here is from Lank-e-News. I do not know if this Item is true or false. I do not know whether such meeting took place between the Defence secretary, BBS and Security personals and yet, an undeniable truth is that Defence secretary and BBS have got an intimate relationship and No one deny that. Why should any responsible politician have such a close relation with a racist group such as BBS? It appears that Lanka-e-News might have received this news item from a reliable source. It is responsibility government to make any official enquiry about it and to know how Lanka-e- News got this news Item. Yet, to arrest these four men on false accusations of spreading disharmony does not make any sense. These four men simply got the News from Lanka-e-News on Line news Paper: Today, in our modern world News items are spread so quickly via social networks and it is impossible to control it. It is a responsibility of Newspapers to verify News items before they publish and yet, people have freedom to read any News items and there is no harm to quote any News items from any Newspapers. These four people have not done anything wrong. They have right to quote any News Items directly or indirectly within boundaries of copy rights.

According to PC Zuhair, these four people are innocent who happened to copy this News Item from Lanka-e-news and text it to their relatives and friends. They have not created this News Items or they have not participated in any communal voidance or in any political demonstrations and yet, to accuse them with this alleged crime does not make any sense.

Ironically, real culprits who initiated hatred campaign and disharmony among communities are free today and protected by Gota. It is ironical to apply laws of land differently to different groups of people. The entire world knows that BBS and its cohorts have been spreading violence for the last two years and yet, they got immunity from any type of punishment. They have not yet been produced to court and they have not yet been punished. This is what I call as jungle Laws of Sri Lanka. It is shame on the Legal establishment of Sri Lanka to apply laws differently and partially with prejudice and discrimination: Today, we have two types of justice in Sri Lanka. One set of justice for Sinhalese and another type of justice for minorities: yet, political enemies also are not exempted from this jungle law of Sri Lanka; even former chief justice was also not exempted from the punishment of this jungle law of Sri Lanka.