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The familiar attitude of the Sri Lankan government was expressed by the spokesman in the following words: “With regard to torture, it is well known that it exists all over the world.”
The statement that torture exists all over the world is like saying that deaths occur in all hospitals and therefore there is no difference between good hospitals and bad ones, or to say that there is child mortality in all countries and therefore there is no distinction between those countries that have proved capable of minimizing it and those countries which have failed to do so.
Such statements dismiss criticism of problems by generalizing them as common experiences. By such logic it can even be said that, since everyone dies, there is no reason to look into the particular circumstances of a particular death.
The reality, however, is that many countries in the world have overcome the problem of widespread torture and have built institutional frameworks within which torture is a rare occurrence. When this rare occurrence happens, people are scandalized and the state has the means to act quickly to investigate and make legal redress available.
South Korea and Hong Kong are two examples in Asia where the authorities have proved capable of developing their policing and law enforcement systems to function without the use of torture. Some transgressions occur from time to time, but they do not reflect the normal situation within which criminal investigations and law enforcement take place.
South Korea’s current low rate of torture was achieved only in the 1990s. In Hong Kong this was achieved in the 1970s, when the law enforcement system underwent a dramatic change by reforms within the criminal justice system. The major reform involved limiting the power of the police through the creation of the Independent Commission against Corruption, which functions completely outside the territory’s policing system.
Previously Hong Kong had a system similar to Sri Lanka’s for the control of bribery and corruption. It was called the Anti-Corruption Branch, and investigations were performed by the police. As to be expected, connivance between the investigators and police officers prevented the branch from functioning efficiently. Therefore the policy decision to separate corruption control from the police was made.
In the ICAC no officers were seconded for service from the police or returned to the policing system. The result was that it was possible to develop a disciplined police force due to the checks and balances newly developed through an intelligent reform process. Today the average citizen expects reasonable service from police officers and there is no fear among the people that if they are arrested they will be tortured.
As one Sri Lankan interpreter explained, many south Asians who are arrested for immigration offences have to be assured by the arresting officers that they will not be mistreated, as invariably those arrested expect such treatment based on the way things happen in their own country. A visiting Sri Lankan who watched an arrest taking place in a Hong Kong street wrote to the press about his surprise in seeing the police officers bending down to the suspect and assuring him of his security.
Arresting officers are obliged by law to explain to all suspects their rights, including the right to telephone their families to inform them of the arrest, the right to legal counsel and the right to food, water and amenities. There is also an independent and vigorous legal profession which will, without any fear of repercussion, fight for the rights of their clients who may be in custody. Further there is an independent press and there are no reports of assassinations or intimidation of journalists.
The statement that torture takes place everywhere is a deliberate attempt to dismiss published reports of torture in Sri Lanka. Among recent complaints are many examples of police beatings causing serious injuries such as renal failure and brain injuries. One victim was threatened with the infliction of tuberculosis. Others have been killed for such petty crimes as stealing a bunch of bananas. Entire families have been assaulted because the head of the family made a complaint of bribery against a police officer.
There are endless examples of innocent people being picked up as substitute suspects in criminal cases that the police have failed to investigate. These “suspects” are produced in court for the purpose of satisfying the officers’ superiors or getting them promotions.
One person was killed because he refused to sell liquor to a police officer on a religious holiday. Drivers who failed to stop their vehicles quickly enough at the signal of an officer have been shot dead. There are many cases where an affluent person has influenced a police officer to assault someone that he was displeased with. Such cases have been documented in quantity and are available on the Internet for anyone who cares to study them.
When a government spokesman justifies torture by saying it happens everywhere, it reflects an unacceptable level of negligence toward citizens. Behind such a statement is the mentality that the state owes nothing to its people. It reveals the contempt of the government for its citizens and for the forums where such matters are discussed.
Torture is considered one of the most heinous acts of a state, but for a spokesman of the Sri Lankan government it is simply something that happens everywhere.
This dismissive attitude toward torture was also expressed in an open forum by another spokesman. Asked why the government repeatedly failed to investigate and prosecute serious violations of rights such as disappearances, killings and torture, he told the story of losing his wallet in Geneva. When he complained about it to the police, he said, he was told that such things happen frequently and they were unable to investigate this effectively.
Equating the loss of a wallet with crimes such as disappearances and other abuses of human rights is absurd. This spokesman did not inquire as to how many cases of disappearances, extrajudicial killings and torture had occurred in Geneva in recent times. That even a single act of that type would cause a scandal provoking mass protests and serious interventions from Parliament, the judiciary and the like were matters of little concern to this spokesman for the Sri Lankan government.
The problem of torture in Sri Lanka is not just how serious and widespread it is. What is more disturbing is that the government’s attitude is so deeply cynical there can be no rational discussion about the problem, as would be expected from a responsible state. Rather than looking into the problem, hired spokesmen merely engage in pooh-poohing all criticism.
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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.)
