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These 48 cases are a small fraction of the larger phenomenon of torture taking place in Sri Lanka, which I have researched for several years now and have produced several publications. "An X-ray of the Sri Lankan Policing System and Torture of the Poor," a book published in 2005, is one of these studies.
The 48 cases which I researched on this occasion were reported from incidents which occurred between September 2006 and October 2007. One very remarkable feature in these narratives is that in not a single case were the reasons for torture part of any serious investigation into a crime, which is normally the reason for torture in many countries. These cases demonstrate that the officers who engaged in torture were not even doing so in the interests of discovering the truth regarding a crime.
Torture, even for obtaining such information, is a serious violation of people's rights and a crime under Sri Lankan law. However, in the cases reported during this 13-month period, the reasons for torture have been so shockingly trivial, such as failure to obtain a bribe, to please a friend or an opposing party that has paid off the police, to comply with traffic instructions, trying to deal with a complaint against a man by his in-laws over a family loan, sheer drunkenness or trying to find a substitute suspect for a crime the police have failed to resolve.
Severe acts of torture for such trivial reasons suggest the mentality existing within the police force and the breakdown of discipline within this institution in which higher ranking police officers have failed to exercise their authority.
These cases reveal a sickness within the institution that is supposed to be the premier law enforcement agency in the country. The following is a breakdown of some of the cases from the point of view of the reasons for which people have been tortured:
1. A police officer, acting at the instigation of a friend, to harass a victim.
2. Assault without giving any reason, probably to fish for information.
3. To intimidate a complainant who is pursuing a case against police officers in court.
4. Fishing for information about a murder.
5. To force a confession about a robbery that the victim has not been involved in, most likely to create a substitute accused for a case that the police are unable to solve.
6. Assault during an abduction that resulted in a disappearance, perhaps to subdue a suspect and take him or her away as soon as possible.
7. Shooting to death for failing to follow road instructions.
8. Assault while asking questions about where illicit liquor is hidden.
9. Chasing fishermen out of a fishing area allegedly for security reasons.
10. To obtain a confession that the suspect stole jewelry. (It has been commonly reported that people are randomly arrested in some areas, particularly if they are young males, as part of an attempt to stop the theft of chains and other jewelry.)
11. Assault of a mentally retarded man demanding stolen goods from him. (Random assaults on people with the hope that some discovery of theft or other crimes can be made has been a common cause of assaults in our previous narratives.)
12. Assault by three policemen without any explanation, probably as a result of mistaken identity.
13. Parking a three-wheeler near the car of a senior police officer.
14. Assault by three officers to falsely implicate him in a petty crime.
15. Assault of a driver for refusing to pay a bribe.
16. Assault in front of a complainant who made a complaint about the loss of TV cassettes. (In earlier years, there have been cases where people were assaulted in front of complainants which seemed to be for the purpose of impressing upon the complainant that the police are, in fact, trying to solve the crime. Why the people are assaulted in front of the complainant may be due to close links between the police officer and the complainant or due to bribery.)
17. Preventing a complaint being made to the police about a traffic accident under the influence of the person who is alleged to have caused the accident in order to prevent further proceedings.
18. On suspicion of theft to fish for information.
19. Assault by military personnel because of mistaken identity.
20. To obtain a confession about the possession of five bullets. (It is often reported that the police produce from their possession bombs, bullets and other weapons when they want to implicate people in crimes which are non-bailable. In these cases, the police use confessions as evidence to create the impression that it is a genuine case.)
21. Assault without reason and not filing a case thereafter. (Perhaps the motive was to fish for some information which might accidentally be revealed to escape the assault.)
22. Assault due to a land dispute in which the police took the side of one party. (Under Sri Lankan law, the police have no authority to deal with civil matters such as land disputes. However, there are frequently allegations of this type of interference.)
23. Assault by four police officers without giving any reason.
24. Request for illicit liquor, or "kasippu." (When people are suspected of the sale of illicit liquor, they are forced to provide samples of it so that the police can, from time to time, file cases against them. There have been several instances reported in the past where people who have given up this illicit trade are forced to provide samples in order to file further cases against them. The police either do not believe that they have given up the trade, or they are desperately in need of some cases for the sake of their records.)
25. Severe beating of a member of a local government office (Pradesiya Saba) who, in the course of his official duties, questioned a subinspector of police about allegations that the office was engaged in the illicit liquor business.
26. Questioning during an inquiry into a murder, with which the suspect alleged that he had no connection.
27. Refusal to implicate a person that the police wanted to implicate for selling illicit liquor.
28. Assault by a drunken policeman.
29. Assault at the instigation of a complainant.
30. Assault because of a land dispute in which the police had taken the side of one party.
31. Assault for refusal to give a bribe.
32. For possession of a gold chain in his pocket. (During random searches, when a person is found with something that the police think suspicious, they often assault the person to obtain a confession that the property is stolen.)
33. Assault when the police intervened to settle a family dispute.
These cases, which relate to torture in the government-controlled areas of the South, demonstrate that the claim of the Sri Lankan government that it is capable and willing to deal with human rights abuses in the country is not made with any seriousness.
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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.)
