In a rare occurrence, the long arms of the law, last week caught up with a few crooked law enforcement officers after 26 years. The Anuradhapura High Court last Friday (26) gave the death sentence to five police officers who were found guilty of killing eight Tamil civilians at the Bharathipuram village in Kantale 26 years ago. In 1996 following the incident, action had been taken against 13 policemen linked to the incident.
However, the case had been reportedly transferred to Anuradhapura, after the LTTE assassinated two suspects. The verdict by the Court, is a testament to everyone, including public officials that in Sri Lanka that the pursuit of justice is not an hourglass they can easily escape. The five policemen were found guilty of premeditated murder, according to reports although the accused police officers claimed they searched the village after their police post was attacked, the investigations revealed that the police post had not been attacked. The findings highlight a long history and entrenched culture within the law enforcement apparatus, where abuse of power, impunity and custodial deaths have become commonplace.
In typical Sri Lankan efficiency, the case which saw the recent conviction, had been filed 19 years after the incident in 2005. The judgement had been delayed for many reasons, including the delay in submitting the Government Analyst’s report. Which is an issue that has affected many Judicial proceedings. According to news reports the court had received the report only in 2022. Someone should write up the Government Analyst's Department for a Guinness World Record, for slowest bureaucratic turning of the wheel. Sri Lanka has been slow in prosecuting law enforcement officers for unjustified homicides, murder, custodial deaths, and torture.
Custodial deaths, unjustified use of force, shooting of suspects, forced confessions and the Sri Lanka Police, have a long relationship. The practice of ‘beating’ out a confession, is nothing new to most police forces which were modelled under colonial policing objectives. In many former colonial states, such practices have long been prohibited and waned out with new policies and change in culture. Sri Lanka, it seems, has missed the bus on that change. The continued custodial deaths, and that of preventable ‘encounter deaths’, particularly in relation to counter narcotics enforcement and the arrest of those suspected to be ‘hit men’, indicates that the law enforcement agencies have taken the law to their own hands, opting to be the ‘judge, jury and executioner’, instead of enforcing the law.
The abduction and the suspected custodial murder of 31-year-old Kosma Rasin Lasith Chinthaka and 33-year-old Manjula Asela Kumara on 23 January 2019 by a team of policemen in Rathgama, Galle triggered villages of Rathgama to take matters into their own hands. They demanded justice for the two young men, both taken for questioning without a warrant, allegedly tortured and killed, and suspected to have been dismembered and touched to destroy evidence, by blocking the Colombo–Galle coastal road and the rail track. Those police officers who were charged with the kidnapping and murder of both men, who had been known to the law previously, are now before the Judiciary. The fact that such judicial proceedings have not acted as a deterrent to other police officers, as the practice seemingly continues, is very concerning. Let's hope last week's court decision acts as a deterrence for the rotten apples in the law enforcement system.
Like the Rathgama custodial deaths, many Sri Lankans may have by now forgotten the custodial deaths of Mabulage Dinith Melan Mabula, alias ‘Urujuwa’, and Dharmakeerthi Tharaka Perera Wijesekera, alias ‘Kosgoda Tharaka’, which took place on 11 and 13 May 2021. The Police often claim that the suspects, who are supposed to be handcuffed, attempted to hurl a grenade, or shoot at them with a weapon which was concealed during a field excursion to ‘show where evidence is hidden’. The two were killed while being in custody of a special police unit, which was led by a DIG who has built up quite the blemished reputation. However, that police officer went on to be appointed as an Inspector General of Police, which tells you what type of persons the political leaders place their trust in.
While, not understating the risks involved in combating organised crime, the Police must not also forget their duty to allow due process for all suspects. The problem is, once you use the same narrative several times, it loses credibility and no one believes you. The Judiciary has also cautioned the Police about custodial deaths, and forced confessions on multiple occasions.
Lack of political will and weak understanding of how law and order, justice should be practised, has kept the abhorrent practice alive. The tragedy is that many Sri Lankans believe that a ‘suspect deserves what he or she gets’ and does not comprehend the importance of due process, and of being innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps, we should shoulder the blame for the state of affairs. Perhaps we need a community wide change in how we approach crime, law and order, and justice. Perhaps then, when a majority of the public stop cheering such deaths and seeking revenge over justice, the police and the policy makers who oversee them, will be moved to change their behaviour. Until then, we may have to be content with the ‘long long arms of the law’ which can take decades, but still deliver justice, even if the culprits are cops.