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One of the topics discussed by the participants at this ceremony was the promise given by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to intensify the inquiries with a deadline for the arrest of the suspects within two weeks. The president had further promised that if this failed he would call upon foreign experts to investigate the murder of these humanitarian workers. However, the family members, well-wishers, and Red Cross officials who attended the ceremony regretted that no successful clues had been uncovered toward finding the culprits of this heinous crime nor had any foreign experts been invited to conduct the investigations.
In another case, the government initially reported that the military had killed four members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Maavilaaru at Serunuwara in the east of the country. However, a surviving eyewitness told the BBC Sinhala service that from his place of hiding he had watched the entire incident and that the assassinations were, in fact, carried out by the military and the victims were Muslim fishermen. The government soon changed its story and accused the LTTE of carrying out this attack. As no independent inquiries into these murders are likely it seems that anyone will be arrested or prosecuted for these killings.
There have also been serious concerns expressed in the case of 17 aid workers from Action Contre la Faim (Action against Hunger) who were killed a year ago and the inability of the criminal investigation unit to inquire into their deaths. Delays of the presidential commission of inquiry into this case have also led to serious discussions after the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (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 undue delays. Rajapaksa wrote to the chair of the IIGEP to the effect that the views of the attorney general did not necessarily represent the views of the government. However, neither the attorney general nor the secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have withdrawn their criticisms of the IIGEP.
The essential problem related to all three cases cited above, and literally thousands of others, is the failure to investigate crimes and prosecute the criminals. The attorney general, as the chief prosecutor, takes the view that his department will prosecute only after the criminal investigators submit their reports. If the investigations are not carried out, even deliberately, the prosecutor's office then claims that they have no responsibility to solve the case.
Ultimately, the issue of dealing with crime comes down to the capacity of the police to investigate the same. 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 have carried out abductions and disappearances on a large scale, internal discipline within the police has descended to an all-time low. Allegations of corruption and of links with criminal elements in society are openly leveled against the police, and no credible denials have been made.
The key question relating to human rights violations, which are frequent and of an extremely harsh nature, is, 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 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 competent criminal investigations into crimes and gross abuse of human rights. This claim is mostly because state agencies themselves are directly and indirectly encouraged to engage in acts, which are unlawful under any circumstances.
The problem facing local citizens and the international community is how to deal with the dilemma in which state agencies that are supposed to investigate crimes refuse to do so or claim an inability to do so. This problem is further aggravated by the fact that the prosecution department claims no responsibility for prosecution if 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 local citizens and the international community.
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(Basil Fernando is director of the Asian Human Rights Commission based in Hong Kong. He is a Sri Lankan lawyer who has also been a senior U.N. human rights officer in Cambodia. He has published several books and written extensively on human rights issues in Asia.)
