Romania: Cause behind the Uprising!

Romania protests: what caused the biggest uprising since the fall of communism?

by Dan Brett-Feb 8, 2017

( February 8, 2017, Boston, Sri Lanka Guardian) Romania recently saw the largest demonstrations on

its streets since the fall of communism. On February 5, more than half a million people took part in protests across the country.

The marches came in response to an emergency decree passed by the recently elected PSD-ALDE government – a coalition of the PSD (Social Democratic Party) and ALDE (the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats). Among other things, this aimed to weaken anti-corruption legislation and offered potential amnesty for those convicted of corruption.

The decree was issued at 10pm on the evening of Tuesday January 31 and did not have to face parliamentary scrutiny. Many saw it as a back-door attempt by the government to help its supporters, both within the party and in the media, who are currently either in jail or under investigation for corruption.

The amnesty for those with convictions was also seen as an attempt by PSD leader Liviu Dragnea to clear his own path to becoming prime minister – a position from which he is currently excluded due to a conviction for electoral fraud. Dragnea is prime minister in all but name, such is his domination of the PSD. Sorin Grindeanu, the sitting prime minister, is entirely dependent on Dragnea’s patronage.

The Romanian government is simultaneously strong and weak. It commands a parliamentary majority, controls many institutions and has backers in the media. But it is continually vulnerable to anti-corruption efforts, which have seen many of its prominent members and supporters jailed. Both Dragnea and ALDE leader Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu are subject to investigations and court cases.

The emergency decree is part of a broader PSD campaign to unpick anti-corruption safeguards through legislative initiatives which will benefit its expansive patronage networks.

People vs government?

Protesters of all ages, social backgrounds and political leanings have come from across the country in response to this situation. Many are angry at the content of the proposed law as well as the surreptitious way in which it has been introduced. This is an unprecedented mobilisation of society but also reflects how Romania has changed over the past decade. Civil society is becoming increasingly vocal and active.

The government meanwhile has shown no interest in backing down. Its public statements and actions have been conscious efforts to muddy the waters and confuse the public. Although it promised on Saturday February 4 to repeal the decree, this was more an attempt to confuse people and take them off the streets rather than a real concession. Closer inspection revealed that the repeal was not really a repeal at all. It contained clauses that had previously been declared unconstitutional so could be declared invalid at any moment – meaning the initial decree would stand.

What’s more, Grindeanu suggested sending the controversial measures through parliament, which would easily approve them thanks to the PSD’s majority. When his justice minister spoke out against this plan, Grindeanu threatened to sack him. Grindeanu has shifted the blame for the crisis over the decrees onto the justice ministry.

The government’s supporters and media allies have been quick to attack the protesters as anti-democratic, even claiming they were being paid by US financier George Soros, “fascists”, or were out on the street as part of a coup d’état led by President Klaus Iohannis, who has called for a referendum on the reforms proposed in the decree and took part in the protests.

A test for Romanian democracy

The complex legal machinations and contradictory statements are part of a deliberate strategy to draw out the issue. The government seems to want to stall for as long as possible in the hope that the protesters will give up and go home.

The PSD has a lot resting on this matter. Dragnea’s career depends on him getting out of his own ongoing corruption case. A second conviction would see him sent to jail, perhaps ending his political career.

The PSD is also very heavily dependent on local barons and oligarchs for financial and organisational support. The price for that support is the government weakening anti-corruption legislation.

The PSD government of Victor Ponta fell in November 2015 in the face of the street protests that followed a fire in a Bucharest nightclub in which 64 people died. Although the government was of course not responsible for the fire, many Romanians felt it was responsible for the administrative culture that allowed permits to be granted in exchange for bribes with no regard for safety, and for a health service that could not cope with the aftermath of the accident.

Dragnea has positioned himself as a political “hardman”. He wants to face down the latest protests and show that his government and party – not the people on the street – are in charge. There is a fear that retreating now will embolden government opponents in the future.

Although, on the face of it, this is a simple issue of anti-corruption, it has wider implications for Romanian democracy. The government may continue its approach of legal obfuscation to try to slide its decree through or it may, for the time being, abandon this attempt to unpick anti-corruption measures. However, this will be only a short pause. For the demonstrators the question remains whether the protests can be sustained and be effective in getting the government to abandon its anti-anti-corruption strategy.

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Dan Brett, Associate Lecturer, The Open University

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The ‘floating people’ of Burma: How Rohingya refugees reclaim their identity through art and song

Because of years of persecution many Rohingya children have never known Myanmar, which is claimed by the community as their country. Source: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/Reuters

By The Conversation - 9th February 2017

“The Moghs [the Rakhine people of Burma (Myanmar)] refer to us as ‘floating people’ as we do not have citizenship in our country. My grandfather, father, and I were all born and lived there… yet, I am considered a ‘temporary resident’.”

These words were spoken to me by Kalaya Ahmed, a 62-year-old man, whom I met in a refugee camp in Bangladesh in 2009. Ahmed is a Rohingya. This ethnic religious minority group has been persecuted by the Buddhist majority in Burma, assailed by special forces and monk militias.

The United Nations has recently reported appalling atrocities against Rohingyas, including the killings of infants and children in Rakhine State, which Rohingyas call Arakan, its former name.

Rohingyas claim Burma citizenship as their natural right and entitlement. However, the Burma state political authority continues to deny them any rights, claiming that the Rohingya are “Bengali”, “illegal immigrants” and “outsiders”. Ahmed says:

The Burmese border security force calls us ‘Bengalis’ due to linguistic affinity and skin colour, even though we never came to Bangladesh before. And now I am living here in the camp.

Ahmed is one of those thousands of Rohingya refugees who crossed the border into Bangladesh and is now living as a refugee.

The huge displacement of Rohingyas over the past decade has led more than 400,000 people to flee to Bangladesh alone, and half a million to other countries.

Central to their uncertainty is the question of the group’s political identity. Yet, despite all odds and efforts from the Burma authorities to deny Rohingyas any claim of belonging, Ahmed still identifies himself as a citizen of Burma and as a Rohingya; a term that the Burma government rejects.

The Bangladesh government also rejects Rohingyas. It has recently released a proposal to relocate them to a flood-prone island.

Such denial of rights from both sides has only prolonged the crisis.

Rohingyas at a camp only accessible by boat, in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar, in 2013. Source: Mathias Eick, EU/ECHO/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Politics of identity and belonging

How do the Rohingyas identify themselves in the midst of such persecution?

Empirical research among Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh suggests that they understand identity politics very well. They construct their own identity through collective memory of their former life in Rakhine state and their new life in camps. These are expressed through narratives and cultural life using drawings and songs (taranas).

They are highly significant in illustrating their sense of identity and belonging, and in expressing a different form of resistance, without direct confrontation or protest, against the discrimination and violence they have experienced.

The use of drawings is quite common among the Rohingyas. They use drawings to tell stories to their children and to explain why they are in exile, and to send messages to outsiders interested in their case. Whether it is verbal expression or visual expression, a concept that repeatedly appears is persecution or violence.

Anser Ullah, 37-years-old, is an undocumented refugee from Maungdaw village, northern Rakhine state of Burma. He depicted religious violence and killing in his drawing below.

He told me why he left:

We could not tolerate the persecution anymore. The military and Buddhist monks’ persecution on us has increased so much in recent time. Our ID cards were taken away by the military. We have been evicted from our land and village. Our relatives were killed and many are still missing. Military announced that if we want to stay in Maungdaw, we have to be like them. We have to follow their practice that requires females to uncover their heads when going out, and men to shave their beards and so on. Our mosques, madrasas and cemeteries are being destroyed, and pagodas established in their place.

Reports show that incidents and destruction of cultural and worship spaces have been a regular practice.

Songs are even more widespread in the Rohingya community. They are mainly country songs, religious songs and songs that describe everyday life in camp. Among these, country songs are the most popular.

The song below was shared by a group of refugees in Nayapara camp to express their love and longing for their home.

We migrated to Bangladesh leaving behind our beautiful homes
On our rooftop we had dried food
In our field we had fresh chillies
We migrated to Bangladesh leaving everything behind thinking that we are of the same brotherhood
Now when we look back to the East,
We remember many things of the past
O, where are my beloved parents?
You sent us to Bangladesh
We had to leave our beloved country, Burma

*A Rohingya Song from Nayapara camp, Bangladesh, recorded by F.Kazi Fahmida.

The word “home” has a dual meaning in the Rohingya language: it refers to former houses in the village as well as home in the sense of the motherland, Rakhine. Memories of dried food on rooftops and fresh green chilli gardens are symbolic of that concept of life, that stability or peacefulness, which the Rohingyas have lost.

When the refugees look to the east from Bangladesh towards Arakan and the mountain range of Arakan Yoma, they “remember many things of the past”. Many families were split up. Parents sent their young children away from Arakan to save their lives while they themselves chose to stay and die in their homeland. As one refugee told me in 2009:

Our memory should remain alive in our songs and poems. Our children should know why we are here. And if any outsider like you wants to listen us, they would listen to our songs and might understand our situation … We are not able to protest against anyone, so songs and poems are the only way to tell our sorrows and sufferings.

As opposed to the official claim that the Rohingya are foreigners and settlers, Rohingya narratives and cultural expressions suggest that they are indigenous to Rakhine State.

These narratives express a form of resistance, not only against their socioeconomic and political conditions, but also the identity that has been imposed on them by officials and society. Their songs are “weapons of the weak”.

Rohingyas do not demand a separate state, but rather a separate identity and explicit recognition by the state.

Through cultural expression, they remind themselves, and the world, of who they are.

**Written by Farzana Kazi Fahmida, Senior Lecturer at University Utara Malaysia

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Male contraceptive gel passes monkey test

By Michelle Roberts-7 February 2017

An experimental new type of male contraceptive that blocks sperm flow with a gel has been successful in monkey trials.

Vasalgel acts as a physical barrier once injected into the tubes that sperm would swim down to the penis.

The company behind it says a two-year trial, published in Basic and Clinical Andrology, shows the gel works and is safe - at least in primates.

It hopes to have enough evidence to begin tests in men within a few years.

If those get funding and go well - two big "ifs" - it will seek regulatory approval to make the gel more widely available to men.

It would be the first new type of male contraceptive to hit the market in many decades.

Male birth control

SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage caption--A vasectomy is designed to be permanent, although some men have successfully had the operation reversed

At the moment, men have two main options of contraceptive - wear a condom to catch the sperm, or have a sterilising operation (vasectomy) to cut or seal the two tubes that carry sperm to the penis from where they are made in the testicles.

Vasalgel has the same end effect as vasectomy, but researchers hope it should be easier to reverse if a man later decides he wants to have children.

In theory, another injection should dissolve the gel plug.

That worked in early tests in rabbits, but the researchers have yet to prove the same in monkeys and man.

Under anaesthetic

The idea behind Vasalgel is not new.

Another experimental male birth control gel - RISUG (reversible inhibition of sperm under guidance) - that works in a similar way to Vasalgel is being tested in men in India.

Unlike RISUG, Vasalgel is not designed to impair the swimming sperm.

It merely blocks their path while still letting other fluid through, according to the manufacturer.

Both gels are given as an injection, under anaesthetic, and are meant to offer long-acting contraception.

The monkey trial

The University of California researchers tested the gel on 16 adult male monkeys, 10 of whom were already fathers.

The monkeys were monitored for a week after getting the injection and were then released back into their an enclosure to rejoin some fertile females.

Mating did occur, but none of the female monkeys became pregnant over the course of the study, which included two full breeding periods for some of the animals.

Few of the male monkeys had side-effects, although one did need an operation because the injection did not go to plan and damaged one of his tubes.

CALIFORNIA NATIONAL PRIMATE RESEARCH CENTRE’Image caption-None of the male monkeys in the gel trial went on to father offspring

Allan Pacey, professor of andrology at the University of Sheffield, said: "The study shows that, in adult male monkeys at least, the gel is an effective form of contraception.

"But in order for it to have a chance of replacing the traditional surgical method of vasectomy, the authors need to show that the procedure is reversible."

He said there had been very little commercial interest from pharmaceutical companies in this kind of a approach.

The non-profit company researching Vasalgel, the Parsemus Foundation, has used grants and fundraising to get this far.

Prof Pacey said: "The idea of a social venture company to develop the idea is intriguing.

"I would imagine there is a worldwide market for a new male contraceptive, but trials in humans and more long-term safety data are required before we will know if it is a success."

This type of contraceptive wouldn't protect against sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.

But in terms of willingness, experts believe men would be up for trying new contraceptives, such as a gel.

Dr Anatole Menon-Johanssonm from the sexual health charity Brook, said: "Some men do want to be part of the solution and do their part.

"If you can have more options available then maybe more men would go for it."

He said the idea of a "reversible vasectomy" was desirable, whereas asking some men to take hormones to control their fertility might be "a big ask".

Follow Michelle on Twitter.

SRI LANKA: CALLING FOR JUSTICE FOR DISPLACED FARMERS AND FISHER FOLK OF PULAKKUDIYIRUPPU

Farmer and fisher families of Pulakkudiyiruppu continue their struggle for 10th day Image @garikkalan

08/02/2017

Farmer and fisher families of Pulakkudiyiruppu have commenced a public protest and sathyagraha demanding that their home and cultivation lands, currently held by the Sri Lanka Navy to be returned back to them.

Issuing a statement Peoples’ Alliance for Right to Land  network (PARL)  call for solidarity to oppose military forces continuing to occupy lands owned by communities.

An area of 90 acres owned by 84 families in the village of Pulakkudiyiruppu still remain under the control of the Sri Lanka Navy since 2009. The community primarily comprised of farmer and fisher families who depended on this land to engage in their livelihood activities and earn a living.

Approximately each of the 84 families in distress own a minimum extent of one acre of land in Pulakkudiyiruppu. In an attempt of providing alternative land, the military has provided a 40 perch land with a basic house for 55 families on a site named, Kepapulau Model Village. However the land provided is neither adequate nor suitable for farmer families to engage in cultivation or fisher families to engage in fisheries. This situation has dragged down the socio economic stability of farmer and fisher families in Pulakkudiyiruppu.

“We want our land back to have a decent life and live with dignity” – In this context of having lost their lands and having their livelihoods disrupted, many have resorted to engaging daily-paid wage work and production of illicit alcohol and toddy. These displaced farmer and fisher families eager to return to their livelihood activities and earn a decent living in their own lands. Most families have the needed documentation and evidence to prove their legal ownership of land in Pulakkudiyiruppu. Meanwhile the military has constructed beach cabanas along the coastal line in Pulakkudiyiruppu village.

Puthukudiyiruppu families continue protest; Image @Shalin

The displaced families in Pulakkudiyuruppu started a public demonstration calling for justice on 31.01.2017. The community demands to get their lands back. They oppose the unjust relocation at the Kepapulau Model Village as they cant engage in their livelihood activities of fishing and farming. The community has pledged to continue this protest until justice is served and they are allowed to return to their own village.

The Peoples’ Alliance for Right to Land  collectively oppose the displacement of farmer and fisher families and support the communities demands in returning back to their own lands. The government should adhere to its election promises and commitments made on land releases in prior to and after the Presidential Election in 2015. We assert that the Government of Sri Lanka should follow a people-centric post-war development approach and call for the release of community-owned military-occupying land.

In support of displaced farmer and fisher families in Pulakkudiyiruppu in the North, there will be a solidarity protest organized from the south on February 8th, 2017 at 4.00 pm near the Negombo bus stand. Subsequent to the protest in Negombo, a team of supporters will travel to Mullaitheevu to join the wider demonstration with the Pulakkudiyiruppu families on February 09th, 2017. All campaigners, supporters and journalists who wish to stand in solidarity with these displaced farmers and fisherfolk are welcome to join.

The Peoples’ Alliance for Right to Land (PARL) is a voluntary coalition of civil society organizations and individuals, working together against land grabbing and for housing, land and property rights of poor and marginalized communities since 2011. The PARL network brings together environmental, social justice, human rights, and community-based organisations of women, small-scale farmers, fishers and plantation workers, and civil society activists opposed to the dispossession of the poor from their lands, fishing waters, and homes; and in solidarity with the struggles of the affected peoples.

Sri Lanka to give priority to constitution drafting over accountability mechanisms

Mangala Samaraweera |EPS

By P.K.Balachandran-08th February 2017

COLOMBO: The Sirisena-Wickremesinge government in Sri Lanka will give priority to drafting a new constitution for the country over setting up war crimes accountability mechanisms like the Judicial Mechanism and the Truth-Seeking Commission, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said here on Tuesday.

Speaking to the Foreign Correspondents Association, Samaraeera said that the new constitution, which is the basic law of the land, would guarantee democracy, equality and fair play – conditions which are essential for national reconciliation.

A new democratic constitution is also an election promise made by President Maithripala Sirisena, he reminded.

Samaraweera said that the constitutional sub-committees’ reports will be placed before the Constitutional Assembly in a few months, and that he is confident that the draft constitution will be passed by the required two-thirds majority, given the present composition of the House. But the result of the mandatory referendum would be anybody’s guess, he added.

He cited the surprise thrown up by the referendum in the UK on Brexit, to stress the uncertainty surrounding referendums.

Tamil sources told Express on Wednesday that given the complexities of constitution drafting and the conflicting views on core issues like the form of government and devolution of power, the constitution making process may drag on interminably, putting off plans to establish war crimes accountability mechanisms.

And if there is a Sinhalese consolidation against devolution of power to the Tamils, the Tamils may have to reject the new constitution lock, stock and barrel.

In this context, if the judicial and truth-seeking mechanisms are to follow finalisation of the constitution and not precede it, as Samaraweera said, the Tamils might up getting neither a satisfactory devolution of power nor a satisfactory judicial and truth-seeking mechanism.

No Foreign Judges

About the nature of the Judicial Mechanism, Samaraweea said that it will be a domestic one with foreign participation. But it will certainly not have foreign judges, because that will mean changing the laws of the country.

“We are not against foreign participation, but having foreign judges would need an amendment of the law on the judiciary. At any rate, the UN Human Rights Council has accepted our proposal for a credible and independent domestic mechanism.The UN Human Rights High Commissioner had also said, during his visit to Sri Lanka, that it is Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to decide what form the judicial mechanism will take,” Samaraweera said.

The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government has been consistently saying that it may use foreign expertise in forensics, but will not accept foreign judges. Previously, foreign ex-judges had participated in Sri Lankan Commissions of Inquiry but these committees had no judicial function.

Truth Commission  

Samaraweera also said that the proposed Truth Commission will not be a copy of the South African Truth Commission but will be a homegrown one, which, unlike the South African one, will have a provision for judicial action in cases such action may be called for.

In the South African model, confessions were followed by a mandatory pardon. There was no judicial action after the admission of guilt. Samaraweera said that a section of Sri Lankans are insisting on a judicial follow up to an admission of guilt.

No International Pressure

The Minister flatly denied that Sri Lanka is being pressured by the West-led UNHRC to yield to its ideas on establishing accountability.

UN women’s rights committee to review Sri Lanka



2017-02-08

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to be meeting in Geneva from 13 February to 3 March to review women’s rights in eight countries including Sri Lanka, United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) announced.

 The committee will review the following countries: Ukraine (14 February); Ireland (15 February); Jordan (16 February); El Salvador (17 February); Germany (21February); Sri Lanka (22 February); Rwanda (23 February) and Micronesia (24 February) 

The above countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and are reviewed regularly by CEDAW on how they are implementing the Convention, the OHCHR said in a statement.  

The Committee, which is composed of 23 international independent experts, will hold dialogues with delegations from the respective governments and will also be briefed by NGOs and national human rights institutions. 

 CEDAW’s findings, officially termed concluding observations, on the countries reviewed, will be published on Monday, 6 March.

Sri Lanka to ask UN for more time to probe war crimes

By BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI Associated Press

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka says it needs more time to fulfill promises given to the U.N. human rights body to investigate war crime allegations from the nation's long civil war, which ended nearly eight years ago.

Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told foreign correspondents late Tuesday that the government will seek more time at the next U.N. human rights session, starting Feb. 27 in Geneva.

Samaraweera said that Sri Lanka will commit itself to going ahead as planned even though it has not been able to achieve all that it wanted.

In a joint resolution in 2015 at the U.N. Human Rights Council, Sri Lanka promised to work toward ethnic reconciliation, including investigating alleged wartime abuses.

It had promised the U.N., among other things, a truth-seeking mechanism, a judicial mechanism to prosecute those who are accused of human rights abuses and a new constitution that takes into account the island nation's varied ethnicities and religions. However, little progress has been made.

According to U.N. estimates, up to 100,000 people were killed in the 26-year civil war, but many more are feared dead, including up to 40,000 civilians who are believed to have died in the final months of the fighting. Government troops and the Tamil Tiger rebels, who fought for an independent state for ethnic minority Tamils in the country's north and east, were both accused of war crimes.

Forecast for 2017: Asanga Abeyagoonasekera

Featured image courtesy Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters

GROUNDVIEWS on 02/08/2017

This is the sixth in a series of video interviews forecasting what 2017 will have in store across different sectors. Director General of the Institute of National Security Studies Sri Lanka, Asanga Abeyagoonasekera speaks about challenges and opportunities in the field of foreign policy and security, for the year 2017. At 0:52 he speaks on economic security, at 1:40 he weighs in on human rights, and at 2:09 he speaks on the need for maintaining a bipartisan political model.

Click here to see Ruki Fernando on challenges and opportunities in the field of human rights. More on LGBTIQ rights, economics, politics, and women’s rights.

SRI LANKA: The people discuss the film Usawiya Nihandai

by Basil Fernando-February 8, 2017

The film by Prasanna Vithanage titled “Usaviya Nihandai” (“Silence in the Courts”), is being shown not in cinema halls only, but also at popular gatherings. I had the privilege of attending four such gatherings in different parts of the country, in Panadura, Negombo and two showings in different parts of Kandy. In each instance, about 30-40 persons watched the film, and discussed it among themselves.

The stories in this film have been known to the public for a long time. The newspaper ‘Ravaya’ has reported on them, books have been written and television discussions held on the stories. They relate to a magistrate, Lenin Ratnayake, who allegedly raped two women. These women were the wives of two prisoners, who were being held at the time of the incidents. The film re-tells the stories and after viewing the film people had an opportunity to discuss them.

The common issue that emerges is, why have these cases not been prosecuted? The discussions turned out to be a folk discussion on interesting questions of criminology.

Who decides what is a crime, was a common concern. Some thought it was the police, others the attorney general. Who can decide not to prosecute a crime? The consensus seemed to be that prosecution or non-prosecutions in Sri Lanka were optional. There was no strict obligation to prosecute crimes. Many persons gave examples of cases known to them that were not prosecuted. There appeared to be a large amount of materials on an interesting sociological study on how alleged criminals are selected to be prosecuted or not prosecuted. For example, how illicit liquor sellers select a few bottles from their wares, send some to the police to be produced in court and pay a fine. It appears that particular police officers visit these places. In fact, it is a well-organized practice known to senior police officials.

Most alarming was: none of the viewers were surprised that the magistrate in these stories had not been prosecuted. Almost all viewers are of the opinion that it is the poor person that is prosecuted. Had it not been for the intervention of a conscientious journalist, who gave a hearing to these unfortunate women, nothing would have been heard of these incidents. This was the common view held.

The general consensus among the participants was that a fair system of criminal investigations, prosecutions and judicial actions have not evolved in Sri Lanka-as expected of a functioning democracy. A common question posed was: is Sri Lanka really a democracy? Can a judge in a democracy do what this particular magistrate is alleged to have done? Can it be characteristic of a democracy to be reluctant to take action when such stories have been reported to the relevant authorities? We are writing here of the judicial services commission, the police and higher judiciaries.

After all, the alleged crimes were related to two instances of rape and other forms of abuse of power which allowed them to engage in these crimes. As for the Penal Code, rape carries a sentence of 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. There is no doubt that this is one of the most serious crimes recognised in our law. However, despite the enormous publicity that was given to these incidents, no criminal investigation has taken place.

Who is responsible for the failure to initiate an investigation into such serious crimes? According to the Criminal Procedure Code, it is the officer in charge of the police station which receives the complaint. He is responsible for carrying out such an investigation. If he does not, there is the assistant Superintendent of Police. His duty is, to ensure that all serious crimes committed within the territory of his jurisdiction, are investigated and followed up. These cases are being talked about all over the country. And the Inspector General of Police himself has a responsibility to ensure that an investigation into the crime takes place. The obligation to investigate a serious crime that is reported is on the State. Ultimately, the failure to investigate is a matter for which the Sri Lankan State should be held responsible.

However, those participating in these discussions raised the question: what does it mean to be responsible? In a country following the principle of the rule of law strictly--to be responsible means that the person who fails to carry out his responsibility should be punished. If the officers who fail to carry out their duties are not punished, no functional system of justice exists.

In these cases we find two types of offenders; one is the Magistrate who abuses his position in allegedly committing two rapes; the other type is the officers who fail to carry out their duties to investigate. Again, the question that kept surfacing in these discussions was, how can we call such a system a democracy?

The allegation that the Attorney General and the Chief Justice prevented any action being taken again poses questions. Under what provisions of the law has an Attorney General or a Chief Justice have the power to prevent investigations into a serious crime? Obviously, acts of such a nature are themselves serious transgressions of democratic norms. The fundamental norm that such an Attorney General or Chief Justice would violate is the most basic principle of “equality before the law”.

Within the rule of law system in a democracy, no one can claim impunity for commission of a crime. However, in feudal times in Sri Lanka, there was another system that had a different principle. It was this: those belonging to the lower castes in society should be punished severely, even for a minor transgression, while those belonging to the upper castes would enjoy impunity for the commission of even grave crimes towards the lower castes. This doctrine known as the “the doctrine of disproportionate punishment “, was well entrenched in Sri Lanka for over 1500 years. It was introduced into the country through Indian Brahmin influence. Although the introduction of modern criminal law principles were done by the British, it appears that such principles did not sink deeply into the Sri Lankan psyche. The principles which have prevailed over many centuries have created social as well as psychic habits which do not go away easily. But such habits can be erased. There has to be a strong resistance against such feudal practices. It must be coupled with a widespread repugnance towards a discriminatory caste system--based on the idea of a graded humanity. In Sri Lanka such resistance is repugnant. It does not exist among those who are still influenced by a feudal values system. In the end, modernisation has been suppressed and the old ways survive.

This situation then becomes critical. The justice system in the country is seriously undermined by such feudal values that contradict the very core of democratic principles. If the justice system carries such a heavy weight of old prejudices, how can a modern democracy grow under these circumstances?

Those participating in these discussions made the point. It is not only in the instances of rapes by a magistrate that the old system manifests itself, but also in the overall framework of the administration of justice. It pays little attention to the rights of its citizens. The prolonged delays in adjudication are a manifest feature of the Sri Lankan Court system. It shows how carelessly the people’s right to justice, without undue delay, is ignored. In general, the manner in which the poor are treated in the courts and by the police is contrary to the notions on which modern democratic societies are built. Polite and mature treatment of each person is in agreement with the idea of equality, fraternity and liberty--the core values of a democracy. When even the courts neglect these principles, what hope is there for the acceptance of democracy in Sri Lanka? Such are the agonising questions people are discussing these days. And they find no way to discover any meaningful explanations to their queries.