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That day altered Amitha's life for years to come: she would move from police station to police station, from court to court, from one Medical Council session to another in search of justice. Almost everyone predicted that she was just beating her head against the wall and that she was just ruining her own life, everyone except some human rights activists who came to her assistance.
Apart from the very few that showed support for her cause, her opponents -- powerful police officers and even some members of the legal and medical professions --ridiculed her. However, Amitha has left some powerful impressions on the ordinary folk about the power of the powerless when they persistently seek justice.
In August 2003, the case she pursued in the Supreme Court by supporting her widowed sister-in-law ended successfully. It created a precedent regarding the rights of the next of kin to seek redress through a fundamental rights application before the Supreme Court. The court held that the police were responsible for torturing her brother and granted compensation to the widow and child from their marriage.
Just last week Amitha had an even more significant victory. The Sri Lanka Medical Council, after several years of inquiry, held that the doctor before whom her brother was produced by the police and who issued a health clearance certificate for the victim was guilty of malpractice.
The Medical Council suspended the doctor, W. R. Piyasoma, on the basis of medical negligence in the case involving Lasantha's cruel and inhuman treatment. The Professional Conduct Committee of the Medical Council, comprising eight senior medical practitioners, pronounced this verdict. The committee stated that it was extremely disappointed by the way in which Piyasoma fulfilled his responsibilities in this medico-legal investigation.
"The manner in which Dr. Piyasoma has failed to discharge his obligation in this case would undoubtedly shake the conscience of fellow medical men and was disgraceful and dishonorable as a medical practitioner," the committee stated.
The committee further stated that it was of the view that had Piyasoma taken adequate precautions in the discharge of his duty it is very likely that he could have saved the life of the victim, Lasantha Jagath Kumara.
The committee also concluded that, although it should permanently erase Piyasoma's name from the medical register, considering his age and that this ethical breach was his first indiscretion, it directed the registrar of the Medical Council to erase his name only for three years beginning in July 2007.
Piyasoma though was not the only medical professional whose actions were found to be improper. The Medical Council also adversely commented against another medical professor who came before the committee as an expert witness for not being an impartial witness.
Amitha Priyanthi's seven years of struggle was solely motivated by a thirst for justice and to assert the dignity of a human being who had been so callously and inhumanely treated by officers of the state. There is hardly any act more insulting than to be beaten to death inside a police station by officers of the state who were there, supposedly, to safeguard his rights.
There are literally tens of thousands of victims like Lasantha in Sri Lanka. Many of the family members of these victims do not have the endurance, stamina and perseverance of Amitha Priyanthi. Where literally tens of thousands of others have given up, she continued her struggle on behalf of her brother. However, the benefits of her struggle are for her countrymen who have not often demonstrated an equal willingness to fight for their rights.
Her fight is not over. The Attorney General's Department has yet to file charges against the police officers responsible for the murder of her brother. Amitha has kept up her vigil on this issue too. It is yet to be seen, however, whether the country's premier prosecuting agency is capable of responding to her demand for justice.
During the last several years, the Attorney General's Department has not shown much sympathy for her struggle. The longer it delays, the more shame it will face for the denial of justice. Amitha is also pursuing a case before a district court in a civil claim against the perpetrators of the murder.
Amitha is not from the country's elite class. She does not have the affluence or even the sophistication of members of this class, but her courage surpasses those of big-talking lawyers, judges and others who claim that the country has had a modern justice system for more than 200 years. For all those 200 years, how many Amitha Priyanthis has the country produced? Not many.
It is to courageous people like Amitha Priyanthi that tribute must be paid for their struggle to demonstrate the possibility of achieving justice in Sri Lanka. In circumstances so dismal, it is character like hers that preserve the light and the hope for a more honorable society.
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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.)
