A memorial service was held in Colombo on July 4, to remember the Red Cross Workers who were abducted from Colombo and killed just a month ago.
One of the topics discussed by the participants at this ceremony was the promise given by President Mahinda Rajapakse to intensify the inquiries with a deadline for the arrest of the suspects within two weeks. The president further promised that if this failed he would call upon foreign experts to investigate into this matter. However, the family members, well wishers and the Red Cross officials who attended the ceremony regretted that no successful discoveries had been made of the culprits of this heinous crime, and nor had any foreign experts been brought into the conduct the investigations.
Meanwhile, the killing of four Muslim fishermen at Maavilaaru at Serunuwara, was initially reported by the government to be the killing of LTTE members by the military. However, a surviving eye-witness told the BBC Sinhala Service that, from his place of hiding, he had watched the whole incident and that the assassinations were in fact carried out by the military and the victims were Muslim fishermen. The government soon accused the LTTE of carrying out this attack. The villagers claimed the bodies of the four persons and they were handed over to them by the Magistrate. As there will be no independent inquiries into these murders it is quite unlikely that anyone will be arrested or prosecuted for these killings
There were also serious concerns expressed about the case of the 17 aide workers of Action Contra la Faim who were killed a year ago, and the inability of the criminal investigation unit to inquire into this matter. Regarding this, delays of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry also lead to serious discussions after the IIGEP pointed out that the Presidential Commission was in fact, moving too slowly. The Attorney General and the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were angered by these remarks and stated that there are no such undue delays. Meanwhile, President Mahinda Rajapakse wrote to the Chairman of the IIGEP to the effect that the views of the AG do not necessarily represent the views of the government. However, neither the AG nor the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have withdrawn their criticisms of the IIGEP.
The essential problem relating to all three cases cited above and literally thousands of others is that there is a failure to investigate crimes and to prosecute them. The AG as the chief prosecutor takes the view that his department will prosecute only after the criminal investigators submit their reports of the investigations. If the investigations are not carried out even deliberately, the prosecutors office claims that they have no responsibility about this matter.
Ultimately, the issue of dealing with crime comes down to the police capacity to investigate into crimes. However, there is a consensus both at the levels of the government and civil society that the policing system has collapsed due to politicization and other extraneous interference. As police officers themselves were used for carrying out abductions and disappearances on a large scale, internal discipline within the organisation has descended to an all time low. The allegations of corruption and of having links with criminal elements in society are openly levelled against the police and no credible denials have been made.
The key question relating to human rights abuse, which is both frequent and of extremely harsh nature, is as to whether without investigations into these abuses and prosecutions, can any form of justice prevail in the country, or can such acts be prevented in the future? The simple answer from the experience of all countries is that without investigations into crimes there can be no prevention. In fact, there is only encouragement to commit crimes with impunity when the lawless elements are aware that their misdeeds will not be investigated.
Sri Lanka stands unique in the Asian region in its stark refusal to provide a competent criminal investigation into crimes and gross abuse of human rights. This is mostly due to the fact that state agencies themselves are directly and indirectly being encouraged to engage in acts which are unlawful under any circumstances.
The problem that the local citizens and the international community is faced with is as how to deal with the situation when the state agencies which are supposed to deal with investigations into crime refuse to do so or claim inability to do so. This problem is even more aggravated by the fact that the prosecution department claims no responsibility for prosecution if the criminal investigators have not presented them with files containing sufficient evidence to prosecute. The deadlock that exists in the investigations and prosecutions of crime in Sri Lanka cannot be broken without strong interventions by the local citizens and the international community.
