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For more than 1 million people out of a population of approximately 20 million, these days will be darkened by thoughts and feelings of personal tragedy -- brutal deaths, kidnappings, politically arranged killings, wanton violence due to lawlessness, displacement and feelings of utter helplessness with no access to justice or protection.
Tragically, in Sri Lanka personal tragedy has lost all meaning. For someone to say they have lost a son or daughter in a senseless killing is no longer a shocking event that draws the sympathy of others. Such events are so common that they no longer seem significant; they have become part of the normal routine of life in Sri Lanka.
Personal tragedies are lost in a general sense of despair and powerlessness, for after 60 years of independence the people of Sri Lanka have not achieved much. The state cannot even protect the people's lives; they cannot lead their lives with a normal human devotion to their loved ones and with the confidence that tragedy can be prevented. Elsewhere, when tragedies do occur in the normal course of life, at least people can mourn their loss with communities that share their grief.
Three instances that occurred last week demonstrate this phenomenon. One is the outcome of the torture case of Gerald Perera; second is the inquiry into the case of Dr. Manoharan's son, one of the five students who were allegedly killed by state agents for no reason in Trincomalee; and the third was a bomb blast which killed many participants at a sports event, including a nationally celebrated marathon runner and a minister who launched the event.
Gerald Perera is now known to be a completely innocent man who was arrested mistakenly by a group of policemen acting as a special team under the control of a superintendent of police. Within a short time of his arrest, he was severely beaten which resulted in, among many other injuries, renal failure.
After many months of treatment Perera was cured, and the Supreme Court allowed him to submit an application declaring that several police officers who arrested him had tortured him. A special investigating team then examined the case, found the six-member special police team was responsible for the torture, and filed a case in the Negombo High Court.
Shortly after Perera was summoned to give evidence in this case, he was assassinated. Another inquiry found that the former torturers were the murderers and issued an indictment against one of them, making several others state witnesses. Last week the Negombo High Court acquitted all six members of this special police team of the charge of torture, stating that there was no direct evidence to prove who tortured the victim inside the police station.
The plea of the prosecutor, who argued that once a healthy person enters a police station and exits injured the officers who were responsible for his custody must be held liable unless these officers can give a sufficient explanation, which the accused did not do, made no impression on the judge.
Gerald Perera's family has faced multiple tragedies: the arrest of their breadwinner and loving father and husband without any reason at all; the severe torture inflicted on him; his murder to prevent him from giving evidence against his torturers; and now the inability to obtain justice. The state and society care very little about this tragedy, like so many others.
Dr. Manoharan and his family faced a similar experience when their son, Rajeehar Manoharan, was among five who were killed in Trincomalee in an execution-style shooting, allegedly by state agents, for no reason other than to instill fear through such a cruel act. Within the last few days, a reputed human rights organization named those involved in the shooting and those who had ordered the killing. This revelation brought no response of sympathy, however, from either the state or from society.
Manoharan gave evidence through a video link from an undisclosed location abroad about his son's killing. He also revealed that he now fears for his life and is in hiding, and that high officials in the government are clearly aware of the identity of the killers. A student who survived the same shooting, also in hiding abroad, gave further evidence.
These efforts, like those of almost everyone who seeks justice in Sri Lanka, were mocked by the state's indifference and its demand that people should openly come forward to give evidence, despite the threatening atmosphere prevailing in the country. Again, the tragedies of the students' families are given no meaning by the state or even by society.
The third example is the killing of several people and injuries to many others in a bomb blast believed to be have been carried out by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The victims were runners who had come to participate in a sports event. Among the dead was the country's most celebrated marathon runner.
The bomb obviously targeted a senior government minister, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, who was killed instantly. Web sites have shown the mutilated bodies and body parts spread around the scene of the bombing, revealing the sheer cruelty of the act and the cruelty of present warfare.
The pictures also showed the widow and two children of the minister. They will now join literally millions of others whose family members have been so brutally removed from them. Their personal tragedy is apparently not a matter of concern for anyone either though.
The test of a viable human society is the solidarity it shows to its individual members in moments of tragedy. When this human compassion is lost, almost everything is lost. If there is a way to prevent more and more people being added to the long list of those who have already faced such tragedies, it should happen without delay. These steps of prevention can happen only if the state, society and international community cooperate to deal with this environment rooted in violence.
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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. His blog can be read at http://srilankalawlessness.blogspot.com.)
