SRI LANKA: Hikkaduwa Liyanage Sandun Kumara, 16, seriously tortured by the police at Rathgama Police Station 

Dear friends

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that 16-year old boy was brutally tortured by the police. The manner of torture was so brutal that clear evidence of violence against children, which violates Article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Sri Lanka is a party. More seriously, the victim and his family have been receiving severe death threats from the perpetrators after they filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court. Your urgent action is required to correct this matter immediately.

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
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DETAILED INFORMAITON:

– Name of the victim: Hikkaduwa Liyanage Sandun Kumara, 16, of Temple Road, Pitiwella, Boossa
– Names of the perpetrators: The officer In Charge (OIC) Mr. R. Chandimal de Silva, Sub Inspector Mr. J.T. Ramyasiri, Police Sergeant Mr. Silva, Police Constable Mr. Chandrasiri Silva, Mr. Upul attached to the Rathgama Police Station at the instigation of rich persons named Mr. Bandula Silva, Mr. Sarath Silva and their brothers
– Period of detention and torture: from 12 September 2003 to 19 September 2003

Case details: (based on the statement from the victim and his mother)

The victim, who had to leave school after his father’s death to support his family, started work at the factory, which is owned by Piyasena Mudalali since early August 2003. However, the work was so hard that the victim stopped his work at the factory and left to Ampara.

On 10 September 2003, the victim’s aunt Renuka was informed that the Rathgama police were looking for the victim. He came back home and went to the Rathgama Police Station on the morning of 12 September 2003. The police questioned him until 3:00pm and threatened him to reveal where the stolen goods were, which he did know nothing about. Then, they released him and told him to come back the next day.

At about 1:00pm on 13 September 2003, Sarath and Bandula Silva with their brothers, who are the family members of Piyasena Mudalali, came to the victim’s house to take him to the Rathgama Police Station. They told him that it was only for recording a statement and promised to return him within an hour. However, they took him to Piyasena Mudalali’s house instead of the police station and called to the Rathgama Police Station saying that they had caught the thief. After that, at around 3:00pm they brought the victim to the Rathgama Police Station, where they handed the victim over to Sub Inspector (SI) J.T. Ramyasiri.

Sarath and Bandula Silva, their brothers, and some police officers took the victim to the backyard of the police station. The SI J.T. Ramyasiri held the victim by his T-shirt collar and lifted him off the ground, demanding him to reveal the whereabouts of the goods that he had stolen. The SI kicked the victim’s legs and dropped him on to his back. Then, the SI trampled the victim with his shoes. The SI then hung him up on a tree, by the waistband of his trousers, and dropped him on to the ground.

While the police assaulted the victim, Bandula Silva told something to the police inspector. After that, Bandula, Sarath Silva and their brothers, with some police officers wearing civilian clothes, went to Piyasena Mudalali’s house by a white van at about 5:00pm. There, Bandula and Sarath Silva and their brothers served arrack (a traditional wine), cigarettes and food to the police officers. While they were drinking, the police officers assured them that they would get the lost items from the victim. Then, the police officers threatened the victim that they knew what to do to him if he did not tell them the whereabouts of the stolen goods. After drinking, all of them returned to the police station at about 6:30pm. The police took the victim to the cell where there were beds with iron railings and they handcuffed one of his hands to an iron railing. The police officers gave the victim some food at night but they did not give him any water to drink.

The next day (14 September), the police officers took the victim into another small building further away from the backyard of the police station, where there were beds with a bathroom. The officers ordered him to remove his clothes and they applied chilli powder on his genitals while he cried not to do so. After that, the police officers wrapped up his head and face with his T-shirt and poured water on his face causing him to nearly suffocate. The police kept it up for about one minute and repeated it about four times at two to three minute intervals. After that, the police officers freed the victim’s hands and ordered him to face the wall. They then beat his back, buttocks and legs with their hands and wooden sticks. After assaulting him, they put him to the cell where he was handcuffed to a bed again.

At about noon, the police officers took the victim to a cemetery in front of the navy camp, Boossa, near his home, and ordered him to dig a grave. Then, they immersed him in a water pit. Bandula and Sarath Silva and their brothers were present in their white van nearby. He was brought back to the police station at about 1:30pm and was cuffed to the bed again. Several police officers took turns assaulting the victim with hands and wooden sticks. At about 4:00pm, the police officers took the victim inside the building again, removed his clothes, repeated the torture with water, and assaulted him.

On 15 September 2003, the police officers tortured him in the same manner as they did the previous day. He had a black eye and wounds on his elbows, knees and below the ankles. He was also dragged along sand applied to cement floors until his feet were bleeding. At the evening of the same day, Police Sergeant Silva, with another police officer, took the victim to the beach behind the police station and ordered him to run. They threatened to shoot him, then, they assaulted him with a stick while the victim was handcuffed. The assault against the victim continued until 16 September 2003.

At about 12:30pm on 17 September, the victim’s mother could meet her son for the first time since he was taken into police custody. When she saw her son, she noticed that the victim walked with great difficulty. He had a black eye and his upper parts of the soles below the ankle were swollen and were red in colour. His elbows and knees were wounded. He could sit only at the edge of the chair. After seeing her son’s serious condition, she requested the police to provide him medical attention, which was denied. In the evening of the same day, Sergeant Silva hit his the victim’s head against a wall and struck his ears with his shoes about five times. He also kicked and trampled his legs while he was crying. As a result, the victim is complaining of a loss of hearing and recurrent headaches until now.

The police produced the victim in court on 19 September, and he sent to the Kithulampitiya Remand Home. The officers of the remand home admitted the victim to the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital on 21 September 2003. The doctor on duty had made observations and has ordered the victim to be warded in the hospital. Injections and medicine were administered immediately. The hospital discharged him subsequently but he was admitted to the Karapitiya hospital again on 23 September 2003 as a result of his complaining of severe headaches and chest pains.

On 24 September 2003, the victim was produced in the Galle Magistrate’s Court and he was released on bail. After being released, the victim and his family have filed complaints against perpetrators to the National Human Rights Commission and the Supreme Court. However, after making the complaints, they have been receiving death threats by the perpetrators. The Officer In Charge and the other officers, who involved in torturing the victim, is still serving at the same police station and the victim and his family fear the threat from the police and their security problem.

Meantime, the Supreme Court issued leave to proceed in fundamental rights filed on behalf of the victim. Court made order to the National Police Commission (NPC) to conduct disciplinary inquiry into this case.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please send a letter, fax or email to the addresses below and express your concern of this serious case.

1. Hon. Mr. Ranil Wickremasinghe
Prime Minister
Cambridge Place, Colombo 7
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 682905 / 575454
E-mail: secpm@sltnet.lk or bradmanw@slt.lk

2. Hon. Mr. K. C. Kamalasabesan
Attorney General
Attorney General’s Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436 421
Email: attorney@sri.lanka.net or counsel@sri.lanka.net

3. Mr. Ranjith Abeysuriya PC
Chairman National Police Commission
69-1 Ward Place, Colombo 7
Sri Lanka
Fax: +94 11 2 669 128 (need to ask to change to fax mode) / 691 926
Fax HOME: +94 11 2 674148

4. 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

5. Mr. Theo C. van Boven
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax: +41 22 917-9016

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