UPDATE (Sri Lanka): Case of Chamila Bandara; the issue of the Kandy Coordinator and the rights of the people in Kandy for human rights protection

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) refers you back to the case of Chamila Bandara, a young boy who suffered from serious injuries due to being hung and beaten at the Ankumbura Police Station from 20 to 28 July 2003.

After the failed attempt by the Kandy Coordinator of the Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Sri Lanka to exonerate the accused police officers, the HRC appointed two committees under much publicity, one to inquire into an allegation of torture and another to investigate the conduct of the Kandy Coordinator. The first inquiry found that Chamila’s complaint was true. The other found that the HRC officer had failed to conduct a proper inquiry. It was further held this senior officer in charge of an entire province did not have the competence and training to conduct such inquiries and that he should be removed from his post. The Chairperson of the HRC announced these findings publicly. However, no further action was taken.

The AHRC has written today to HRC on this matter, while there are rumors that this Kandy Coordinator is going to be made permanent. You can find more information in the letter to the HRC attached below. The AHRC calls for your urgent intervention into this matter. Please send a letter to the HRC requesting the removal of Kandy Coordinator from his position.

To see the AHRC’s previous urgent appeals regarding this case, please visit:
[UA-39-2003: Torture of 17-year-old boy
UP-31-2003: Update on torture of 17-year-old boy, Chamila Bandara, by Ankumbura police 
UP-38-2003: The security of the torture victim and his mother is severely threatened by the perpetrators
UP-39-2004: No action by the Attorney General to prosecute the torture perpetrators of Chamila Bandara’s case]

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission 
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[The letter to the chairperson of the HRC sent by the executive director of the AHRC]

13 October 2004

Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy
Chairperson
National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
No. 36, Kynsey Road, Colombo 8
Sri Lanka
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

Dear Dr. Coomaraswamy,

Re: The Issue of the Kandy Coordinator and the Rights of the People in Kandy for Human Rights Protection

We refer to our correspondence regarding this matter and also refer particularly to a statement made by yourself as the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) on August 20 at a consultation held jointly by the Law Society and Trust, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) at the Pegasus Reef Hotel at Hendala, Sri Lanka.  In your statement, in answer to a question about what action had been taken against Mr. Sumanasekara, the Coordinator of the Human Rights Commission office in Kandy, you stated that a one-member committee of inquiry had held two separate inquiries, one into the case of torture of Chamila Bandara and another into the conduct of the Kandy Coordinator who submitted a report to the HRC stating that Chamila Bandara’s allegations were false. This was in turn used by the Sri Lankan delegation to the UN Human Rights Committee in October 2003.

As for the first inquiry, the one-man inquiring committee came to the conclusion that the allegations of Chamila Bandara were true and that the police officers of the Amkumbura Police had in fact violated his rights in relation to Articles 11, 12(1), 13(1) and 13(2).  The proven allegations were of an extremely serious nature both from the point of view of the serious injuries caused by the torture to Chamila Bandara who was a minor at the time and also due to over seven days of detention at the police station. The attempt by the police to falsify the matter by way of tampering with documents, giving false affidavits and the like only made the situation worse.

Regarding the second inquiry also, the Kandy coordinator of the HRC was found guilty and the inquiring officer’s view was that this senior officer, who has held a prominent position as the chief of the office dealing with the entire Kandy province, was not in fact properly trained to carry out an inquiry. You announced that he would be removed from the Kandy office and would be brought to Colombo for training. Given the gravity of the violations that the Kandy coordinator, a human rights officer, has inflicted on a human rights victim, the proposed punishment was in fact rather mild if not hypocritical. Earlier serious allegations had also been made against this coordinator, like the missing 15 files which were purported to have been sent to the Colombo office of the HRC but had in fact not been sent as was discovered and reported by Mr. Igbal, who was acting as an official inquirer into the manner in which torture inquiries have been carried out by the HRC. In the absence of an explanation from the coordinator of the Kandy office it is a fair conclusion that these files were in fact destroyed by the coordinator in order to assist the perpetrators of human rights violations. The allegation of close collaboration of the Kandy coordinator with police officers who have allegedly committed human rights violations is a very common one and can easily be verified by the number of successful investigations into complaints of torture and other violations of human rights made by residents of the Kandy province. Examination of statistics will reveal the colossal failure on the part of this office for several years and the responsibility for this failure must be born by the HRC of Sri Lanka.

Despite the announcement you made on August 20, the coordinator of the Kandy office is still the head of the same office. Many observers have reported to us that he is refusing to leave and that many allegations are traded among different human rights officers now who try to blame each other for grave abuses. We are also aware that this particular officer was found to not have even the basic educational qualifications necessary for any responsible public office.  The result of this state of affairs is that the people of an entire province are deprived of the protection that the HRC was created to provide. Meanwhile, extremely harsh human rights violations are being reported from the Kandy province.  These include the second torture of Saman Priyankara who life was saved only due to the timely intervention of several human rights activists at whose requests the office of the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG, Legal), took quick action. Samantha Priyankara was able to escape with only permanent ear damage due to this intervention.

As you are well aware, the name of Radhika Coomaraswamy has been used by some Sri Lankan officials at international forums. For example, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission to the UN as a demonstration that the human rights of the people are being well taken care of by the HRC of Sri Lanka.  Thus your name is unfortunately being used to cover up a façade in which internal collaboration with perpetrators by some officers and failure to take effective disciplinary action keeps the people trapped in gross human rights abuses.  It is even more unfortunate that while some government agencies such as the Attorney General’s Department and the National Police Commission in the recent months have made some attempts to end impunity and take some serious action against state officers who violate human rights, the HRC cannot make any such claim.

The beautiful phrase ‘zero tolerance of torture,’ remains just words. Unlike the ‘open sesame’ of mythology, these words do not have magical powers. They depend on implementation and implementation depends on implementers. So long as persons such as the Kandy coordinator remain the chief implementers for any province, these beautiful words will only sound comical to the local population who know the actual state of things. All that the Sri Lankan embassies presenting reports to international bodies will have to rely on is your good name. If a human rights officer can claim immunity for gross abuses of people’s rights, how will anyone take seriously the HRC’s claims to end impunity?

When we made a representation at an earlier stage regarding such impunity, the HRC said that there should be due process and that it needed time. Is all that is happening to his particular case the type of due process we can expect from the HRC?

Initially when the new commissioners are appointed there were expectations that they would make some difference. Concerned people were willing to wait and give them time.  Perhaps it is not too early now to ask whether the same type of hypocrisy and callousness regarding peoples’ rights will be what people will get, with some additional nice words like zero tolerance of torture.

At the time of writing this we are perturbed by the rumors coming from well informed sources that this officer is going to be made permanent in his post at Kandy.

We are still hopeful that given your past knowledge about human rights you may stand true to the principles you have a good knowledge of. The people of Sri Lanka, like the people of other countries, have the right to the benefits of such principles.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

(signed)

Basil Fernando
Executive Director

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and request it to take appropriate action to correct this matter.

 

 

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