COLUMNIST: BASIL FERNANDO
Burning Points
Basil Fernando is executive director of the Asian Legal Resource Centre, based in Hong Kong. Born in Sri Lanka, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Ceylon, Colombo, in 1972. His early career included teaching and practicing law at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. He has held several United Nations-related posts, including appeals counsel under the UNHCR for Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong, officer-in-charge of the Investigation Unit under the U.N. Transitional Authority in Cambodia and chief of legal assistance at the Cambodia Office of the U.N. Center for Human Rights. He is the author of several books on human rights and legal reform issues. He was awarded the Kwangju Human Rights Prize in 2001 in South Korea.
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February 12, 2010Hong Kong, China — During the past week three women in Sri Lanka have tried to speak to the nation about the tragedies they face. The women, including the wife of former army commander and opposition presidential candidate General Sarath Fonseka, are all seeking justice for their disappeared or unlawfully detained husbands.
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February 05, 2010Hong Kong, China — The disappearance of Sri Lankan political analyst Pregeeth Ekanaliyagoda, along with the arrest and assassination of other government critics, shows the sad suppression of voices that try to develop a discourse on politics in the country. Violence continues to be used against the voices of reason.
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January 29, 2010Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s election commissioner declared incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse the winner of the Jan. 26 election for executive president. However, both opposition candidate General Sarath Fonseka and the election commissioner complained of violence, electoral fraud and tampering with the counting process.
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January 22, 2010Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s presidential election, set for Jan. 26, will test the popular sovereignty enshrined in the Constitution and the possibility of a genuine election. Threatening this possibility is a political scheme to intimidate the people and prevent them from voting.
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January 15, 2010Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s presidential election campaign took a bloody turn on Wednesday when an attack on a bus carrying opposition candidate supporters left one woman dead. The same day clashes between supporters of rival political parties were reported. The elections must be protected from a campaign of terror.
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January 08, 2010Hong Kong, China — The very least that citizens can demand when a murder takes place is a credible inquiry. There is nothing more basic, more decent or more necessary. Yet in Sri Lanka there is a most shameless tradition of not even demanding an inquiry into a murder.
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January 04, 2010Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s long civil war developed hardened habits of propaganda among leaders and the media. Now, with national elections looming, the government is trying to take advantage of these habits for its political war, using the media to paint its political opponents as enemies.
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December 11, 2009Hong Kong, China — The world Human Rights Day on Thursday passed in Sri Lanka without anything to celebrate. The legal investigative mechanism of complaints into rights abuses has been suppressed by deliberate political manipulations, which hands over the investigations to political authorities. This makes the assertion of rights difficult.
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November 27, 2009Hong Kong, China — The hottest topic of discussion in Sri Lanka is the forthcoming presidential election, set for the end of January, 2010. The focus of people’s interest is not the country’s major economic, political or social problems. Rather, it is which individual will become the most powerful person in the country.
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November 13, 2009Hong Kong, China — This week, Burma’s military dictator Senior General Than Shwe visited Sri Lanka. He is an unwelcome visitor in many places due to the complete destruction of democracy in his country, but his welcome by the Rajapakse regime comes as no surprise. Politically, Sri Lanka is coming to resemble Burma.
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November 06, 2009Hong Kong, China — Presidential and parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka are expected in the coming months. The government is relying on its victory over the LTTE to consolidate its power for a further term. But the electorate must insist the executive president be subject to the rule of law.
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November 02, 2009Hong Kong, China — An onlooker videotaped the murder of a 26-year-old man by three police officers in the rough seas near Bambalapitya Railway Station in Sri Lanka last Thursday. The images have shocked the nation; but this is not likely to bring justice to the man’s family or changes in police behavior.
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October 23, 2009Hong Kong, China — The editor of Satana, a local newspaper in Sri Lanka, has complained of receiving constant death threats over the past few days. Strangers have visited his house in search of him, and police have ignored his complaints. He is now living in hiding, fearing for his life and unable to continue his work.
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October 16, 2009Hong Kong, China — The people of Sri Lanka always look forward to the rainy season, which begins in October, as it brings many blessings. But for the 300,000 people in camps for internally displaced persons, it will bring enormous adversity. They may have to live with leaking roofs, overflowing gutters and swamp-like conditions.
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October 09, 2009Hong Kong, China — The house and office of Sri Lankan opposition politician Ranga Bandara were burned to cinders this week, reportedly under government instructions. The incident underscores the dangers faced by members of the opposition and their families, and the lengths to which the government is willing to go to silence them.
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October 02, 2009Hong Kong, China — Nearly five months have passed since the Sri Lankan government claimed victory over terrorism by defeating the LTTE. It also claimed that peace had arrived. But security forces and emergency laws remain in place as they were during the war. This cannot generate a peacetime mentality.
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September 25, 2009Hong Kong, China — Russian novelist and Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn added the word “gulag” – the former Soviet Union’s forced labor camp system – to the human rights vocabulary. Today in Sri Lanka the entire population is experiencing the same horror under security forces that act outside the law.
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September 18, 2009Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s attorney general has shocked the nation by requesting the High Court of Colombo to withdraw an indictment against a person accused of forging documents and misleading a criminal investigation. The court refused; but the request itself, coming from the top prosecutor, raises disturbing questions.
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September 11, 2009Hong Kong, China — Will the fall of Sri Lanka’s police service into the abyss be resolved by the appointment of an inspector general of police from military ranks, as the government is now considering? According to a retired senior police officer, the remedy could be worse than the malady.
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September 04, 2009Hong Kong , China — A local assistant at Sri Lanka's Angulana police station said, he is paid 50 to 100 rupees (US 44-88 cents) daily for his work as a helper. When asked if that is all he gets, he replied, “I also receive one or two heroin packets daily from the police.” The incident points to a state of lawlessness.
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August 28, 2009Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s Gampaha High Court this week sentenced five police officers to five years’ imprisonment for the 1989 abduction of two young brothers, with intent to murder. It took 20 years to resolve this case; most of the 30,000 similar “disappearances” have never been prosecuted.
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August 21, 2009Hong Kong, China — Scandals relating to police misconduct are becoming a national topic of discussion in Sri Lanka. New scandals came to light this week, including police assaults on a pregnant woman and a little girl. The government must take decisive steps to bring the police under control if it hopes to maintain stability.
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August 14, 2009Hong Kong, China — Large crowds gathered around the Angulana police station in western Sri Lanka on Thursday as news spread of two schoolboys killed due to police assault. The bodies of the two boys were found near the railway tracks. They had been arrested the previous day, allegedly for teasing a girl.
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August 07, 2009Hong Kong, China — In Sri Lanka, killing alleged criminals is considered a cheap method of dealing with them, rather than going through the legal process in court. It is quicker and less risky for the police and military officers who carry out such operations. Hundreds of people have been subjected to this mode of "justice."
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August 03, 2009Hong Kong, China — Fourteen judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, added a golden page to the global history of upholding a country’s Constitution and protecting judicial independence by suspending former President Pervez Musharraf's provisional Constitution on July 31.
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July 30, 2009Hong Kong, China — Four pairs of eyes belonging to four siblings, the eldest of whom was fifteen, were fixed upon a scene happening on the morning of July 22 at Beligahahandiya in Galle, Sri Lanka. What they saw in that moment will remain fixed in their minds for the rest of their lives.
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July 16, 2009Hong Kong, China — A minister of the Sri Lankan government has publicly claimed responsibility for the assassination of slain newspaper editor Lasantha Wickrematunge and for the serious injuries caused to another well known journalist, Poddala Jayantha. Yet no action has been taken against him.
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July 10, 2009Hong Kong, China — The case of Shantha Fernando, a Sri Lankan human rights activist detained under anti-terrorism laws, has taken on a sinister aspect. Fernando’s deeds have been so distorted by the intelligence agencies, they have transformed him from a conscientious citizen to a traitor in the space of a few months.
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July 03, 2009Hong Kong, China — India’s Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram has criticized the Sri Lankan government’s efforts to rehabilitate internally displaced Sri Lankan Tamils, saying the efforts are not enough. Despite many such criticisms, the government continues to deprive these people of their rights.
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June 26, 2009Hong Kong, China — The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is recognized annually on June 26, devoted to the promotion of a torture-free world. It is also a day when achievements to eliminate torture are evaluated. In the case of Sri Lanka, the practice of torture has increased rather than being reduced.
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June 19, 2009Hong Kong, China — The Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka has surprised the legal community by announcing it will defend four police officers accused of torturing a man and filing false charges against him. This is a major policy change, as the department has long refrained from defending the accused in such cases.
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June 12, 2009Hong Kong, China — Members of a Sri Lankan family who lost their home in the recent fighting and are now living in a tent camp filed a case with the Supreme Court on Thursday, asking that their right to movement be respected. The case is pertinent to some 300,000 internally displaced people currently living in tents.
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June 05, 2009Hong Kong, China — The internally displaced people in Sri Lanka are outside the legal jurisdiction of the country, said Chief Justice Sarath N. Silva on Thursday. He said they are living in unbearable conditions, ten people to one small tent. The government has limited access by aid agencies to protect its “sovereignty.”
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May 29, 2009Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s justice system, legal profession and media are all in peril, according to a report published by the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. It is perhaps the first statement by an internationally reputed professional organization of the threats facing Sri Lanka’s justice system.
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May 22, 2009Hong Kong, China — Following the deaths of the entire leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, there is a strong feeling among Sri Lankans that their deaths, particularly that of LTTE chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran, should not be a matter for mourning. I beg to differ.
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May 15, 2009Hong Kong, China — Criticism from U.N. agencies and foreign governments has intensified against the Sri Lankan government’s actions in the former no-fire zone where thousands of civilians remain trapped. Neither the government nor the LTTE views these people as human beings; both routinely terrorize them unthinkingly.
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May 08, 2009Hong Kong, China — The world’s attention is on hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in a five-square-kilometer area in northern Sri Lanka in the midst of heavy fighting. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on Sri Lanka to allow a pause in the fighting so food and medical supplies can be brought in.
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May 01, 2009Hong Kong, China — Sinhalese nationalists gathered in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Wednesday to protest the visits of British and French diplomats urging a humanitarian ceasefire to protect civilians trapped in the conflict zone. They threatened to “take choppers and machetes” to Tamils who try to escape government forces.
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April 24, 2009Hong Kong, China — As the LTTE in Sri Lanka has virtually lost the war, the pressure is on the Sri Lankan government to address the humanitarian crisis caused by the conflict. More difficult than fighting a war is building peace, and putting aside the war mentality that has so long prevailed.
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April 17, 2009Hong Kong, China — This week six prisoners were shot and killed at the Kalutara prison south of Colombo, Sri Lanka, allegedly for attempting to escape. So many senseless deaths occur with impunity in this lawless country. Only a united front among Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and all others can change the situation.
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April 10, 2009Hong Kong, China — Five media organizations in Sri Lanka have issued an investigative report on recent attacks and assassinations of journalists, claiming that these operations were carried out by a paramilitary group with the patronage of an ultra-powerful authority, enabling them to act with impunity.
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April 03, 2009Hong Kong, China — Last week the Mathara High Court in Sri Lanka sentenced a former magistrate to 45 years imprisonment for fraud, entering false information in court documents pertaining to fines, and soliciting bribes. The case is unusual in that the judge was convicted, but her behavior unfortunately is commonplace.
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March 27, 2009Hong Kong, China — Sri Lankans have learned with shock and shame the tragic story of the abduction and killing of six-year-old Varsha Jude Regi of Trincomalee. Local politicians have been linked to the crime, which grew more complicated when police shot dead two suspects after taking them into custody.
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March 20, 2009Hong Kong, China — Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, has described the war situation in Sri Lanka as “absolutely desperate” and suggested that both the Sri Lankan armed forces and the separatist LTTE could be found guilty of crimes against humanity for their wartime actions.
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March 16, 2009Hong Kong, China — The people of Pakistan took to the streets last week, led by a great movement of lawyers. The announcement Monday by the prime minister that deposed Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry would be reinstated came as a clear concession by the government of Asif Ali Zardari to the will of the people.
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March 13, 2009Hong Kong, China — The Sri Lankan government has announced that all national public functions will require permission from the Ministry of Defense; all regional events will require approval from the nearest police station. This will have disastrous effects, allowing greater abuse of police powers.
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March 06, 2009Hong Kong, China — The attack on Sri Lankan cricketers participating in a test match in Lahore, Pakistan, on Tuesday resulted in the deaths of seven policemen and some injuries to the cricketers. The fact that even sports have been targeted by terrorists indicates the extent to which the region is destabilized.
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February 27, 2009Hong Kong, China — Three prisoners were killed in Sri Lanka's Negombo Prison last week. One of the prisoners reportedly shot two others with a pistol and then climbed a tree, announcing he would surrender only to the commissioner of prisons. But police hastily shot and killed him, arousing suspicions of a deeper plot.
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February 20, 2009Hong Kong, China — Thousands of Sri Lankan women work as domestic helpers in Hong Kong. They don’t want to go home, where they cannot make an adequate living to support their families. The government has failed to create a decent economic environment, but stays in power through repression and suppression of the rule of law.
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February 13, 2009Hong Kong, China — In recent weeks there has been a convergence of ideas within and outside Sri Lanka that the most important obstacle to the achievement of human rights is the failure to investigate and prosecute crime. The absence of the rule of law has been identified as the cause of the people’s insecurity.
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February 06, 2009Hong Kong, China — When Sri Lankan Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse was questioned by a BBC correspondent about the recent assassination of well-known journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, he countered the question with another: Why was the correspondent worried about one man when thousands have died?
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January 30, 2009Colombo, Sri Lanka — The extent of fear created in people by Sri Lanka’s dominant law enforcement agencies and the inability of the justice system to effectively address it has resulted in a situation where the mentality of victims is such that they have no choice but to beg for mercy from their tormentors.
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January 23, 2009Hong Kong, China — A letter by six U.S. ambassadors to the president of Sri Lanka has expressed concern over the country's deteriorating situation. It says that despite difficult times the democratic system has been preserved, but warns, “It would be a tragedy if it were destroyed now, not from without, but from within.”
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January 16, 2009Hong Kong, China — An article by the assassinated Sri Lankan journalist, Lasantha Wickramatunga, predicting his own murder by the government, has become the most widely circulated piece of journalism by any Sri Lankan writer so far. The event he predicted took place on Jan. 8, and the article was published three days later.
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January 09, 2009Hong Kong, China — Lasantha Wickramatunga, chief editor of a Sri Lankan English weekly, was attacked on Thursday by four persons and died of head injuries. Later his printing press was burned by an unidentified group. Death squads controlled by the ruling party are believed responsible for this and other sinister attacks.
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January 02, 2009Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka's Ministry of Defense website has published names of lawyers who regularly appear for detainees charged with terrorist activity. This has exposed lawyers to death threats by the Mahason Balakaya group who recently issued threats to lawyers who appear for suspected terrorists.
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December 26, 2008Hong Kong, China — The president of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is operating as a “one-man show,” in the words of a former minister who quit his post. In fact, the whole purpose of the 1978 Constitution was to create a one-man show while maintaining the facade of the separation of powers.
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December 19, 2008Hong Kong, China — Tension between the executive and the judiciary in Sri Lanka has surfaced as an open conflict. The Supreme Court on Dec. 17 ordered a reduction in petrol prices, to be implemented the same day. But the government refused to implement the court’s ruling, saying it was contrary to the war effort.
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December 12, 2008Hong Kong, China — The appointment of Mohan Peiris as Sri Lanka’s attorney general this week is likely to further politicize that office, already battered when the Supreme Court accused it last week of filing false charges under fake laws. Peiris is a close associate of the present regime, particularly the Ministry of Defense.
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December 05, 2008Hong Kong, China — Negombo is just a short distance from Colombo and is far away from the north and the east. However, the extent of the lawlessness that has spread does not reflect that distance. The law virtually does not exist. You can commit murder and get away with it without much of a problem. The best friends that the criminals can have in the area are the policemen themselves.
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November 28, 2008Hong Kong, China — In recent months, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka has passed several resolutions regarding lawyers who have come under attack. Yet the police have taken no action so far on any of the incidents brought to their attention. In fact, the police themselves have become a threat to the rule of law.
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November 21, 2008Hong Kong, China — Attacks on Sri Lankan lawyers are continuing. This week an online Ministry of Defense report called a group of lawyers “traitors” for representing alleged members of the LTTE militant group. The target of this kind of attack is not just terrorists but society as a whole.
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November 14, 2008Hong Kong, China — The humiliation and harassment of lawyers, as well as those they represent, at the hands of police officers is becoming increasingly common in Sri Lanka. The experience of a Supreme Court lawyer at the hands of a headquarters inspector last month illustrates the problem.
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November 07, 2008Hong Kong, China — The results of the U.S. presidential election this week are more an overwhelming rejection of the way the United States has been run than merely a victory for Barack Obama. The enthusiasm for Obama throughout the world is an expression of how badly U.S. actions have affected the rest of the world.
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November 05, 2008Hong Kong, China — South Korean Prime Minister Han Seung-soo has refused to accept recommendations of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea regarding the abuse of power by the police during candlelight protests last June. This amounts to condoning serious violations of basic human rights by the police.
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October 31, 2008Hong Kong, China — In Sri Lanka there are two ideas, or ideologies, that are dying out in the hearts and minds of their former adherents. The first is that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala nation where minorities must accept their lesser place. The second is that a separate state is the only solution to the ethnic conflict.
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October 24, 2008Hong Kong, China — A group calling itself the Mahason Battalion has sent threats to the registrars of Colombo courts and a number of human rights lawyers, saying anyone who represents terrorists or suspected terrorists in court will face death. If someone in Sri Lanka says, “I will kill you," it should not be taken lightly.
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October 17, 2008Hong Kong, China — The Negombo High Court of Sri Lanka last week acquitted a sub-inspector of police accused of torturing a prisoner, a crime punishable by seven years’ imprisonment. The High Court judge who tried this case blatantly ignored the evidence and misconstrued the facts of the case.
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October 10, 2008Hong Kong, China — The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka on Wednesday found former President Chandrika Kumaratunga liable for a corrupt deal, in a significant blow against the system of executive presidency. The charges relate to her abuse of power in the transfer of state property to a company.
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October 03, 2008Hong Kong, China — A statement by Sri Lankan army commander Lt. Gen. Fonseka has stirred controversy among his countrymen at home and abroad. “I strongly believe that this country belongs to the Sinhalese, but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people,” the commander wrote.
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September 26, 2008Hong Kong, China — Killing a person in Sri Lanka has become easy, as the state trivializes human life and romanticizes the war. The tragic case of Nishanta Fernando needs to be considered by everyone who believes that respect for the individual is the only foundation upon which the legitimacy of an organized society can rest.
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September 19, 2008Hong Kong, China — The Sri Lankan government has accepted responsibility for ensuring the safety of internally displaced persons living in the Kilinochchi area, as fighting against the LTTE intensifies. As NGO's and U.N. agencies move away from the area, the job of providing security and basic necessities to locals, now lies with the government.
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September 18, 2008Hong Kong, China — The protest made by Professor Yash Ghai in his written statement to the 9th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council speaks of the rude insults meted out to him by the Cambodian government and their failure to cooperate with his mandate. His protests are courageous, frank and rare in present-day international diplomacy.
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September 12, 2008Hong Kong, China — J.S. Tissainayagam, a well-known journalist is being prosecuted for publishing a magazine. His case raises a fundamental question about the different kinds of criminal trials offered to the accused under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and Emergency Regulations as against the accused in regular criminal trials.
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September 05, 2008Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka has violated the rights of a former district judge by denying his right to a fair hearing, the U.N. Human Rights Committee has judged. The country’s justice system requires scrutiny; the victim in this case was a former judge and those who violated his rights were senior judges.
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September 02, 2008Hong Kong, China — Five women from a tribal area in Pakistan – three of them teenagers – were buried alive last month in a remote village in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. This brutal treatment occurred because tribal leaders opposed the proposed marriages of the three younger women, who were 16-18 years old.
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August 29, 2008Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka’s North Central Province and Sabaragamuwa Province elections took place as expected – that is, very violently. The sad thing is that election violence is not regarded as anything abnormal. The incompatibility of free and fair elections with violence seemed to be a matter of no concern.
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August 25, 2008Hong Kong, China — It is an acknowledged fact by international human rights groups that torture is endemic in Sri Lanka. Less well known, but just as prevalent, is the fabrication of crimes against detainees that are bold enough to complain against police torture.
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August 20, 2008Hong Kong, China — The people of Pakistan should be saluted and congratulated for their resilient and determined struggle to oust the dictator General Pervez Musharraf. This completely non-violent struggle of various sectors of society is a clear example of the development of a democracy on the basis of consensus.
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August 15, 2008Hong Kong, China — The disparate handling of recent criminal cases reveals the absurdities of policing in Sri Lanka. Two cases involving state ministers were not pursued, while a poor construction worker was savagely beaten and imprisoned over the alleged, but unproved, theft of a few gold trinkets.
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August 08, 2008Hong Kong, China — What is simply silly and what is clearly cruel may be relative. However, what Sarath Kumara Naidos, his wife Sriyani, his mother Asilin, his sister Mangalike, her husband Neil and his mother Nandawathie are going through is certainly both silly and cruel by whatever standards.
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August 01, 2008Hong Kong, China — Lawlessness leads to happiness for some, but they are criminals, whether civilian or in uniform. Of course the corrupt are also happy, as they are not disturbed by the law. Naturally if these people are at the top they will do whatever they can to diminish the power of the law.
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July 25, 2008Hong Kong, China — On July 3 a convicted prisoner, Sainool Miswar, was assaulted and killed at the Negombo Prison in Sri Lanka on the very first day of his sentence. Thereafter an eyewitness, Saiyadu Mohammed Abu Ubaida, was also severely assaulted to prevent him from giving evidence against prison officers.
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July 18, 2008Hong Kong, China — Sri Lankan police questioned human rights activists this week over statements the police construed as “attempts to demoralize the armed forces,” confirming fears that the government intends to use the legal system to target such groups.
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July 11, 2008Hong Kong, China — A clash between Pakistan's new government and the country's Supreme Court is unfolding over the death penalty. On July 2, the Cabinet of Pakistan made the decision to abolish the death penalty and commute current death sentences to life imprisonment. But the Court has rejected the decision.
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July 04, 2008Hong Kong, China — The Sri Lanka Press Institution and the Newspaper Publishers Association are offering a reward for information on the assault of a journalist last Monday. The organizations are taking the action because the government has failed to do so, as it has failed to properly investigate similar attacks.
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June 27, 2008Hong Kong, China — June 26 was the U.N. Day in Support of Victims of Torture. As far as Sri Lanka is concerned, the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights did nothing to commemorate this day. Instead the statements from the spokesman for the ministry manifested the usual lack of political will to deal with the issue of torture.
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June 20, 2008Hong Kong, China — A group of 92 lawyers practicing in the Sri Lankan hill town of Kandy signed a petition this week, complaining about a small group of lawyers touting their services in front of the main gate of the Kandy Court Complex, presenting an obstacle to litigants and other lawyers.
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June 06, 2008Hong Kong, China — For over a decade now human rights organizations have extensively documented the practice of torture in many Asian countries. It can be said that – except perhaps for South Korea now and Hong Kong – in almost all other countries torture is routinely practiced as a normal method of investigating crimes.
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June 02, 2008Hong Kong, China — An urgent call is being made for an intervention to save the life of a torture victim who is pursuing complaints against the police at the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and the High Court of Negombo. Human rights groups are satisfied that there is an imminent danger to the life of Lalith Rajapakse.
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May 30, 2008Hong Kong, China — There are many forms of arbitrary deprivation of life in Asia other than the death sentence, although it is used frequently, particularly in China and Singapore. These include forced disappearances, killings after arrest and after torture in custody, all of which represent a breakdown of the rule of law.
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May 23, 2008Hong Kong, China — The Sri Lankan government lost its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council Wednesday, after coming under intense criticism from many quarters on its human rights record. This defeat indicates that the world is beginning to learn of the enormous repression within the country.
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May 16, 2008Hong Kong, China — This week the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka decided that prison officers had violated the rights of a man, Tony Fernando, who was severely tortured while he was in prison custody in 2003. Despite the five-year delay, the judgment and compensation are welcome news in Sri Lanka.
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May 09, 2008Hong Kong, China — From the very scanty news that has reached the global media it is already clear that a human catastrophe of the highest order is taking place in Burma. The number of deaths may be around 200,000. The response of the authorities to this tragedy is totally inadequate.
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May 02, 2008Hong Kong, China — This week brought the welcome news that a group within Sri Lanka's JVP Party has called for a self-evaluation by the party of its past, particularly its past involvement in violence. A vigorous debate on the political follies of the past is much needed in the country.
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April 25, 2008Hong Kong, China — The hottest topic in Sri Lanka this week is a press statement by the International Independent Group of Imminent Persons, saying the group quit its role as human rights monitor due to the government's lack of political will to solve cases. The attorney general called their statement a "sinister plot."
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April 18, 2008Hong Kong, China — An international panel invited to Sri Lanka to assist with investigations into human rights abuses has abandoned that task. The group's members were convinced, after a year of strenuous effort, that they had been trapped in a futile exercise from the point of view of justice and human rights.
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April 09, 2008Hong Kong, China — The Sinhala and Tamil New Year used to be a time of relaxation and recreation for all Sri Lankans. This year the New Year holidays from April 11 to 13 will be accompanied by sad memories for more than 1 million Sri Lankans who have faced personal tragedies including the brutal death of loved ones.
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April 04, 2008Hong Kong, China — A Sri Lankan High Court judgment made on April 2, acquitting six police officers charged with torture that causing renal failure to the victim, raises several questions of law, important matters regarding security and also questions of morality.
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March 28, 2008Hong Kong, China — In the last few months the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka has made three decisions against police officers for abusing their powers of arrest and torturing people purely to obtain bribes. But these directives have not altered the police practice of using the national security law for personal benefit.
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March 21, 2008Hong Kong, China — The past few days have seen developments in trade union protests against the threats and violence directed at employees of the Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, the country's state television channel. Ever since the incident that was provoked by Minister Mervyn Silva's assault on some SLRC employees, many attacks have been made on people who participated in the protests against the minister's actions.
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March 14, 2008Hong Kong, China — With the U.N. Human Rights Council now in session, the spokesmen for the Sri Lankan government have been quite busy -- judging by the number of statements circulated through the Internet -- trying to paint a picture of Sri Lanka as a great democracy and all critics of the government as agents of terrorism.
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March 10, 2008Hong Kong, China — The decision by the Pakistan People's Party and the Pakistan Muslim League-N to restore the deposed judges of the superior courts, including the chief justice, is important to all who are concerned with post-conflict justice after periods of extreme repression by authoritarian rulers.
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March 07, 2008Hong Kong, China — Last week a resident of Kandy, Sri Lanka, sent an email to many people asking for advice about the legality of security measures recently introduced in the city, which is located in the hilly central part of the country. The measures appear to be targeting the Tamil population.
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March 03, 2008Hong Kong, China — The political parties that won in Pakistan's Feb.18 parliamentary elections have informed President Pervez Musharraf that they have the two-thirds majority necessary to form a new government. Yet the government is still using delaying tactics for the transfer of power.
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February 29, 2008Hong Kong, China — Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse last week ordered the removal of the Director General of the Bribery Commission, Piyasena Ranasinghe -- the only person legally authorized to sign indictments related to bribery charges. Thus the possibility of any indictments has been neatly prevented.
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February 22, 2008Hong Kong, China — The authoritarianism of Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, backed by the world's most powerful superpower the United States, was severely bashed in Monday's general election. The dictator has been humiliatingly defeated and the credit goes to the secular forces of Pakistan.
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February 18, 2008Hong Kong, China — Concerning the eighth general election in Pakistan, the question remains whether the election on Feb. 18, will be free and fair. The election, scheduled earlier, on Jan. 8, was postponed due to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the late chairperson of the Pakistan People's Party, which is a major political party in Pakistan. It is believed that one of the reasons for the postponement of the election after Bhutto's murder was the fear of the Musharraf government and its allied parties that a sympathy wave in favor of Bhutto would sweep Musharraf and his decrepit government out of office.
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February 15, 2008Hong Kong , China — Constant reports of widespread thieving are circulating in Sri Lanka, particularly around suburban town centers. This has gone so far as to affect even the dressing habits of women traveling in buses or three-wheeled vehicles, who have given up gold chains for artificial bangles.
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February 12, 2008Hong Kong, China — Three prominent lawyers, who had spearheaded the movement of lawyers defending the rule of law in Pakistan and were recently released from detention, were again arrested and detained for a further month under the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance.
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February 08, 2008Colombo, Sri Lanka — Although Sri Lanka's Independence Day has passed, all people in the country -- Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims and others -- are worried about the future of independence, meaning the future of democracy. However, there is confusion about what the new nation should be, creating conflict and even bloodshed.
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February 01, 2008Hong Kong, China — Never in recent history has there been such complete disregard for the truth as is now the case in Sri Lanka. This distressing statement is most dramatically illustrated by a saga that has been going on for several weeks, involving media figures and government ministers.
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January 28, 2008Hong Kong, China — Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is presently visiting the United Kingdom. The U.K. and U.S. governments as well as the United Nations are encouraging democracy in Pakistan, but what about the independence of the judiciary which Musharraf has vowed to crush?
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January 25, 2008Hong Kong, China — On Feb. 4, Sri Lanka will celebrate the 60th anniversary of its independence from the British colonial empire. There is hardly any mood to celebrate in the country, however. The political reality is far removed from the people's dreams and aspirations.
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January 21, 2008Hong Kong, China — As the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan is being treated as a threat to national security by the military, 55 judges remain unconstitutionally retired, 13 from the Supreme Court. Eleven judges are under house arrest and several senior lawyers are in detention.
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January 18, 2008Hong Kong, China — On Wednesday the Sri Lankan government ended the ceasefire agreement that the previous government had entered into with the LTTE. The same day, 26 people were killed and 67 seriously injured by the detonation of a claymore mine. This incident is an omen of the killings to come.
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January 14, 2008Hong Kong, China — Munir Malik, one of the leading lawyers who inspired the movement for the independence of the judiciary in Pakistan, offered insights into the dynamics that created the movement, of which the fight against forced disappearances has been a core component.
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January 11, 2008Hong Kong, China — In the first month of this year two legislators have been assassinated in Sri Lanka, and three people have died in police custody. The trivial manner in which such deaths are treated reflects a deeper disorder; the people have acquired in their spirits the coldness and rigor that is associated with death.
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January 07, 2008Hong Kong, China — The assassination of Benazir Bhutto took place shortly after Pakistan's higher judiciary was virtually wiped out by the dismissal of 40 judges. With no credible judiciary and a highly polarized society, the country could descend into lawlessness.
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January 04, 2008Hong Kong, China — The year 2008 began for Sri Lanka with the assassination of Tamil opposition Member of Parliament T. Maheshwaran. A few days earlier a government minister assaulted the news manager of a major broadcasting company. And on Jan. 2 the government withdrew from its ceasefire with the LTTE.
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December 31, 2007Hong Kong, China — The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, leader of one of the best known political parties in Pakistan set to contest the election scheduled for Jan. 8, reflects the nature of the repression and the absence of the rule of law in the country.
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December 25, 2007Hong Kong, China — As the Muslim world celebrated Eid and the Western world celebrates Christmas, Pakistan's forcibly ousted chief justice, Iftehkar Chowdhury, is being treated as a prisoner. Held under house arrest, he has not been allowed even to visit the mosque to perform his religious duties.
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December 21, 2007Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka urgently needs a U.N. human rights monitoring mission to resuscitate the police and their criminal investigation capacity, severely damaged by political interference. Contrary to government fears, this would not endanger the nation's sovereignty.
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December 18, 2007Hong Kong, China — Pakistan's dismissed chief justice, Iftekhar Chowdhury, has been named Lawyer of the Year by a prominent U.S. law journal. It is hoped this will bring international attention and support to his country's embattled legal profession.
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December 14, 2007Hong Kong, China — The continuing killings and disappearances in Sri Lanka are an indication of the insincerity of the Sri Lankan government toward resolving these horrendous crimes. In the past several months, numerous reports have been published with information about the victims.
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December 10, 2007Hong Kong, China — Munir Malik, former president of the Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan, who was arrested for protesting the removal of Supreme Court judges, suffered serious injuries that have led to renal failure after being tortured while in military custody.
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December 07, 2007Hong Kong, China — While scientists and health practitioners have found ways to cure or alleviate many forms of mental illness, when it comes to political lunacy we have made few advances, and least of all in Asia. As in the case of an otherwise psychologically healthy pe
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November 30, 2007Hong Kong, China — The attack on the printing press of the Sunday Leader on the outskirts of Colombo last week, as well as the manner in which the attack was carried out, comes as no surprise. Any form of violence can be perpetrated in present-day Sri Lanka.
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November 26, 2007Hong Kong, China — Every move that General Pervez Musharraf has taken for the singular purpose of his own survival has plunged Pakistan into a greater state of lawlessness. Strangely, Musharraf seems to believe that an independent judiciary is an obstacle to stability.
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November 23, 2007Hong Kong, China — In the third week of November 2004, two assassinations took place in Sri Lanka. One was that of Justice Sarath Ambepitya, a High Court judge, and the other a witness, Gerard Perera, who was to give evidence before a High Court.The trial into the murder
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November 19, 2007Hong Kong, China — Since General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency and dismissed the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Nov. 3, appointing a mock bench in its place, over 3,000 lawyers have been taken into custody and many of the best known lawyers in the country are
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November 16, 2007Hong Kong, China — Last week this column described 48 cases of police torture reported within the last year in southern Sri Lanka, in an area completely under the control of the Sri Lankan government. These cases demonstrate the widespread practice of torture, mostly for ve
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November 09, 2007Hong Kong, China — I have analyzed the narratives of torture cases sent by some Sri Lankan human rights groups that work on police torture issues in the South. Altogether there have been 48 cases reported by these groups, which are now available on the Web site of the Asian
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November 02, 2007Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka's political reasons for objecting to any form of monitoring by U.N. agencies are merely an extension of its existing rules that such matters should not be subjected to any investigations or prosecutions.
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October 26, 2007Hong Kong, China — A day for the disappeared will be commemorated in Sri Lanka by the Families of the Disappeared and Right to Life together with the Asian Human Rights Commission on Saturday. A monument for the disappeared was established at Raddoluwa Seeduwa, near Negombo
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October 19, 2007Hong Kong, China — Quite regularly reports appear in the Sri Lankan press of persons in police custody, having tried to attack the police with grenades or other weapons, being shot dead. The Gampaha police are reported to have killed two persons who tried to escape while in
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October 12, 2007Hong Kong, China — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour is currently in Sri Lanka for a five-day country visit.
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October 05, 2007Hong Kong, China — A Dutch journalist, Jon Bottis, learned a lesson about Sri Lankan policing when he made a complaint about the theft of his personal belongings from his apartment in the holiday town of Hikkaduwa recently. One policeman called him outside the station and a
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September 28, 2007Hong Kong, China — The Buddhist monks in Burma have been on the streets for several days now, falling upon the last resort under their disciplinary code, the Vinaya Pitaka, to call upon the military regime of the country to step down and respect the people.The people of B
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September 21, 2007Hong Kong, China — At the United Nations Human Rights Council several European Union countries attempted to assist Sri Lanka out of its present serious crisis by suggesting human rights monitoring by the United Nations to buttress local law enforcement, which has suffered a
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September 14, 2007Hong Kong, China — A peace activist has said that collapse and normalcy coexist in Sri Lanka and this provides us with an occasion to reflect on what is considered normal by people who have suffered catastrophes and live under conditions, which might amount to societal coll
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September 07, 2007Hong Kong, China — Several Sri Lankan newspapers have reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross disclosed in a bulletin that 34 people have been abducted over the past three weeks. The Daily Mirror quoted the ICRC bulletin as saying that "families throughou
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August 31, 2007Hong Kong, China — A matter of grave concern is the insufficient action on the part of the United Nations Human Rights Council to address the growing problem of extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances in Sri Lanka -- one of the council's members. The international
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August 24, 2007Hong Kong, China — Sri Lanka's Deputy Solicitor General Savindra Fernando has been quoted in the local press stating that Sri Lanka has often been bullied into signing United Nations' conventions. He was speaking during celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the adoption o
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August 17, 2007Hong Kong, China — A common feature in several Asian countries is that the police, who are supposed to investigate crimes and abuses of human rights, do not have the necessary competence to carry out such investigations. Today proper criminal investigations require "skill
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August 11, 2007Hong Kong, China — An attempt by the military regime in Pakistan to impose an emergency is generating considerable fear in the country. The military regime seems to be nervous about the serious changes that have resulted in the political climate due to the reinstatement of
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August 03, 2007Hong Kong, China — Amitha Priyanthi was a carefree young girl until a fateful day in June 2000. On that day, her brother Lasantha Jagath Kumara was arrested by the Payagala police and tortured.
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July 27, 2007Hong Kong, China — Last week an inspector of police and a police constable in Sri Lanka who were accused of torturing a 25-year-old woman, Angalin Roshana Michael, were sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of 10,000 rupees (US$100) in lieu of which a
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July 20, 2007Hong Kong, China — The board of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka recently issued a circular prescribing a period of three months from the date of a human rights violation to receive petitions concerning the violation.Internal Circular No. 7 of June 20, 2007, which
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July 13, 2007Hong Kong, China — The plight of a Sri Lankan teenager facing the death sentence in Saudi Arabia has received sympathetic attention from the global media during the past week. She is charged over an incident that, according to her, happened while she was trying to bottle-fe
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July 06, 2007Hong Kong, China — A memorial service to remember Red Cross workers, abducted from Colombo and killed a month ago, was held in the Sri Lankan capital, July 4.One of the topics discussed by the participants at this ceremony was the promise given by President Mahinda Rajapa
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June 29, 2007Hong Kong, China — The Lahore High Court Bar Association engaged in a symbolic act of ceremonially burying the notorious Doctrine of Necessity on Tuesday. This act by a group of Pakistani lawyers carries tremendous meaning, not only for Pakistan and many other Asian countri
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June 22, 2007Hong Kong, China — Arundhati Roy pens it as real as it gets, in her Booker prizewinner, 'The God of Small Things' -- "They heard the thud of wood on flesh. Boot on bone.
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June 15, 2007Hong Kong, China — President Mahinda Rajapaksa is now in Geneva to attend meetings to discuss serious allegations of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, including abductions, forced disappearances, torture, the forced expulsion of almost 400 Tamils from Colombo, the problems
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June 08, 2007Hong Kong, China — On the evening of June 1, two Red Cross volunteers who had attended a training program in Colombo were abducted from the Central Railway Station, in the presence of several of their colleagues, by men claiming to be police officers. They were told they we
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June 01, 2007Hong Kong, China — Pakistan has witnessed in the past few months one of the greatest struggles ever fought for the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary in South Asia. Recent decades have seen attacks on the concept of the separation of powers, the inde
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May 25, 2007Hong Kong, China — This week, after studying Sri Lanka's practices regarding the rule of law for several years and meticulously observing recent developments, the Asian Human Rights Commission was compelled to announce that the country is now facing lawlessness of epidemic
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May 18, 2007Hong Kong, China — Several nations in Asia have witnessed frightening events in the past few days. In Pakistan, the military regime unleashed violence against the campaign led by the suspended chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, for independence of the judiciary.
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May 11, 2007Hong Kong, China — The international community has become increasingly alarmed by the violence now ripping the fabric of Sri Lankan society. This concern is marked by the recent visits to Sri Lanka of Richard Boucher, the U.S.
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May 04, 2007Hong Kong, China — Shocking details are emerging about the manner in which the chief justice of Pakistan, Iftikhar Chaudhry, was removed from his post. They are found in a 40-page petition filed by the chief justice himself through his counsel before the country's Supreme C
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April 27, 2007Hong Kong, China — The Sri Lankan government recently announced that police powers will be granted to the military through further emergency regulations. When the BBC Sinhala Service questioned the government spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukawella, as to whether this dec
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April 13, 2007Hong Kong, China — Amnesty International has launched a campaign asking people to sign cricket balls calling on all Sri Lankans, meaning all parties to the present conflict -- the government, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and other armed militant groups -- to
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March 30, 2007Hong Kong, China — The last few weeks have seen the use of the powers of the Attorney General's Department to freeze the accounts of a person associated with a leading newspaper that has turned hostile to the Sri Lankan government. In another incident, a former minister who
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March 23, 2007Hong Kong, China — Recently I came across two incidents in Pakistan which I could not help but believe were very much alike. One was the severing of a young man's penis by police officers in Larkana District in Sindh Province.
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March 23, 2007Hong Kong, China — Recently I came across two incidents in Pakistan which I could not help but believe were very much alike. One was the severing of a young man's penis by police officers in Larkana District in Sindh Province.
