The Asian Human Rights Commission sent an Urgent Appeal on February 26, 2007 (UA-063-2007) to several government authorities to which a reply was received on May 7, 2007 from you as the Additional Secretary for the Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order dated April 3, 2007 (SMOD/703/HUMAN RIGHTS).
The AHRCs Urgent Appeal concerned 59 cases of abductions and disappearances on the basis of information made available in a report by the Civil Monitoring Mission. The reply received from you shows how such complaints end up in the rubbish heap.
We quote the relevant part of your reply to the complaint:
A: A directive has been issued on 5 July 2006 by H.E. the President to Service Commanders and the IGP to assist HRC of Sri Lanka to exercise its functions and duties without any hindrance; B: A directive has been issued on 21 July 2006 by H.E. the President to Service Commanders and the IGP outlining the treatment of women and girls during search, arrest and detentions; C: Appointment of Mr. T Sundaralingam as the special Rapporteur to the NRC Sri Lanka to deal with human rights issues and all Service Commanders and TOP have been directed to assist him; D: Establishment of Inter – Ministerial Committee on human rights. This Committee is chaired by the Hon Minister Disaster Management & Human Rights. All grievances with regard to the human rights can be forwarded to this committee without any harassment and such incidents are taken into consideration regularly.
Comments on your reply on behalf of the Ministry:
The matters mentioned in paragraphs A & B of your letter do not relate to abductions and disappearances that have already taken place. They instead refer to Presidential directives which have no binding affect in law anyway. These directives only deal with the instructions that the police and armed forces are supposed to follow during arrest. However, the cases referred to in the UA are about abductions and disappearances which have already taken place.
Paragraph C refers to the appointment of a special Rapporteur on human rights issues to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. However, it is not within the mandate or the ‘capacity’ of the special Rapporteur to investigate into disappearances. Paragraph D refers to the establishment of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on human rights. This again is a committee created a long time ago and the abductions and disappearances complained of have happened despite of the existence of this committee. This committee does not have any legal basis as it has not been created through any legislation. This committee has also neither the mandate nor the capacity to conduct serious criminal investigations which are required when such a grave violations as an abduction or disappearance is reported.
In any credible legal system a complaint of an abduction or disappearance would be treated as a matter of the highest gravity. Normal practice when such a crime is reported to a legal authority is for that authority, which is often the Chief of the Police in the country, is to order immediate inquiries through the best criminal investigating teams available at his disposal. In relation to Sri Lanka, the person who should be held responsible for dealing with all complaints relating to an abduction or disappearance is the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and it is his duty to mobilize the best teams available to him in the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) to deal with each of the individual cases. The usual practice of other jurisdictions in matters of abductions or disappearances is for the investigating officers to make announcements to the whole country through all media channels giving the description of the person alleged to have been abducted or disappeared and to encourage the public to provide any information they may have regarding such person or the circumstances that might lead to the discovery of the person.
Usually such information is broadcast repeatedly until some success is achieved in finding the person or at least discovering what has happened to him or her. Meanwhile alerts would be sent to all the police units throughout the country to look into such disappearance.
The issue of abductions or disappearances is not about who may have been responsible for the act, it is about who has the responsibility to conduct thorough, prompt and competent inquiries into the cases. And that responsibility is entirely in the hands of the law enforcement agency that has the responsibility for investigations into all crimes which is the police. The exercise of that responsibility is in the hands of the IGP and his high command.
The issue is not one of presidential directives or committees. It is a hard core criminal justice issue. The legal responsibility is already there within the existing law of the country. If this legal responsibility cannot be exercised by the law enforcement agency which has the legal responsibility to do it, it is a most fundamental flaw in the countrys criminal justice system.
The response that is needed by persons complaining about abductions or disappearances is as to what the countrys premier law enforcement agency has been doing on that complaint, what success it has achieved and if it has not been successful as to why this is the case. This is knowledge that the public is entitled to have on all cases relating to serious crimes. The government will fail in its legal obligations if it falls short in providing such information to the public.
The letter sent by you on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law & Order does not reflect that this ministry understands the legal obligations involved in the states responsibility to investigate into allegations of serious crimes through the proper machinery of law enforcement in the country. Your letter shows that the state has not paid any respect to the nature of the complaint and its gravity which is about the abductions and disappearances of 59 persons.
We urge the ministry to disclose to the public what the countrys law enforcement agency, the Criminal Investigation Division and the IGP and his high command have done so far to investigate into the above complaints. If the ministry is unable to do this it would not be unfair for the people of the country, as well as the international community to assume that the law enforcement duties relating to such a serious allegation have not been carried out.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of:
Programme Coordinator
Asian Human Rights Commission
