Hong Kong, January 31, 2009
SRI LANKA: Human rights lawyer’s office burnt down
The office of Amitha Ariyaratne, Attorney-at-Law, situated in front of his residence at No. 53, Temple Road, Horapay was burned down yesterday at around 9pm by an unknown arsonist who fled the scene. On the 27th January 2009, Mr. Ariyaratne was threatened inside the Negombo Police Station in front of several officers by an officer named Bandara who struck him on the shoulder and threatened him with death three times. Earlier, on the 26th September, 2008 Mr. Ariyaratne also received death threats by an anonymous caller asking him to desist in providing legal representation at the inquest relating to Sugath Nishanta Fernando. This inquest was regarding the assassination of Mr. Fernando which took place on the 20th of the same month.
Mr. Fernando was a complainant and a witness in a torture case against an Inspector of Police in the Negombo area against whom the Commission on Bribery and Corruption had filed a case. He was also the petitioner in a fundamental rights application in which he made 12 police officers of the Negombo area, including a Senior Superintendent of Police respondents for assaulting his entire family, including his wife and two young children, demanding that he should not give evidence in court against the inspector who was charged with an offense relating to corruption. Before his assassination, Mr. Fernando and his family were threatened with death within 24 hours if they did not withdraw the fundamental rights application filed in the Supreme Court. The police officer named Bandara who threatened Mr. Ariyaratne with death on the 27th January 2009 is one of the respondents in this fundamental rights application.
Shortly before the arson of Mr. Ariyaratne¡¦s office, he and his wife who is also a lawyer were working at the office in which all the case files relating to their work were kept. When they left the office for some personal reasons they saw a man walking past very hurriedly. He was dressed in a sarong. Almost immediately after leaving the office they saw the building burst into flames. They described the fire as intense.
After the couple called on the neighbours several of them arrived and tried to put out the flames. After considerable effort they succeeded. The furniture and tables in the office had been burned and many of the case files on one side had also been destroyed. The extent of the full damage has not yet been assessed.
Despite of calls the police did not arrive promptly. When they did finally arrive they did not conduct a thorough investigation into the fire. After the arrival of some friends, Mr. Ariyaratne went to the Ragama Police Station and made a complaint. However, no inquiry has yet started.
Mr. Ariyaratne fears for his life and those of his family which includes two school-going children. On the 27th January he made a complaint to the Bar Association and the Inspector General of Police in which he described the death threats he had received at the Negombo Police Station thus:
Then I went inside the police station. When I made a request to the acting officer in charge of the police regarding the request of Surangi Sandamali Pathmi Peiris, he made a positive response and promised to do as requested, and asked me to stay in the police station for about half an hour and take away the document. Then I came out, stating that I will come back in half an hour, and was walking in the corridor near the office of the officer in charge of the police station, when one person dressed in civilian garb crossed my path and said ¡§you karriya (derogatory way of addressing a person), are you trying to fuck the mother, are you trying to get yourself killed, you better know who you are, you will not be allowed to live long,¡¨ and threatened me. I told him at that moment ¡§I have no business with you; I came to the police for an official purpose.¡¨ And then he replied to me, ¡§you devil (¡§yako¡¨), I am also a bloody police officer,¡¨ and again threatened to kill me. When such death threats were made to me, my attempt was to try to escape and go away. When I was trying to do that, this person dealt a blow on my shoulder. After getting that blow I turned back to go to the office of the officer in charge to lodge a complaint about the assault. When I was going to the office of the OIC, this person said, ¡§you karriya, are you going to get killed, you are not a big fellow to me, you are struggling to be finished,¡¨ and was threatening me with death and coming behind me.
I said, ¡§Okay, I am ready to be killed. But I want to go and discuss the official business that I came for.¡¨ At this stage, this person who was in civilian garb evaded me and left. After that I went to the OIC and said that I want to make a complaint. ¡§One of your officers working in this police station and working under you threatened me. ¡§ When I made inquiry I found that the name of the person who had made threats to me was a police officer named Bandara. I asked the OIC to call him. The OIC called this person to come many times, but he did not come. At the time when this incident happened, there were four lady police officers who were there and who heard everything, but none of them came forward to talk about this. Then the OIC said, “We have helped you so much, will you do something against us?¡¨ I told him, ¡§I did not come to work against you. I came to do my official job and to get some justice done for my client. I did not come here to fight with anybody. However, one of your officers inside your police station threatened me and assaulted me. There should be a protection for me. I asked you please to intervene on this. You call this officer here.¡¨ However, this person called Bandara did not come forward even at that stage. I got to know very clearly that that officer¡¦s name is Bandara and that he is one of the respondents in the fundamental rights application filed by my client, Suranji Sandamali. It is clear to me now that this officer had some clear hatred against me and that he made these death threats on that basis. I repeatedly asked the police OIC to record a complaint, but he told me, ¡§I have helped you so much. Do not work against me and let us settle this matter peacefully,¡¨ he suggested. Then I told him, “whether to settle it peacefully or otherwise, kindly call the person who threatened me here.¡¨
While I was saying that, this Bandara came to that place, and I reminded this police officer about the things that happened, in front of the OIC. He dealt a blow on my arm for the second time. I told the OIC, “Now you have seen that this person assaulted me in front of you. Will you not record a complaint about it now?¡¨ Then the OIC said, ¡§You can go to any place and make your complaint. I am not going to record any complaint about this.¡¨ I told him repeatedly, ¡§You have seen what has happened before you, why do you not take down a complaint about this?¡¨However, he did not take down my complaint.
The Asian Human Rights Commission calls upon the Inspector General of Police and the Sri Lankan authorities to investigate this matter and also to provide protection to Mr. Ariyaratne and his family. We also hope that the Bar Association of Sri Lanka which in recent months has passed many resolutions and even organised demonstrations to come to the assistance of their colleague and also to strongly intervene with the government and the Inspector General of Police regarding this case.
