Civil society organizations in Sri Lanka made a great advance during the last week when they were able to identify a group of persons who are allegedly involved in the abductions in Colombo. On the basis of their information the police at Kotehena have been able to arrest several persons who are said to belong to this group. Sri Lanka has a long history of abductions which often end up in disappearances and this is the first time that it has been possible to arrest alleged abductors.
The Peoples Monitoring Committee (PMC) yesterday claimed that they had played a major role in arresting the suspects. According to the Committee members, including Democratic Left Front Leader Vasudeva Nanayakara, Wickramabahu Karunaratne and Western Peoples Front Leader Mano Ganeshan they visited the Kotahena police station when they heard of the arrest and requested the police to do their duty, despite of political interference.
However, the PMC has also informed the public that the government is attempting to release the alleged suspects of these abductions. A spokesperson for the PMC alleged that the Kotahena police have already received orders from the top, to release the gang leader. He alleged that there are plans to release him and claim that he escaped.
The causing of large scale abductions can only happen with the connivance of those who control the territory, which in Colombo means the government. In fact, it would have been the duty of the government to investigate and to arrest the abductors and with the huge machinery at their disposal this would not have been a difficult task. The very fact that it has been the civil society monitoring groups that had to investigate and uncover information of such abductors is itself a severe indictment against the government. Now that these monitoring groups were able to provide the information and to get the alleged abductors arrested it is shocking that the top government officials are said to be involved in trying to get these same persons released.
The burden now lies with the Inspector General of Police to demonstrate that the law will be enforced without fear or favour. During the previous week the Inspector General of Police, Chandra Fernando, claimed that he is unable to arrest the alleged abductors, assassins and others involved in the violence of the recent months because the victims have not been able to provide information. This is rather a strange claim on the part of the chief of the countrys premier law enforcement agency. It is in fact the duty of the investigators to uncover the details of crimes and not to put the blame for their inability to do so on the victims. Anyway, in this instance civil society monitors have done what the police should have been doing and provided the information which made it possible to arrest the alleged abductors. Will the political schemers thwart the efforts made by determined civil society groups and allow the alleged perpetrators of the abductions to escape. It is a sad reflection of the political interference that leads to the paralyses in the enforcement of law that the popular feeling is that the abductors may escape the due process of law.
In a separate move several other civil society groups called for United Nations involvement in sending a human rights monitoring group to Sri Lanka as the only way to ensure investigations into human rights violations. Twenty six leading civil society groups in Sri Lanka, including ten Muslim rights groups, have issued a joint statement to the delegates of the second session of the UN Human Rights Council calling for an International Commission of Inquiry into human rights violations in Sri Lanka. They have pointing out that there is an inability of existing institutions and mechanisms, including the National Human Rights Commission, to investigate the large killings, abductions and disappearances, the groups demand the presence of an International Commission of Inquiry to investigate the gross human rights abuses in the country.
The Asian Human Rights Commission strongly supports the brave intervention of these civil society groups organized under the CMC for their contribution in identifying the alleged abductors and calls upon the government to ensure due process of law. The AHRC calls upon the government and the Inspector General of Police not to allow political consideration to hamper proper investigations and prosecution in this case. However, knowing the unwillingness of the Sri Lankan government to respect human rights the AHRC also strongly supports the call of the civil society groups to the United Nations to establish a human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka as soon as possible.
