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The earlier instance of the assassination of torture victim Gerald Perera, under similar circumstances in pursuit of a complaint, highlights the urgency in the need for intervention.
At around midnight on May 25, three persons arrived in a three-wheeled vehicle near Lalith's house. One came up the middle of the property and the other two from the sides of the house. Two of them carried pistols. Lalith saw their arrival, as he has been under constant harassment and is wary of strangers. Afraid that some harm may befall him he escaped and was able to hide.
The following day he made inquiries and the neighbors complained of the theft of a bicycle by unknown persons. He then learned that they were making a complaint against him.
Lalith immediately contacted a lawyer who was helping him with his case and some other people as well, including a Catholic priest who was fully aware of the harassment he had been suffering from the police. He later learned that the officer in charge of the Kandana police station was trying to create the impression that he was a notorious criminal and no one should have anything to do with him.
This labeling of Lalith as a criminal is completely false. Earlier attempts by the police to file three fabricated charges against him, to circumvent the complaint against torture, failed. The Magistrate's Court of Wattala acquitted him of the charges.
Naming people as notorious criminals is part of the scheme in many cases known as “self-defense killings.” The frequently reported story in such cases is that the police went to inquire into the case of a notorious criminal and that he tried to escape and thereafter, in self defense, the police officers shot him dead.
The late-night visit of three persons to Lalith's house and the subsequent story of the officer in charge of the Kandana police station that Lalith is a notorious criminal add up to a well-known plot. Furthermore the words of the police station chief, "We know what to do with him," are a clear signal of their plan.
Lalith Rajapakse made his complaint in 2002 and remained in hiding for five years. He has only recently returned home with his wife to look after his grandfather, who is paralyzed.
Here are a few extracts from Lalith's affidavit about the incident:
“At that moment I saw a three wheeler coming on the road towards my house and I saw three persons getting down and coming towards our house, one person came from the middle of the property of my house and from the two by ways on each side of the house.
“When I saw that I thought that they may be coming to do some harm to me (as a previous torture victim I have been having several cases in the Supreme Court, the High Court of Negombo and the magistrate's court of Wattala against several police officers and therefore I always lived in the fear that I may come to some harm due to this)…I went to the back of my house and through the field to a newly built house and from the upper terrace of that house I laid flat and watched the persons who came to my house. I saw two of these persons had pistols in their hands, and after seeing that I was deeply afraid that they had come to harm me.”
In an earlier case, Gerald Perera filed a complaint of torture against the Wattala police. When he was summoned to the High Court to give evidence against the police officers who tortured him, he was assassinated. It appears that anyone who seriously pursues a torture complaint will be dealt with in this manner.
It is hoped that making public his case will afford some protection to Lalith Rajapakse against the illegal and potentially fatal harassment of the police.
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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://srilanka-lawlessness.com.)
