Annex 2
SRI LANKA: Judge's murder is the price for
neglect of the Sri Lankan judiciary: A Statement by the Asian
Human Rights Commission
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) today
extends its deepest sympathies to the families of Colombo High
Court Judge Sarath Ambepitiya and his bodyguard Inspector Upali
Bandara, as well as the people of Sri Lanka. The judge and police
officer were murdered yesterday, November 19, outside the judge's
house.
The killing was as shocking as it was predictable.
In July, the AHRC wrote on the attempted rape of a high court
judge in her house. The authorities promised greater protection
for judges, but what came of it? Justice Ambepitya's wife has
complained that despite death threats against her husband, security
was lax.
Assassinations and threats of assassinations
have been going on in Sri Lanka for decades. There has been no
serious effort to stem the practice. Like all other problems,
it has been met with rhetoric and promises, devoid of strategies
and action. There has been no attempt to break the culture of
murder that has slowly strangled the country since the mass disappearances
of the 1980s. Everybody goes about his own business expecting
that somebody else will be the target, as did Reverend Martin
Niemoeller, who was arrested by the German Gestapo in 1938. Reverend
Niemoeller later famously wrote that, "In Germany, the Nazis
first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a communist. Then they came for Jews, and I didn't speak
up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then
they came for Catholics, but I didn't speak up because I was a
protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was
no one left to speak for me."
In Sri Lanka too a collective unwillingness
to take responsibility for the failure to uphold the rule of law
has made the entire society a target. The legacy of distorted
laws twisted to facilitate mass murder lives on; it has now made
itself felt at the heart of the administration of justice.
The judiciary in particular has done very little
to stop this exceptional collapse of the rule of law. In recent
years it has been embroiled in petty quarrels and has diminished
itself in the eyes and minds of most people. Today it lacks the
leadership to protect itself from outside attacks, whether physical
or otherwise. The Bar Association of Sri Lanka, which represents
the legal profession, has never been weaker than it is now. It
has failed to protect not only its members, but also the integrity
of the legal profession and independence of the judiciary.
The country has also too long neglected the
overwhelming crisis in its policing system. The misuse of police
institutions for political purposes, including the causing of
disappearances and other acts of violence, has deprived the country
of a reliable means for public protection. It is openly acknowledged
that the criminal investigation system is totally defective and
lacking in virtually everything: qualified investigators, fingerprint
analysis and forensic science equipment, even basic facilities
for communication like mobile phones and fax machines.
For the political leadership in Sri Lanka, crime
is just a device for demagogy: a means to obtain greater powers
for social repression. No strategy yet exists for qualitative
improvement to policing; no funds have been allocated for this
purpose. There is no evidence that without intense public pressure
either will be forthcoming soon.
Now is the time for all concerned citizens to
rise up and challenge the political leadership to make resources
available for radical reforms to the police, so that the public
can at last get the protection it deserves. Above all, this means
allocation of funds for a proper criminal investigation system.
People must also demand accountability from
the higher judiciary. It is a moment to establish the principle
that if the independence of judiciary is betrayed from the top,
nothing can save it, The judiciary must finally resolve its longstanding
problems, so that its judges can work securely.
Only complete investigation of yesterday's murders,
and intense scrutiny of the exceptional collapse of the rule of
law in Sri Lanka, will make it possible to avoid further killings.
20 November 2004
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