Editorial

Custodial deaths and extra-judicial executions

Published

5 years ago

2021/01/3

Asked by a journalist about a death in a government hospital many decades ago, the then Permanent Secretary to the Ministry of Health laconically replied: “People die, it can’t be helped.” We were reminded of this last week when General Kamal Gunaratne, the Defence Secretary visited the Dalada Maligawa on being promoted to his new rank a few days ago. As is common on these occasions, several microphones were thrust at his face when he emerged after the religious observances and he answered a few media questions. One of these related to the death in police custody of a man named Nishantha Kumarasiri, 37, some days previously who was shot dead by his guards while he was allegedly attempting to strangle one of them.

The general was as laconic as the Ceylon Civil Service bureaucrat of long ago. “There is nothing that can be done. The law is common to all. Such things happen in enforcing the law. This is only one such instance.” This was his reply to the question which began with an assertion that such incidents occur because insufficiently protected suspects are taken about by the authorities in the course of investigations. Gunaratne said that some kind of security is provided to such suspects. He added that the victim was a dangerous criminal who had attacked an informant who had tipped-off the police about five-kilo cache of ganja. The attack was extremely brutal and intended to terrify society (and prevent similar tip-offs) so much so that the victim’s legs were chopped off and one limb taken away.

What was obviously implied was that the suspect deserved what he got. The whole world well knows that a legal principle almost universally accepted is that an accused is presumed innocent until he is proven guilty. It is equally well known that law enforcers, not only in Sri Lanka but also in many parts of the world, often deal out summary justice. They are guilty of extra-judicial executions that are not uncommon. But this cannot be a justification for such acts perpetrated on suspects in custody. Foreign Minister and Leader of the House Dinesh Gunawardene, recently answering a parliamentary question on custodial deaths here in the absence of his colleague from whom the question was asked, said there were 32 such deaths in the past eight months. These figures, no doubt, are most alarming. We do not know whether the deaths that occurred at the recent Mahara prison riot were included in Gunawardene’s numbers.

The authorities at first claimed that the riot and resultant death of prisoners was due to a brawl among them. In fact, State Minister Lohan Ratwatte, responsible for prisons and prisoner rehabilitation, is on public record saying that none of those killed had suffered gunshot injuries. He declared that there was no basis for the accusation that they had been shot dead. Subsequent developments have established that Ratwatte had been economical with the truth. Post-mortem examinations have revealed that several of the 11 dead had succumbed to gunshot wounds. A video of the rioting released by the authorities that was widely telecast did not include any scenes of shooting. Obviously embarrassing details had been edited out. The Latin dictum, suppresso veri, suggestio falsi, says it all. The courts prevented the cremation of the dead bodies attempted without autopsy on the grounds that they were covid positive patients. This would have prevented the truth being established.

Readers will remember that many recent custodial deaths were of suspects believed guilty of heinous crimes. “They deserve it” would be a natural reaction. It is common knowledge that torture is widely used by law enforcers and the security apparatus to elicit information from persons in custody. Even the JVP’s founder-leader, Rohana Wijeweera, guilty of unleashing two bloody insurrections upon the people of this country, died in custody under most suspicious circumstances. Then Deputy Defence Minister (in the Premadasa regime) Ranjan Wijeratne announced Wijeweera’s death in custody saying that he and another JVPer, Herat, were taken to a location to retrieve some documents. Herat opened a drawer to get some papers, pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot Wijeweera. Both suspects were shot dead by guards. Few bought the story, but it prevailed. The killing and the subsequent ending of the JVP’s second adventure (the first was the 1971 insurrection after which the party entered the political mainstream with Wijeweera even running for president) was widely welcomed countrywide. The people were sick and tired of JVP terror that had brought the country to the brink of anarchy. Crackers were lit when news of Wijeweera’s death broke. The whole country, long in the grip of JVP terror, heaved a collective sigh of relief and normalcy was quickly restored.

The reality that extra-judicial executions are a fact of life in this country (as probably in many others) is something we cannot escape. The percentage of successful prosecutions in Sri Lanka is as woefully low as four to six percent according to data in the political domain. One of the country’s most successful criminal lawyers, the late Dr. Colvin. R. de Silva who later in his career shone in the Appeal Court, once famously said that many criminals are walking free because witnesses chose to improve on the facts. Exaggerations and falsification of evidence enable good lawyers to destroy the credibility of witnesses and the facts of which they have spoken are rejected by the courts. In this context public opinion is divided on whether extra-judicial killing is warranted. As in Wijeweera’s case and several others, custodial death has been widely welcomed. But this does not make it right.

Whether the concerned authorities can or will ever even make an effort to correct the situation is an open question. Decent law-abiding citizen will not normally endorse police third degree on suspects. But if it is a matter of recovering goods stolen from them, their attitude would be different. However that be, custodial deaths whether in the prisons or in the hands of the police have now reached alarming proportions. The Defence Secretary’s blasé reaction to the Veyangoda killing is a clear indication of the way that papadam crumbles on this score in Sri Lanka.

All News Advertisement

Editorial

Govt. drops fig leaf

Published

19 hours ago

2026/04/11

Thilina Walpola

Saturday 11th April, 2026

The JVP-NPP government has dropped the fig leaf of good governance and defended Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody allegedly involved in a coal procurement scam, which has cost the state coffers billions of rupees and caused a huge drop in the national power supply. It went so far as to defeat a no-faith motion against him in Parliament yesterday. In 2023, the JVP/NPP vehemently condemned the then SLPP-UNP government for defending Minister Keheliya Rambukwella allegedly involved in a pharmaceutical procurement scandal. It has just done what it vilified its predecessor for.

The SLPP-UNP government at least allowed legal action to be taken against Rambukwella, who was arrested, remanded and prosecuted, but the incumbent administration has ensured that Jayakody remains above the law.

The no-faith motion was a smart move by the Opposition. It caused the government to make a mockery of its commitment to upholding the rule of law and accountability. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake himself defended his friend, Jayakody, in Parliament on Tuesday, sending a clear signal to the NPP parliamentary group; they had to vote en bloc against the no-faith motion on Friday. It is now clear that the JVP-NPP government has no qualms about defending tainted politicians.

The coal scam will not go away simply because the no-faith motion against Jayakody has been defeated. Governments abuse their parliamentary majorities to defend their members and protect their interests. Now, the Opposition will take the coal issue to the streets and flog it hard to gain political mileage. It held a demonstration near Parliament yesterday. It has got hold of something to beat the government with.

There is no way the government can prove its claim that there has been no wrongdoing on its part where the low-grade coal imports are concerned. The National Audit Office itself has pointed out serious procurement irregularities related to coal imports. Power tariffs will have to be increased again to meet the additional cost of operating oil-fired power plants to make up for the generation shortfall at Norochcholai. It has been reported that Sri Lanka’s household electricity tariffs are among the highest in South Asia, and further power tariff hikes will make the situation far worse, and Sri Lanka will have its work cut out to attract foreign investors who factor in power prices before parking their money in any investment destination. Ordinary Sri Lankans are struggling to make ends meet, and their patience is wearing thin, and this will make the task of mobilising popular support easier for the Opposition. It was people’s economic hardships and public protests that made the JVP’s meteoric rise to power possible in 2024.

Governments with supermajorities succumb to the arrogance of power and ruin things for themselves. The best way out of the current coal imbroglio would have been for the JVP-NPP government to ask Minister Jayakody to step down and let the national anti-graft commission and the police institute legal action against him. Such a course of action would have helped the government convince the public that it was serious about fulfilling its pledge to eliminate bribery and corruption and send a clear message to the corrupt elements in its ranks that they would not be protected.

The JVP/NPP is now without any moral right to be critical of former Presidents who defended their cronies involved in corrupt deals. A fish is said to rot from the head down.

Editorial

Corrupt vs Corrupt

Published

2 days ago

2026/04/10

Thilina Walpola

Friday 10th April, 2026

A motion of no confidence against Energy Minister Kumara Jayakody is scheduled to be taken up in Parliament, today. The JVP-NPP government, which came to power promising to eliminate bribery and corruption and cleanse Parliament, finds itself in an unenviable position. It assured the public that its members would be above suspicion, but it is now in the dock over a corrupt deal. It has chosen to defend Minister Jayakody indicted of corruption and allegedly involved in a corrupt coal procurement deal. The only way the JVP/NPP can extricate itself from the current imbroglio is to ask Minister Jayakody to step down.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake badly dented his good governance credentials on Tuesday by claiming in Parliament that the low-quality of coal imports had caused a drop in electricity generation at the Norochcholai power plant, but there had been no irregularities in the coal procurement process. He sought to fix the blame squarely on the coal supplier. He was obviously defending his friend, Jayakody, caught in a cleft stick. Interestingly, no sooner had he made that claim than the National Audit Office released its report on the coal procurement process revealing very serious irregularities therein. This official document has helped knock the bottom out of the government’s argument in defence of Minister Jayakody.

Keheliya Rambukwella and several Health Ministry panjandrums who served under him were arrested, remanded and prosecuted for their involvement in the procurement of substandard medicines which caused huge losses to the state coffers. So, why Minister Jayakody and his officials have not been dealt with in a similar manner over the coal scam defies comprehension. There is a prima facie case against them. The JVP-NPP government has made a mockery of its commitment to upholding the rule of law and accountability. The SLPP-UNP government ruined its chances of winning elections by defending Rambukwella and defeating a no-faith motion against him in 2023. The JVP-NPP administration is doing something similar.

The worst is yet to come where the adverse impact of the coal scam is concerned. Electricity tariffs will have to be increased again to recover the additional cost of burning diesel to produce more than 150 MW of electricity a day to make up for the Norochcholai generation shortfall caused by low-grade coal imports, independent experts have pointed out, warning of power cuts in a few months. The Opposition has stated that unofficial load shedding is already on. It has produced documentary proof in support of its claim.

More information about the Health Ministry procurement rackets came to light after the defeat of the no-faith motion against Rambukwella. Similarly, the magnitude of the coal procurement scam is yet to be determined. JVP/NPP politicians are known for their glib tongue, but they will not be able to pull the wool over the eyes of the resentful public battered by the soaring cost of living.

Two-thirds parliamentary majorities are apparently accursed in this country. Governments with such steamroller majorities indulge in corruption, succumb to the arrogance of power, which blinds them to reality, and dig their own political graves. They remind us of Lord Acton’s words of wisdom about the corruptive nature of power. One may recall that the SLFP-led United Front government, which abused its two-thirds majority, had a Humpty-Dumpty-style fall in 1977.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa government, which had a razor-thin majority, defeated the LTTE, developed the economy, implemented many development projects and lived up to the people’s expectation, but it failed pathetically after securing a second term and mustering a two-thirds majority in 2010. It became a metaphor for corruption, and suffered a catastrophic fall. The Gotabaya Rajapaksa government also became a victim of its two-thirds majority, so to speak. The JVP-NPP government is moving in the same direction, defending corrupt politicians and covering up crooked deals.

Ironically, many key Opposition figures who are flaying the JVP-NPP government for corruption and trying to engineer its ouster are themselves facing allegations of corruption. The people seem to have little option but to set thieves to catch thieves.

Editorial

Interval in hell

Published

3 days ago

2026/04/9

Sahan Weerasooriya

Thursday 9th April, 2026

The whole world must have heaved a huge sigh of relief yesterday when the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, with Israel consenting to follow suit. Pakistan deserves praise for a timely intervention to de-escalate the West Asian conflict and prepare the ground for negotiations aimed at working out a lasting solution.

However, the situation is far from right as rain. What we are witnessing in the trouble-torn West Asia, which is red in tooth and claw, is an interval in hell, so to speak. Over the past several days, US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to unleash hell on Iran unless the Hormuz Strait is reopened for international navigation. Hell hath no fury like a US President piqued, one may say with apologies to the Bard. There are some contentious issues to be resolved for a durable solution to be negotiated.

Iran has put forth 10 conditions and the US 15 for ending the conflict peacefully. It is now up to the other world powers and the UN to step in and ratchet up pressure on the US, Israel and Iran to reach a middle ground, without resuming hostilities, and give peace a chance. They ought to do so for their own sake. Occasions were not rare when the world experienced the so-called butterfly effect, or the phenomenon whereby a minute localised change in a complex system has large effects elsewhere. But what it has recently witnessed in West Asia may be described as the Pterosaur effect, as it were, the impact of the conflict on the rest of the world being so huge. Oil prices soared, making economies around the world scream. Some leading economists even warned of possible global stagflation risks in case of prolonged energy shocks from the Iran war. Oil prices came down significantly following the announcement of the ceasefire, but it is highly unlikely that they will return to the pre-conflict level of USD 70 a barrel any time soon due to irreparable damage suffered by critical energy infrastructure in the region. This has been the cost of US-Israeli military aggression.

Long dead as Mahatma Gandhi is, a core tenet of his teachings, nonviolent resistance, lives on today. What the Iranians adopted yesterday to protect their power plants, bridges, etc., vis-à-vis US President Trump’s threat to destroy them in a matter of a few hours was the Gandhian method of countering violence with nonviolence. According to media reports, a large number of Iranians gathered around potential US/Israeli targets, appealing to the conscience of the Americans. Whether their conscience-stirring method was the reason why Trump decided against carrying out his threat to annihilate the Iranian civilization in one fell swoop is a moot point, but blowing up infrastructural facilities together with thousands of unarmed civilians is something that no leader, other than someone like Hitler, can bring himself to do. Trump is already facing protests in the US against his war and has incurred international opprobrium for US aggression. Most of all, an attempt to wipe out a whole civilization would have triggered a spate of retaliatory attacks by Iran on multi-billion dollar US assets in the region.

It is ironic that the Iranian authorities who mercilessly ordered crackdowns on civilian protests before the eruption of the conflict had to urge the people to come out in their thousands and form human chains around infrastructural facilities to protect them.

One thing we gather from the West Asian conflict is that some elderly leaders’ dreams can become nightmares for others, especially the youth. Driven by his MAGA dream, Trump is trying to build an empire and grab the precious oil resources of other nations. He has graduated from abductions (in Venezuela) to assassinations (in Iran) in a bid to realise his goal. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that a 40-year-old dream came true for him when he and Trump started attacking Iran. The Iranian leaders have also been dreaming of obliterating Israel. These dangerous dreams of ageing leaders remind us of Wilfred Owen’s Anthem for Doomed Youth: “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? — Only the monstrous anger of the guns …” Perhaps, the best elderly leaders with a penchant for belligerence can do for the world, particularly the youth, who bear the brunt of any war, is to stop dreaming.

It is hoped that the peacemakers who have undertaken the onerous task of reconciling the warring parties in West Asia will not lose sight of the need to address the root cause of the conflict. While welcoming the Pakistan-brokered ceasefire, many seasoned analysts have pointed out that without a resolution of the Palestine question, particularly working towards a two-state solution supported by the UN, broader peace initiatives in West Asia are unlikely to reach fruition.