SRI LANKA: Perpetrators of brutal attack on student leader of Jaffna University have not been arrested

SRI LANKA: Perpetrators of brutal attack on student leader of Jaffna University have not been arrested

ISSUES: Extrajudicial killing attempt; denied investigation and justice; impunity; rule of lawDear friends,

October 19, 2011

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Mr. Subramaniam Thavapalasingham, President of the Jaffna University Students Union (JUSU) was severely assaulted by members of an unknown group in Jaffna on 16 October 2011. Thavapalasingham was seriously injured, and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Jaffna Teaching Hospital. Thavapalasingham is a widely known civil rights activist who has spoken out against the oppression faced by residents of the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka which are under heavy military control. None of Sri Lanka’s law enforcement agencies have begun a transparent investigation into the incident. The fate of a civil rights activist is in danger. Thavapalasingham’s relatives and the rest of Sri Lankan civil society are waiting for the perpetrator to be caught and justice to be appropriately dealt. This case is yet another illustration of the exceptional collapse of the rule of law in the country.

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SRI LANKA: It is not enough to 'cry for the country'

  October 19, 2011
The editor of the Sunday Leader, in an article entitled 'The law is an ass' questions the statement by a government spokesman that Duminda Silva is not a suspect in the killings of Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra and three others. Some members of Bharatha Lakshman's family also condemned this in the bitterest terms and expressed their lack of faith in due process being carried out as there are powerful persons protecting the alleged culprits.
The editor of the Sunday Leader stated: "I cry not for Bharatha Lakshman Premachandra but for my country". The Asian Human Rights Commission, however, has expressed repeatedly and consistently since the late 1990s that Sri Lanka is suffering an exceptional collapse of the rule of law. The geographical entity known as Sri Lanka does, in fact, exist, however, as a legal entity organised under the rule of law it does not. From the point of view of the citizen what matters is the grounding of the nation on the basis of the rule of law. Where this has ceased to exist the citizens no longer matter and citizenship itself matters very little.   Read More…