Human Rights
Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions have metastasized into something dangerous
8 JANUARY 2012:Today marks the third death anniversary of Lasantha Wickrematunge a human rights journalist from Sri Lanka who fought
Vigil for Lasantha (File photo)
fearlessly for the freedom of the press and relentlessly pursued what he believed was right. On January 8, 2009 he was brutally murdered by the Sri Lankan authorities for his journalism.
Three years after Lasantha’s brutal murder despite the vapid assurances of the Rajapakse regime to the international community, Sri Lanka has turned into a lawless state of abductions, rape and murder with at least two of these incidents taking place in the New Year.
Concentration of power and finances
Even as there is an overwhelming concentration of power and finances in the ruling family, every one of Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions has metastasized into something dangerous and poisonous.
Christmas day was marred by the brutal murder in the South of Sri Lanka, of a British tourist Kuram Shaikah Zaman – a prosthetics expert who had worked for the ICRC in the Gaza strip. His friend a 23-year-old Russian woman was raped with one witness telling the local media that four men “stripped and raped her mercilessly although she was bleeding from her head.” The main suspect in the case is ruling party politician and well-known thug Sampath Vidanapathirana a close friend of the Rajapakse family.
Refuge for criminals and rapscallions
Clearly the ruling regime has become a refuge for criminals and rapscallions as the Sri Lankan government fails to maintain law and order and encourages lawlessness and criminal behaviour instead.
Local media has also reported that the suspect Vidanapathirana had earlier been arrested for the murder of an elderly woman in the run-up to the 2010 Presidential elections but had been released on the basis of a mental disability report filed by the police on his behalf. Despite this he continues in active politics under the protection of the Rajapakse family.
Though the police are conducting preliminary investigations into these gruesome crimes, hopes of justice remain slim as with every other bogus murder investigation commenced for public and international consumption under the watch of the Rajapakse regime.
The name of the game
Inexplicably the police did not even arrest Vidanapathirana and waited insteads for him to surrender a few days later. Here’s what the Asian Human Rights Commission – a staunch human rights defender based in Hong Kong, said regarding the surrender. “Due to the publicity this incident has attracted Chairman Vidanapathirana surrendered to the police. On assurance of anonymity, a policeman explained that such surrenders are nothing but a game. All the conditions of how to deal with the situation and the manner in which the surrendering suspects are to be released are all prearranged, he said. The whole process of criminal investigations is so manipulated by the government politicians that in many similar incidents the suspects have escaped any criminal punishment.”
Yet tourism authorities and hoteliers in the country have preferred to call this a random act and have advised the media to sweep the incident under the carpet for fear it would hurt the expected tourist boom.
Surely material surplus and economic progress cannot make up for the erosion of our society and the destruction of our moral compass.
Killings
As if this were not enough, a 25 year old man Dinesh Buddhika Charitanda was abducted on January 3 this year and his body bearing head injuries was found near the Keleni river close to Grand Pass in Colombo. A week earlier, the body of a fish vender who had been abducted by an unknown group was found dead in the same manner at Mutuwal, Colombo.
On 2nd January a man named Mohammad Nistar, was abducted by a group in a white van as he was traveling in a three-wheeler. Sometime later his body was found with bullet wounds to the head. The Asian Human Rights Commission says Mr. Nistar was engaged in the rehabilitation of drug addicts. No one has been arrested for his abduction and murder.
Abduction after abduction
In early December of last year two young men, Lalith Kumar Weeraju and Kugan Murugan, were abducted and have since disappeared. According to human rights groups these two young men were activists campaigning for the International Day for Human Rights on December 10.
On October 27, 2011 a well-known astrologer Mohamed Sali Mohamed Niyas was abducted by a group of armed men and several days later his body was found on the shores of Akkaraipattu in the East of Sri Lanka.
Even the worst scoundrel is entitled to due process of the law and labels in the media of alleged drug dealing as in the case of young Dinesh Buddhika does not absolve the government from its responsibility to uphold the rule of law.
With a total lack of accountability for the war, a disappointing LLRC report that failed to recognize the importance of accountability and justice, and the failure to properly investigate the murders of journalists like Lasantha Wickrematunge, little wonder the commonly held belief that these continued abductions and murders are taking place with the direct or indirect knowledge of the police and with the tacit approval of ruling party politicians.
Powerful friends
Another example is that of Duminda Silva, a Member of Parliament and a close confidant of Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse. Mr. Silva allegedly a drug dealer was responsible for the attack that led to Baratha Lakshman Premachandra and several others being killed. Yet Duminda Silva remains under the careful protective wing of his powerful friend.
These countless murders, abductions and assaults are not random acts or accidental killings. These are acts of violence that have become emblematic of the current leadership, the erosion of society and the impunity with which the regime now operates.
Any kind of political dissent has been crushed as was demonstrated recently when opposition parliamentarians were assaulted inside parliament itself. Despite death threats and other forms of intimidation of the media no serious investigations into these complaints are ever conducted.
Demonic repetition
When my husband was brutally murdered in 2009, when journalist Prageeth Ekneliyagoda was disappeared in 2010, civil society, the media and human rights organizations said enough was enough. But we have seen that these acts of violence still continue to take place with demonic repetition.
Despite overwhelming evidence, still no investigation
In the 36 months that have elapsed since Lasantha’s murder, there has been virtually no investigation into this crime.
Police had earlier succeeded in taking into custody five mobile phones, which on the day Lasantha was killed, moved in the same pattern as his phone. Police say the phones that passed through 11 cellular phone towers that day have not been used before or since the day of the killing. However, they have not been disconnected either. According to police, one of the five phones appears to have been used to monitor and control the entire operation. A track path of the calls made between the five telephones indicates that they communicated regularly with each other, constantly calling one particular mobile.
One of the five phone numbers indicated on the mobile path shows a call having been made from the spot Lasantha was attacked. According to witnesses, the assassins all rode a uniform make and type of motorcycle. A motorcycle allegedly used in the attack had been recovered the government claimed.
Soldiers arrested and released
During the course of 2010 seven soldiers belonging to the Sri Lankan army’s Military Intelligence Directorate–a unit headed by a close confidant of former Army Commander General Fonseka–were detained for questioning by the Terrorist Investigations Department (TID) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID). The seven soldiers were separated from an original 17 who were taken into police custody. All 17 have since been released.
Suspect mysteriously dies
In October 2011 the only suspect remaining in custody Pitchai Jesudasan mysteriously died. According to the B Report submitted by the Terrorist Investigations Department dated March 30, 2010, Pitchai Jesudasan was arrested for the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge and attempted murder of the then Editor of the Rivira newspaper Upali Tennakoon and previous attack on Deputy Editor for the Nation newspaper Keith Noyahr. With relation to the murder of Lasantha Wickrematunge police charged that Jesudasan’s national ID had been used to obtain the five SIM cards which were later believed to have been used by the five man hit squad who trailed and murdered my husband on January 8, 2009.
Should be investigated
Jesudasan may have died of natural causes but the circumstances of his death in custody give rise to questions and therefore must be independently investigated.
Moreover, despite the existence of numerous witnesses, no accurate description of the attack on my husband was ever made public by the police. Had there been even the slightest political will to solve this murder the apprehension of his murderers would have been child’s play.
Certainly taken together, all this can leave little doubt in a rational mind that Lasantha’s murder has been the focus of an extensive—if clumsy—cover up.
International Community must act
As we remember Lasantha and his work and other journalists and activists around the world who have paid the supreme price in the line of duty, I call upon the international community to urge Sri Lanka’s government to hold a proper independent investigation into Lasantha’s murder, to bring back the rule of law rather than the rule of one family, to delink the police from the defence establishment, to properly disengage the army from civil administration, to restore the Seventeenth Amendment in order to ensure independent commissions for the Police, Judiciary, Bribery, Finance, Elections and Human Rights and to sincerely effectively and meaningfully deal with issues of accountability that now plague our nation.
Statement by Sonali Samarasinghe Journalist and Widow of Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickrematunge on his third death anniversary
4 Comments to “Sri Lanka’s democratic institutions have metastasized into something dangerous”
January 18, 2012 at 6:29 pm
Hey Vishnu, yeah, sure serves a purpose. Even stones thrown into the dark
must hit something, say, for example, like a criminal and his protector having a secret pow-wow there. Meanwhile chum, ever tried pouring HOT water on a duck’s back ? It’s like when the sh.t hits da fan ya know ! raises up a pretty nasty stink…and that serves a purpose for sure. I like this ole Doc …he’s sure using a whale of a lot of piping hot water chum !You can bet your bottom dollar it’s getting under someone’s feathers and that’s when it’s easy to pluck us some feathers and leave em standing naked out in the park for all to see. Ever heard that no effort , however small it may be, is wasted. Get yourself some hot water feller.
Lukewarm stuff even makes God puke [ see Revelations 3:16]Meanwhile, you’re doing great on the LS.
January 12, 2012 at 10:40 pm
What Sonali has written confirms what i have believed for several years, that Sri Lanka is a Totalitarian State run by a megalomaniac. The killing of Lasantha was not just the killing of a fine person with courage, determination, a sense of justice and integrity. it was the killing of free speech (or what is left of it).
All of this will be summarised in an up-coming article by me (if i don;t suffer the same fate as Lasantha – the criminal reach of the Rajapaksa regime stretches beyond the bloodd renched shores f that dreadful island as it has now become.
Perhaps an award-winning journalist rather than a senile doctor should write this article.
Nothing has pleased me more than the news that Sonali had left the country. If she had not, she would have joined her husband – that’s for sure. At the age of 80 it is no big deal if they target me, but it would have been a big deal if they target a gifted and talented journalist like Sonali.
Sonali and others will be interested in a paper i am just finishing. “Sri Lanka. The Rape of Tamil women and girls by the Sri Lankan Armed Forces”.
Murder, Rape and Torture are some of the most serious crimes against humanity, the silencing of journalists is an absolute feature of a fascist dictatorship, or blacker still, a Totalitarian State. All these features the Rajapaksa regime has.
My article on Rape will detail what the international community can do. to halt the tidal wave of violations of human rights, including murder, rape, torture, and ‘disappearances’ engulfing Sri lanka. To plead with a tyrant is an exercise in futility. To expect crminals to track down criminals is totally unrealistic.
Let me put this question to the Rajapaksas and the hooligans who run Sri Lanka. if the war is over and peace and posperity have returned to the island, why is Amnesty International, human rights Watch and International Crisis Group not allowed into the country?
As for lasantha’s murder, i am a great fan of the British murder movies, “Midsomer Murders”. It shows what professional detectives and investigators can achieve. If the murder of Lasantha is such a huge problem for the Rajapaksa regime will Mahinda Rajapaksa the “President” and Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the de facto President, allow Scotland Yard to investigate the murder of Lasantha? I will find the money to pay for this? Scotland Yard might well do it pro bono.
That must surely be the silliest question i have asked in the six decades that i have been involved in human rights violations in Sri lanka.
Sri Lanka is going down a hugely dangerous path which Sonali has with her usual brilliance, set out. The price has been paid by the Tamils. The Sinhalese will be the next. The visible evidence for this was the murder of Lasantha
Brian Senewiratne
Brisbane, Australia
January 8, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Super article, contains a lot of irrefutable facts; however, would pouring water over duck’s back serve any purpose, any purpose at all!
March 2, 2012 at 3:49 am
Hi Mason,Great qusiteon! Actually I’ve been meaning to write a post about that, but I was waiting until I go back to Sri Lanka in February so I can get some more photos, etc. But as a rough guide I would say the best places are Galle on the South coast, a little town swimming with art shops and creative cafes, surrounded by an ancient UNESCO World Heritage fort.Ude Walawe/Yala National Parks two fantastic National parks that offer safari trips to see the animals which range from elephant to crocodile to leopard, etc.Trincomalee beach on the East Coast without too many tourists, and an excellent spot for diving.Unawatuna stunning banana shaped stretch of sand near to Galle with a laid back hippy vineBentota slightly more upmarket sort of beach with some nice resort-style hotels (if you’re into that sort of thing) and some great watersports and turtle sanctuaries.Adam’s Peak the biggest mountain in Sri Lanka. Well worth the climb for the views from the top.Kandy stunning town up in the mountains with loads of history and traditional culture.Sinharaja Rain forest Sri Lanka’s main rain forest. It’s incredibly beautiful.Sigiriya a 2000 year old rock fortress with giant lions paws carved out of the rock.Jaffna once war-torn and off limits, now open to tourists again. Fascinating.World’s End right out in the highlands, an excellent place to get away from everything and hike.Polonnaruwa/Anuradhapura/Dambulla three ancient cities with some amazing historical remains in them.I could go on forever about Sri Lanka to be honest, because personally I feel that every place is worth visiting, but obviously what you want to visit depends on what type of person you are, and what you have time for. Those are really the main ones I would say.