ASIA: Women's views on prevention of torture

FOR PUBLICATION
AHRC-ETC-004-2010
August 09, 2010
An interview conducted by the Asian Human Rights Commission
ASIA: Women's views on prevention of torture - Interview 37
SRI LANKA: Ms. Chandralatha Fernando, 48 years old teacher from Dekinda, Nawalapitiya talks about bad policing

What do you think of the policing system of your country? Is it good? Or do you think it should be different?

Certainly I am frustrated at the Sri Lankan police and there are several reasons for that. For an example: one day there was a dispute among two small students in our school. Finally one child pushed the other on a stair case and he fell. As a result the victim child got a fracture near the joint of the right hand. Then as I was the class teacher for the both children, I had gone and make a complaint to the police station following the instructions of the principle. Immediately I went to the police, made a complaint and I admitted the child to the hospital while informing the child’s parent of the incident.

But later we learned that the parent of the child who assaulted the victim child also has gone to the police station and had also made a complaint. The police initiated an investigation based on that. Later we came to know that this was due to the influence of the police officer who was in the service in that particular police station who was a relative of that child. That relationship made possible the acceptance of the second complaint and the immediate actions for starting the investigations. Further we learned that various threats and intimidations were made to the parents of the victim to withdraw the first complaint.

Having considered this minor incident anyone who is interested in policing system of Sri Lanka can understand the whole system of policing, how the officers abuse their power and harass the innocent and the poor.

What do you think of police use of torture? Good, Bad? Kindly explain.

I never accept using torture by anyone in any occasion. As a teacher I am proud to say that I have never abused the children under my care. I don't see the same with many of my fellow teachers. I have seen that they are doing physical and physiological torture to their students. At the same time I want to say that I have noted there are some police officers who execute their duties without torturing the people. At the same time I have seen the officers who torture the innocent and poor people, mentally and physically who came to get their service done. I specially want to mention here that many people give their attention to the physical torture but never give enough attention to the mental element of torture. My personal opinion on that is we physically can observe torture with our naked eye and also we can have medication for that as well. But many of us ignore the psychological trauma or mental element of torture that people gone through after they get tortured. We have to examine the extent that how psychological trauma effects the life of the people who have undergone these kind of severe torture. There is a lack of enough attention paid for these areas by many responsible authorities and people can see in this country. Also I see the lack of professional who are engaged in this field in our country.

For example, one day a teacher who was known to me for a long time was arrested due to a complaint made by another teacher who had a personal grudge against him. The complaint was fake and baseless. But the relationship that particular first teacher had with the police officers attached to said police station helped him to make the complaint and the teacher was arrested and tortured him at the hands of police officers. In the whole process this teacher was exposed to an extensive and manner of torture in which he suffered for many more months. But later when the case came up in the courts, he was acquitted due to medical evidence and baseless other evidence. But the relationship between the aforesaid first teacher and the respondent police officers had made such all agonies to an innocent person and it would never come into consideration by any of the state authorities in the present context of Sri Lanka. None of the state authorities in power paid their attention to assess t he agony that he underwent following this illegal and discriminative actions.

After the police arrested him the education department had interdicted his service. Then he and his family suffered while struggling for financial means. He underwent mental trauma. He has been subjected to severe degrading treatment which is unbearable to anyone. He has to face many annoying treatments among his relatives as he was accused of rape. He has been subjected to serious discrimination by his neighbors. They have ignored him. This particular victim had to face all these agonies following the fake and baseless complaint of an individual who could influence the police for his undue motives. This is an example of the arbitrary, malicious and abusive behavior of police officers who make all these illegalities possible in our society. I think all these things have to be considered in a discourse on the question of existing endemic torture in Sri Lanka.

What is your idea of a good relationship between the police and citizens?

Oh! No need to talk on that. Sometimes I feel that is that an institution where Sri Lankans are merely employed. I have observed the large distance between the police officers and the general public. I have noted that the lower ranking officers of the police, how they are discriminating and degrading the general public much more than the seniors in service. For example, there is a woman in our village called 'Anula’. Almost all the villagers help her as she is disabled. As I learned one day she had gone to the police station to make a complaint regarding a land dispute. But the police officers on duty have not shown any interest. She had gone to the police station more than ten times on same matter. All these experiences explore the way how the Sri Lankan police has become an institution that only help the privileged people and not the poor of the society.

If you have a problem, would you feel safe to go the police and complain?

Personally if I have a problem I would not go to the police seeking their assistance. I believe that it is better to bear the damage instead of seeking the assistance from police. Certainly there are police officers who were my former students. So if I need their help I am in a position to get it. But I honestly believe that the police department has been established to protect the law and order of the country respecting the individual rights equally and impartially. As only the privilege and power related people have the opportunities to have the services of the police, I am having certain frustration with that.

We have seen that people involved in series of crimes seeking revenge instead of going for legal interventions by the state authorities. They have lost the faith and trust with existing law enforcement agencies in the country. They no longer believe that the institutional set up could implement the rule of law in the country so that law and order can be restored. They are not willing to make complaints to the police. They have lost faith with that organization. The existing collapse in the law enforcement agencies have motivated the increasing crime tendencies in the society.

Is there a domestic violence law in your country? If yes, is it well implemented? If none, what are the problems?

Certainly I am not aware of such law. But I honestly believe that if there is such a law existed it would benefit the society. I have continuous experience by listening to the stories of children who come from the violent situation of their parents in their homes. I have seen how much of physical and mental trauma these students undergo while living in these dangerous situations.

For example, one day while I was examining the home work of the students which were handed in. I found that one student had not done anything. Then I questioned him for the reasons. Then he revealed the story about how his father came home in the evenings after getting drunk and beat his mother and his sibling. And as to how his father verbally abused all of them creating a very vulnerable situation in the home that prevented him attending to his home work. He explained up to the extent that how his drunken father sometimes tore his exercise books due to intoxication. To avoid this exhausting situation, the mother and her children from time to time used to leave the home in the night and staye in a house belonging to one of their relatives. Then this particular child used to do his home work at the school in next morning. But in that particular day as the farther came even to that relative’s house and quarreled that prevented the child from doing his home work.

When I listened to that story I was shocked by imagining the amount of physical and mental trauma that this mother experienced almost daily with her four children in the age of 11, 8, 6, and 3 respectively.

So I believe that although the task of eliminating domestic violence from Sri Lanka is not that simple and can be overcome over night, I think it is a contemporary necessity in Sri Lanka to have at least a law that can control domestic violent.

The views shared in this interview do not necessarily reflect those of the AHRC, and the AHRC takes no responsibility for them.
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

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