Looking Back: The Role Of Civil Society
Dr. Rajan Hoole
It is often the case that good intentions are derailed by a Government succumbing to paranoia and resorting to unlawful methods. Also contributing to this derailment are the public, the opposition and civil society, who, though in a better position to reflect on realities calmly, fail to exert a corrective influence. The second half of 1995 marked a crucial period during which the Kumaratunge government began using the Police in a manner that foreshadowed steady deterioration and by the year 2000 the Police Force was in shambles. It is well to remember that the public, opposition and the media who protest loudly today, at that time, in 1995, encouraged these same tendencies.
1994 to 1995
Going back, the first major human rights crisis faced by the PA government was the appearance of about 22 corpses in lakes and waterways around Colombo. This happened over a few weeks from mid-May 1995, after the LTTE recommenced the war. The President ordered an inquiry. To the relief of many the CID did a good job of it. It was found that the corpses were of Tamils tortured and strangled at the STF HQ in Bullers Road, where the Commandant, DIG Lionel Karunasena, had his office. The details were revealed by the IGP Rajaguru at a press conference at the end of August. Karunasena was transferred out. However, legal proceedings against the culprits were pursued unconvincingly and quietly dropped. But even this much was remarkable after 15 years of lawlessness. The failure to pursue the matter, however, once more underscored the fact that impunity will continue – this too was what the Press and the elite who spoke for the public then wanted.
DIG Kotakadeniya
Before going into the developments, we refer to two press items. The first is the article by a Senior Gazetted Officer titled ‘Police Commemoration Day’ which appeared in the Island of 5.9.94 to which reference was made in Chapter 18. It described the preferential treatment with financial rewards given to officers who led the way in mass murder during the late 1980s. It named 3 persons as gentlemanly victims sent out of the Force to make way for the meteoric rise of others. These three were Senior DIG W.B. Rajaguru and SSPs A.J. Iddamalgoda and Kingsley Wickremasooriya. All three were taken back by the PA government as Senior DIGs.
The Island writer made a strong case for DIG G.B. Kotakadeniya. He was posted to the Southern Range as DIG during the JVP insurgency in 1987. Discovering a large number of prisoners herded into cells at Hambantota in very inhuman conditions, he ordered the SSP to release those against whom there were no charges. For this, he was within two days transferred to the North Western Range. At Gampaha Police Station, he discovered that three young girls had been detained for 1 1/2 months without a matron and that even their statements had not been recorded. Realising that they had been used as ‘sex slaves’, he ordered them bailed out. For having acted according to the law, the political bosses demoted him to SSP and sent him on 1 1/2 years’ compulsory leave. Although exonerated and reinstated, he became junior to the SSP in Hambantota whom he had checked. The HQI in Gampaha who had detained the girls illegally, was found guilty by the Supreme Court in a fundamental rights petition filed by the girls, but he was then promoted and held the rank of SSP in 1994. The writer urged the new government as a top priority to use the “few genuine and honest” officers left in the Force to revamp its image and to “ease the vitriolic situation”. Read More
