Basil Fernando

Several cases of persons missing after being arrested in Sri Lanka in December 1998 have drawn international attention. They remind us of the massive disappearances, of over 30,000 people, according to official reports, occurred in the country between 1988 and 1992. The commissions assigned to investigate these disappearances recently submitted a further report on the issue.

Meanwhile, a Sinhala paper, Ravaya, published the names of a number of police officers, who have been identified among those responsible for the disappearances, among persons who were rewarded for their "services" during the same period. In addition, the name of Premadasa Udugampola, a retired senior police officer popularly identified as the mastermind behind the counter-insurgency activities of the United National Party (UNP) government that carried out the programme of "disappearances", has appeared in the UNP’s election campaign. Explaining the shocking reappearance of the discredited police officer, a UNP spokesman said: "No court has found him guilty of any offence."

The UNP has never acknowledged or apologised for its record of massive disappearances. Despite its promises to "clean up" the party, the present UNP leadership has not made any assessment of the time now popularly known as the "Period of Terror." There is a popular fear that if the UNP comes to power it may stop all the on-going investigations into disappearances and may bring back to prominence those who have been suspected of causing these massive human rights violations.

Murderers Still At Large

A common saying in Sri Lanka today is that "General Pinochet of Chile is being investigated for about 4,000 killings but the Sri Lankan leaders who killed over 30,000 have gone completely free."

As stated in the British House of Lord’s judgement on the Pinochet case on 25 November 1998, Pinochet’s crimes were carrying out "a systematic campaign of repression against various groups in Chile after the military coup on 11 September 1973. The case is that of the order of 4,000 individuals were killed or simply disappeared. Such killings and disappearances mostly took place in Chile but some also took place in various countries abroad. Such acts were committed during the period from 11 September 1973 until 1990. The climax of the repression was reached in 1974 and 1975. The principal instrumentality of the oppression was the Direction de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the secret police. The subsequent re-naming of this organisation is immaterial. The case is that agents of DINA, who were specially trained in torture techniques, tortured victims on a vast scale in secret torture chambers in Santiago and elsewhere in Chile. The torturers were invariably dressed in civilian clothes. Hooded doctors were present during torture sessions. The case is not one of interrogators acting in excess of zeal. The case goes much further. The request explains:

"The most usual method was ‘the grill’ consisting of a metal table on which the victim was laid naked and his extremities tied and electrical shocks were applied to the lips, genitals, wounds or metal prosthesis; also two persons, relatives or friends, were placed in two metal drawers one on top of the other so that when the one above was tortured the psychological impact was felt by the other; on other occasions the victim was suspended from a bar by the wrists and/or the knees, and over a prolonged period while held in this situation electric current was applied to him, cutting wounds were inflicted or he was beaten; or the ‘dry submarine’ method was applied, i.e. placing a bag on the head until close to suffocation, also drugs were used and boiling water was thrown on various detainees to punish them as a foretaste for the death which they would later suffer.

"As the [British] Divisional Court observed it is not alleged that General Pinochet personally committed any of these acts by his own hand. The case is, however, that agents of DINA committed the acts of torture and that DINA was directly answerable to General Pinochet rather than to the military junta. And the case is that DINA undertook and arranged the killings, disappearances and torturing of victims on the orders of General Pinochet. In other words, what is alleged against General Pinochet is not constructive criminal responsibility. The case is that he ordered and procured the criminal acts which the warrant and request for extradition specify. The allegations have not been tested in a court of law. The House [of Lords] is not required to examine the correctness of the allegations. The House must assume the correctness of the allegations as the backcloth of the questions of law arising on this appeal."

Cases of Sri Lankan disappearances, torture and kidnappings and other abuses were much worse and greater in number than those in Chile.

UNP Owes An Explanation

As a registered political party in Sri Lanka the UNP owes an explanation to the country of its terrible human rights record. It owes this also to the international community, which has for several years shown great concern over the issue. This obligation becomes even greater after the publication of the reports by the three Commissions of Inquiry into the Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of Persons respectively for the Central, North Western, North Central and Uva Provinces, the Northern and Eastern Provinces, and the Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Provinces.

These commissions have clearly established that the disappearances were the result of orders from above; that these orders were carried out systematically; that most disappearances were in fact killings after arrests; that both the police and the military participated in causing these disappearances; that over 15 per cent of the total number of persons caused to disappear were children below 19 years of age; and that legal provisions were available to make secret detention, torture, killings and disposal of bodies possible. A clear responsibility lies with all UNP leaders to make an honest exposure of these events and genuinely to repudiate the past. Until that is done it will remain a historic demand of the people from this party.

Why has the UNP not initiated any inquiry into its past atrocities? Is it because this party still believes that causing these disappearances was necessary and that, therefore, they would defend such actions as right? Or is it because the active participants in such grave abuses are still very powerful? Or is it that any move towards genuine accountability will cause a rift in the party? Or is it because the party has no tradition of such internal examination? None of these reasons can provide a sound excuse for the party’s inability to come to terms with gross abuse of power and causing of mass murders - amounting to crimes against humanity - which lie within its responsibility.

The real question is whether the UNP will consider its past offences against the people serious enough to warrant an explanation both to its own party members and to the Sri Lankan people as a whole.

On its part, the ruling coalition, the People’s Alliance, has made no serious attempt to bring the perpetrators of these grave crimes to account for their deeds. The coalition won popular support by its promises to offer justice to the families of victims of violence. Observers often explain the government’s reluctance to fulfil these promises on the grounds that since the war in the North calls for the military’s support the government may not want to take any serious action which might jeopardise that co-operation. This implies that the government needs to rely on the same officers who engaged in the illegal violence of disappearances. If this is so, it must be a matter of serious concern not only for the country of Sri Lanka but also for the international community. If this is true, the future of the rule of law in Sri Lanka is very bleak. Another explanation for the failure to act is that the family connections among the many leaders of the two leading parties are so deep that it is in vain to expect any serious action from them. A third explanation is that there were so many complications during the time of the disappearances that many persons fear any genuine exposure.

Popular Pressure to End Terror

Whatever might be the reason, the mechanisms for the rule of law, which collapsed during the last government, cannot be re-established without a thorough exposure of what happened during the "Period of Terror" and cleansing of the law enforcement agencies of all the bad practices introduced at the time. The damage done to the law enforcement system has not only continued but completely eroded the people’s confidence.

Popular pressure keeps on demanding an end to the mechanisms of terror that still exist, as insecurity spreads throughout the country. People have to look for means of providing their own security. Gangs of thugs have become visible in all areas in the country. Day-time murders are carried out with meticulous planning, and the only reaction to such murders is retaliation in similar kind. If the major political parties remain unresponsive, the situation will deteriorate. In fact, the popular perception is that the major political parties collaborate with these underworld elements.

It is only popular pressure that can alter this situation. By pushing for proper legal and political inquiries into the cases of disappearances, it may be possible to awaken a national response to the collapse of the rule of law in Sri Lanka.