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Torture is willfully inflicting mental or physical pain on a person.

An Advanced Level student of Skandavarodaya college was taken blind folded from his home in a jeep. They stopped at a place and assaulted him mercilessly, and then he was taken home blindfolded. A complaint was lodged with the H.R.C. but only after the damage was done.

Aperson was arrested by the Asgiriya police, and detained for 17 days and was released without being produced in the Magistrate’s Court. While in detention he was supposed to have been attacked with S-Lon pipe stuffed with sand on his knees and ankles. Besides, his, face was scratched with sharp nails and his teeth too were broken. Mr. Sritharan the Co-ordinating officer of the Human Rights Commission, Vavuniya, when informed of the condition of the arrested condemned this unlawful arrest and torture.

On 25/10/2000 Virakesari of 06/11/2000 reports that a housewife and her husband residing at Thirunavatkulam, Thandikulam, Vavuniya, were arrested by T.I.D on suspicion that they have hidden claymore mines in their compound. The husband was detained at T.I.D, Vavuniya Police Division and the wife at the Vavuniya Police Station. Later she was taken by T.I.D. Police for inquiry. She is alleged to have been assaulted brutally by the T.I.D. Police. She has injuries on her upper arm, she has complained to the H.R.C. Vavuniya

Thinakkural of 6/11/2000 reports the case of one family man of 50 yrs.,According to him some men in civil went to his house at Meesalai and shot and killed a goat. Then they asked him to give a rope to tie and skin the goat. When he refused, they brought a rope from somewhere and tied the goat up and skinned it. Incidently the goat was his. They also threw the unwanted parts on him and poured the goat’s blood on him and attacked him severely and stabbed him all over till he fell unconscious. The persons in civil then left. The next day the relatives of the victim, took him to the Manthihai Hospital. They also lodged a complaint with the O.I.C. of the Meesalai Army Camp.

Thinakural of 08/11/00 reports that on 6/11/00 that at Wangalai, Mannar at a tavern there was an argument between the police and some young men and they came to blows. That night the police stopped pedestrians and assaulted them mercilessly with iron rods and sticks.

People tolled the church bell and all the people got together to retaliate. At that time army personnel who came there brought the situation under control. Seven of the police officers who were involved in the incident were transferred to other stations.

One man who wanted to start a communication center, had come to Colombo and purchased the necessary equipment and was staying in a lodge when C.I.D arrested him. They tortured him and made him sign some document the contents of which he did not know. He has filed an action for violation of Human Rights against T.I.D, C.I.D, I.G.P, Attorney General and Defense Secretary.

These incidents reported in the Media show that Human Rights Violations are still taking place due to the fact that the armed forces have been given greater powers under the new Emergency Regulations about which even the Amnesty International raised fears.

The ongoing war has created another menace that looms threateningly in the South. The army deserters who are weapon trained have been found to be at the bottom of most gang robberies, bank holdups and even murder of lonely individuals- mostly women. These instances of heinous crimes are flashed across the newspapers. Crimes and violation of Human Rights in the domestic front are also much reported. Battered women, horrifying cases of incest and child abuse are also on the increase in the South. The long arm of the law has successfully arrested many of these offenders, but the crime goes on regardless. It is said that large-scale recruitment to the army has caused large-scale desertions too. Being weapon trained they are employed by underworld gangs to make their operations easy.

The army deserters have a strength of 30, 000 according to police sources. These thirty thousand are a threat to the society in the South.

1. A lad of about 30 years was arrested on or about the 14^th of February, 2000 by the Wattala Police at about 8.30 p.m. on suspicion of having connection with the subversives. As he was taken to the Police he was first assaulted all over his body by their hands and legs without any inquiry. Later the Policemen removed all the clothes he wore and burnt his hands and legs with cigarette butts. (A few of those scars were still visible). Later the policemen tied a rope on to his fingers, behind his body and put him to sleep, face downwards and beat his soles with a pole of about 2 inches in diameter and 2 feet in length. Later he was hung up with the same rope and beaten all over the body with the above mentioned pole and with their hands and legs. When he became half unconscious he was brought down, a sack was put on to his head covering his face they assaulted him badly all over the body, at which point he fell down unconsciously, and at this time a policeman kicked the left side of his face with a shoe. (This was the last shot that he could remember at that instance, he says they may have beaten him further that day)

The next day the policemen brought him back to the torture room and removed his clothes again and had shown him a sharp iron rod and threatened him that they will insert it into his body. As they had threatened they pushed him on to the floor and made him to sleep on the ground and inserted that sharp rod into the bottom of his left & right thighs. When they inserted it into his right thighs and it had almost gone more than about 2 inches they had shaken it back and forth saying 1^st gear, 2^nd gear and 3^rd gear. As a result of this torture he had passed a lot of blood and as a result was admitted at the General Hospital of Ragama for a few days. When he was admitted in the hospital these policemen including one Samaratilleke (Sub Inspector) came to the hospital pressed his ear with the back of his gun and forced him to sign some hand written and typed statements. About 20 signatures were taken from him and he is presently languishing in remand without any indictment filed against him. One sub inspector in the name of Samarathilake was also present at the time of this torture, and was instructing this torture.

2. This is about a young man (39) from Batticaloa living with his wife and child at Wattala reportedly he was arrested at 7.30 p.m. on 14.02.2000 on his way back to bring a dinner parcel to the family and taken direct to the Wattala police station. There he was asked who are the 2 L.T.T.E men who came to his house, which he denied. Then he was forcibly taken up stairs and shown a person who was bleeding heaveyly on both the legs and asked to identify. He identified him as one of his friends whom he knew at Batticaloa and whom he thought to be a Sinhalese. He had denied that the other gave a pistol to him. He has denied that he has any involvement in such things and mentioned that because of such harassment by the L.T.T.E and Razeek group he has sold his house and come to live at Wattala.

They made him naked and assaulted with batons, iron pipe and corroded sheets. They were telling that one is telling that other is having the pistol and vice versa and assaulting both mercilessly. The torture continued for 5 hours and when the O.I.C came in he was put in the lockup. Next day he was taken to a dusty room and was asked the same questions while tying a petrol filled plastic bag covering his face and put him down on the ground and trampling him. They locked him up for 14 days. Consequent to this torture left toe nail was broken and right hand palm below the small finger was broken and stitched by the police and this non professional work could be seen from the scar. In the lock up also he was assaulted. Eyesight has become very poor, breathing difficulty because of the beating and trampling on the chest. On 29.02.2000 he was taken to the Wattala Magistrate and remanded to Mahara Prison. At the prison he was tortured physiologically by the prisoners asking him to sleep by the side of the toilet and things like that. He also told that Peliyagoda police even though it is out of bounds, has gone on civil dress to his house and created pandemonium and damaged some household items, obtained his wife’s signature on a blank paper and taken away his certificates and diaries.

3. On 03/05/2000 at about 10.00 am the Special Task Force of Thirukovil arrested a 40 year old father and hit his buttocks severely with a sex organ of a bull (Contusions still visible on his back) also assaulted him all over his body with a pole.

After causing him grave hurt he was handed over to the Ampara CSU, where the policemen removed his shirt and banian and tied his hands with the banian, pushed him down and then beat him with a pole to the sole. He was also beaten badly until he lost his sight whereas he is now given spectacles to see.

Due to the torture inflicted on him he could not even squat down to go to the toilet and was finding it hard to walk.

4. The Counter Subversive Unit of Vavuniya arrested a husband and wife on or about the 9^th of January, 2000. In the presence of the wife, the husband’s hands and legs were tied and beaten badly. Later they tied his eyes and assaulted him thoroughly with cricket stumps continuously. This man’s left leg thumb nail was also plucked by a pair of pliers. His hands and legs were tied and was hung and beaten severely. Later however the torture had reduced to a greater degree.

5. A lady aged 33 a wife of an employee in Korea was arrested by the Negombo C.I.D. on or about the 27^th of June 2000 after inquiring for her National Identity Card. This lady a mother of a 4-year-old son and living with her in laws in Colombo for more than ten years after coming from Varani, Jaffna.

She was then taken to the Negombo C.I.D office and on or about the 28^th of June, 2000, they had assaulted with the rear of the chair, and was threatened that they would put chili powder into her vagina. They had also threatened that they would take her to the place she was living and tell her in laws that she was involved in subversive activities. This torture had continued for a couple of days, and on the 30^th June, 2000, in the evening when there weren’t any female police women constables, some male police officers had come under the influence of liquor to her cell and forced her to remove all her clothes, she had gone unconscious after that and when she woke up she had been admitted in the Negombo hospital. One Wickramasinghe and Bandara were some members who came that night. Medicines were given for two days. She is presently detained in the Colombo Remand Prison.

A relative who visited us, to tell about her grievances told us that she had been molested inside the police station. When we asked the detainee whether any such incident had occurred she started crying but did not testify about any such incident, however she said she was forced to remove all her clothes, but was reluctant to mention about the molestation. She admitted that she felt unconscious and at the time she gained her senses she had been hospitalized. She also testified that the police had put chili powder into another woman detainee’s vagina in her presence. The other woman detainee is detained in the Terrorist Investigation Department, Colombo now.

6. This is about a girl who was arrested and tortured by some policemen at a police station whom she cannot identify. She told us her story with bitter tears rolling down her cheeks and her mother too was horrified about this torture on her innocent daughter.

A bit fair complexed, timid looking girl of about 4’ 10" aged 19 year had got into a bus to go for her tuition classed at 6.00 a.m. on 4^th of April, 2000 on bus route No 155. On her way the bus she traveled was stopped for checking somewhere close to the Viharamahadevi Park, at about 6.20 a.m. About 5 or 6 policemen were there at this check point and one of them asked her something in Sinhala, as she did not know the language she had told them in Tamil that she does not know Sinhala. At that moment a green colour fully covered jeep with a mesh outside it came and she was arrested with another girl elder than her and four other males, all she says presumably below the ages of 25. The other girl alleged to have been arrested was wearing a skirt and blouse, she looked as if she was going to work. No jeep had been there at the time they stopped for checking. These six were questioned separately at the checkpoint. Then they were put into the back of the jeep and arrived at the said place in about half an hour they reached a place, which was a open place outside and they were all taken into a building that looked like a police station. There were several rooms inside and a bench in front. First a policeman had taken a male out of the persons arrested into a room and later this girl was taken into another room. A woman constable and a male were inside and they inquired something from the girl in Sinhala and as the girl did not know Sinhala, she told them in Tamil that she did not understand Sinhala. Then the woman constable had taken her books and thrown them away on to the ground. Then the woman constable had taken a knife from her pocket and started cutting the girls hands. There were 3 scars of cut injury on the left hand, 3 in the right, one in neck and one on the left leg, all these marks were about half an inch to one inch in length. The woman constable had also taken a lighted cigarette and burnt this girl. There were four scars on the left hand and one on the right hand. This torture had occurred for about one hour. When both the policeman and the policewoman had left this girl had taken her books and come out of the police silently and then ran to a three wheel and asked him to drop her at a place, where she could board a bus that travels on the 155 route. This Muslim three-wheel driver luckily knew his Tamil, had driven for about 25 minutes and dropped her somewhere at Bambalapitiya. She then boarded into a bus travelling on that route and came home at about 10.15 a.m. she says she does not know the others who were arrested or the people who had arrested her. Parents complained to the Mutwal police and they moved swiftly by taking the girl to D.I.G Colombo range. Later she had lodged an entry at the Modara Police and the police had taken her around and she presumes that the place she was tortured was a police rest room/quarters/guard post/like the Bowala Police station, Maharagama. She was taken to a higher officer and he questioned and released her. However, police depended on the girl to identify the police station, which she was unable to do and they handed over the matter to the Bambalapitiya police for further investigations.

7. A mother of two aged 31, was arrested by police officers attached to Security Co-ordinating Unit (S.C.U) Vavuniya on 30^th of May 2000, at her residence in Vavuniya and is being held there, since then. According to the information available, her mother 65 years, was allowed to visit her once, but she was not allowed to speak to her. The mother testified that she saw injuries on her left hand and could not lift her arm. We are informed that the police had taken her to a Wedhamahatmaya (Local Physician) and had her broken hand, bandaged.

Tortured Deportees

We also wish to point out that deportees who were taken into custody by the CID have been tortured. Torture occurs regularly in Colombo and is especially directed against Tamils on the basis that they are LTTE suspects. We have been informed by deportees that upon arrest at the airport they were taken for interrogation and tortured by the police officers.

8. A deportee from Switzerland was arrested by Wellawatte police from his lodge on May 2000 allegedly on a petition sent by one Ramesh. They questioned him as to whether he has collected money for L.T.T.E, which he emphatically denied and told the police that he can produce a letter from the Embassy to that effect. He was regularly assaulted and harassed by the police and now charged on a frivolous case of possessing a suspicious N.I.C after seeing his genuine card by case No: AR/1067/00 at the Mount Lavinia Magistrate Courts. Whereas he is yearning to get back to Switzerland as he knows thoroughly 2 of their languages and was quite at home there.
9. A Deportee from Germany arrived at the Colombo Airport on the early morning of 18.03.2000. Embassy officials met and assured that he will not be harmed but released and went away for lunch but did not return. All deportees were questioned by the CID and he was asked whether he collected money for L.T.T.E and was assaulted demanding to accept their allegations. He had to sign a statement in Sinhala language in which he is illiterate. He was produced before the Negombo Magistrate and was released on personal bail. He had lost touch with relations and friends as they have shifted to different places due to the conditions prevailing in this country and also he had gone through several countries to reach Germany. As he did not have any benefactors to subsidize his living he could work in this country, he got desperate and drank insecticide and was admitted to the Colombo Government General Hospital. While recovering in hospital a nurse seems to have called a policeman going that way and handed him over. The policemen assaulted and look him to the police station and there also he was assaulted while taking a statement in Sinhalese. He was taken to the Maligakande Magistrate, charged for suspicion and remanded for 14 days. While on remand at Welikade prison, some of the prisoners who are called ‘ Kambra party’ reportedly has asked him to stand in the sun for full 5 days and beaten him on some pretext or other in the presence of the jailors. On 05-05-2000 he was produced to the some magistrate and was released. After four days the Bambalapitiya police arrested him again at his lodge and a statement was taken in Sinhalese.
10. A youth first went to Italy through as agent and later went to Netherland by car on 17.06.1994 and was admitted to a refugee camp called (O.C.) HARLAM. After one and a half months he was called for an interview. While the Helmon Court and while the Trial was pending, he was deported. He had not got a chance of earning anything extra as he was not allowed to work outside. On 22.11.1999 (morning) 2 young men came to his room and took him by car to the airport to deport him. He says he appealed and pleaded with them but of no avail. These two men accompanied him in the plane and handed over him to some officers in white uniform at the Katunayake Airport and went away. In the Airport building he was taken to a room and was demanded money. When they found that he had only a few coins, they assaulted him badly. Then he was handed over to the C.I.D, where he was again assaulted by many, asking for money. They alleged that he could have helped the L.T.T.E. They took his watch, jacket and some shirts. During this time, his fingerprint, and a statement was taken in Tamil as well as in Sinhalese. His passport was also taken away.

12. A Muslim businessman, a father of three, who is married to Tamil was harassed, arrested and tortured owing to a land dispute. The individual has threatened that a certain Senior Superintendent of Police, is a relation of his and with their help can take forcible possession of the property, and has the power to burn the house down as they are Tamils. His father in law lodged an entry to this effect at the Welikada Police Station, on the 11^th of March, 2000 under entry No. 15/161- CIB I. The said Senior Superintendent of police spoke to him over the phone and threatened him to hand over vacant possession of this premises, or else he threatened to arrest him, assault him, and detain him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act because he is married to a Tamil lady. The said SSP spoke to him in obscene language and abused him verbally on the 10/03/2000, 11/03/2000, 12/03/2000, 25/03/2000, 26/03/2000, 28/03/2000 and the 29/03/2000 on his telephone. His father in law informed the Personal Assistant to the Inspector General of Police about all these incidents by fax to Fax No. 446174. The influential individual and the SSP are pressurizing him and his father in law, to transfer the above property accepting the sum that they have already paid although he knows that there is a bank loan still to be settled. Then the said individual and his relative SSP threatened that they will remand him saying that he had given some money to the subversives. On the 26^th of April 2000, at about 3.15 p.m. the gate bell rang and when he had gone to the door and the influential individual told him that he has come to pay the balance sum of money which he owes his father-in-law and Mother–in-law. He had invited the influential individual while they walked inside the house three other men dressed in civics entered their residence and began to assault him mercilessly after hand cuffing him. He asked them the reason of this action, but still the three officers kept on assaulting him without informing him the reason for the assault or arrest. They requested for their National Identity cards and after checking, they turned to assault his wife, children and father in law & mother in law who were also inside the house at the time of the incident. His sister-in-law who had visited them from Germany was having a bath in the bathroom and they tapped at the bathroom and dragged her out completely nude and then asked her to come out tying a towel later. A policeman dragged her with her hair when she came with her towel outside. The influential individual was silently watching this with a smile, winked and showed a policeman his three daughters who were scared and were crying, and the said officer grabbed his children and threw them onto the sofa. This client was handcuffed and made to sit on the floor and they pulled and tightened his tie around the neck and dragged him all over the house for his family to see and his family started to shout and pleaded with them to let him go. His wife wanted to verify whether these men were really from the CID and she tried to call the police and she was hit on the head with the telephone and was not allowed to touch it. They harassed her using obscene language. At this moment they told him to remove his shoes and pulled him on to the road and dragged him up and down. At this juncture Mr. D.B. Lakshman Liyanage, Member of the Municipal Council of Dehiwela-Mount Lavinia intervened and asked the policemen the reason for the assault on him, for which the influential individual told him that they have got a special order from Her Excellency the President to arrest him. The police officer in charge told loudly that instructions were given to them by Her Excellency the President to take him on a special detention order as he has fraudulently taken Rs. 3.9 million from one Mr. S. Gurusinghe who was silently smiling and witnessing the entire incident and for complaining against two senior police officers Mr. Pujitha Jayasundara (SSP) and Mr. Sherifdeen (ASP- Fraud Bureau). Mr. D. B. Laksman Liyanage, told that he would inquire from Her Excellency the President but the policeman showed no care for that. They pulled him by the handcuff and their neighbors asked the policemen the reason for this assault and they sarcastically told them that he has fraudulently taken Rs. 3.9 million and transferred it to the LTTE, and they have special orders to arrest and take him. Their neighbors gathered at their entrance and the influential individual got into his vehicle and sped off. At this moment his mother-in-law ran to ask for more help from the area and the policemen chased her and caught her about 10 houses away and assaulted her on the road and she fell down as a result of this. The policemen came back into their house and said that the old woman ran away to the police and asked others to leave the place soon. One of the policemen pushed him into a town ace van No: 59-6089 to the back seat and hit him inside the van without showing any sympathy in front of all the people. They took him down several roads and finally to the 4^th floor of the C.I.D unit. The influential individual too was following them in his vehicle. At the 4^th Floor of the Criminal Investigation Department the some police officers of the same branch assaulted him mercilessly with their hands and legs all over his body. The policemen forced him to phone his home several times from the Criminal Investigation Department and order his wife to bring the keys of the house for which the influential individual had paid an advance. They forced him to ask them to come along with their father-in-law and mother–in-law to sign the transfer papers. Another set of officers came and beat him saying that his wife had requested a senior police officer to look into this matter. The officer in Charge threatened that they would arrest his wife, as she is a Tamil saying that she is supporter of a subversive group. His wife had gone to the Kohuwala police and they had helped her to find out that, he was at the 4^th floor of the Criminal Investigation Department. His wife had feared his life and solicited the aid of the lawyers, the anti harassment committee and several other officials before coming to the CID. All night the policemen called him again and again and forced him to tell his wife to come with his–in-laws and not to bring any lawyers and used obscene language all along. He was produced before the Honourable Magistrate on the 27^th of April, 2000 under B’Report No. B 9844/4, alleging that he had been suspected of committing an offence under Section 403 & 386 of the Penal Code.

OTHER IMPORTANT CASES OF TORTURE IN 2000

This is a case of certain Sinhalese under the common law.

13. On or about the 22^nd of May, 2000) a top police offier son of a high ranking police officer, and some other officers went to a village in Panadura and arrested two brothers and a friend of the person they allegelly suspect of the murder. These persons were brutally tortured by the said policeofficer and his fellow officers for about a week in Panadura Police station. So their father, mother and a friend working in Colombo lodged an entry at the Human Rights Commission, in Colombo and the President’s Committee against unlawful arrests and Harassment. The Human Rights Commission and the President’s Committee against unlawful arrests and Harassment had inquired from the concerned police station and later the torture was reduced to a certain degree. Later they arrested another two of the suspected persons friends. In about a week the father of the suspect was also arrested may be for the reason of complaining to the Human Rights Commission and the President’s Committee on unlawful arrests and Harassment. The police did not torture him, but were interrogating him about his son and the reason for going to the above mentioned Committees. However one of the friends were tortured to degree that he lost his eye sight. These Policemen are said to be from the Kalutara Police Division.