The murder of Inspector of Police (IP) Douglas Nimal and his wife, who with several other police officers were making allegations of high ranking police officers being involved in drug trafficking, casts a dark shadow on the capacity of the Inspector General of Police and other high ranking officers to maintain the rule of law and to give protection to persons who make complaints of the serious criminal involvement of such police officers.
This crime, reflecting one of the worst types of criminal police relationships that could exist, is unfortunately a reflection of the lawless society that Sri Lanka has fallen to. The killing of civilian complainants like the torture victim, Gerald Perera, may be nothing in a society where an Inspector and even his wife may be killed as they try to pursue complaints relating to the Police Criminal Nexus.
The Asian Human Rights Commission in its previous statements has drawn attention to this issue many times. (Kindly see AS-54-2004, http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2004statement/225/).
The slain Inspector and six other police officers were arrested in late December 2005 on the information that they had helped underworld drug dealers. They were released last month on the recommendation of the Attorney General on the basis of lack of evidence. They maintained that they were falsely implicated by certain police officers who were in fact, in collusion with the drug dealers. The officers further maintained that they were investigating the drug deals and the false information about them which lead to their arrests was for the purpose of preventing the investigations. Such arrests would have been done with the connivance of some high ranking police offers involved in such deals. Following the arrests the Inspector General of Police remarked that the greatest barrier to investigations into drug deals is the very involvement of the police in such deals. He further promised to conduct investigations until everyone was brought to book. However, like many other statements of the present IGP these words were only meant for the media and nothing in fact was done by way of any serious investigations. The result now is the alleged pursuit of those police officers who are making complaints of foul play in these matters. It is also reported that the slain inspector and other police officers have maintained that there were to pursue cases for violations of their rights. The slain inspector was to meet the president of the Inspector’s Union shortly. However, before that was possible he was assassinated.
The making of complaints and pursuing them has become a dangerous affair in Sri Lanka. The reports of killings of witnesses are frequent and the numbers of persons who give up their complaints are enormous due to duress and other pressures. The successful prosecution rate is only 4%.
Obviously, the Inspector General of Police is both unwilling and incapable of handling this matter. Without the effective protection of witnesses the whole issue of criminal investigation is futile if not impossible. It makes living in the country very dangerous and the protection of the perpetrators of crimes is ensured by the system itself.
Under these circumstances any serious change would require a thorough shake up of the police hierarchy. Nothing less can bring about any change in a positive direction. At present, things are only bound to get worse. To demonstrate, first a torture victim, Gerald Perera, was assassinated and now an inspector and his wife who pursued their complaints are assassinated. Who is next, is the question that is in the minds of many? No one who is cognisant of the situation will believe that the present Inspector General of Police and the police hierarchy can make any difference. Under these circumstances a proper course of action would be for the Executive to ensure that the present Inspector General of Police is replaced by a person willing and capable of making a difference in the situation and to give special instructions for changes in the orientation at the very top of the policing system. It is the duty of the Executive to ensure that the system of policing has the capacity and the will to investigate crimes. Therefore the responsibility of ending the present situation lies solely with the Executive.
The impasse that remains in the failure to appoint the National Police Commission in accordance with the 17th Amendment is a further factor contributing to the deterioration of the rule of law. The President’s action to override the Constitutional Council and to appoint persons of his own personal choice, without the Constitutional Council’s scrutiny of the suitability of such persons, adds confusion to the already bad situation regarding policing in Sri Lanka. The present Inspector General of Police himself was thoroughly opposed to the former Constitutional Council. There were even moves to have him included as a member of the National Police Commission.
However, subsequently the Supreme Court found him to have violated the human rights of the then prime minister (and now President) in an alleged act of initiating an inquiry in bad faith in order to favour the opposition. The court also found the Inspector General of Police to have submitted fabricated documents to the Supreme Court.
Under these circumstances the only course of action that seems to be justified is for the Executive to make a drastic change within the leadership of the police in favour of those officers who are willing and capable of enforcing the rule of law. We urge the human rights community, locally and internationally to take up this matter with the Sri Lankan government and ask for a resolution as urgently as possible. The government should also be asked to ensure a credible investigation into this murder, if necessary with the assistance of foreign criminal investigators, who can be trusted to act without fear of any high ranking officers who may try to obstruct the investigations.
