Stories

BASL hits out: Condemns the failure of the Police including the IGP to protect persons in custody

May 18, 2021 Editor

The Executive Committee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) has strongly condemned the recent killing of two suspects in police custody, namely Melon Mabula alias ‘Uru Juwa’ and Tharaka Perera Wijesekera alias ‘Kosgoda Tharaka’ which has occurred on two consecutive days. In a statement today (13), the BASL pointed out that the Attorney-at-Law representing Tharaka Wijesekera had made representations to the Police as well as the IGP, the Director of the CID and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) with regard to their safety prior to…

Covid -19 and the constitution

May 11, 2021 Editor

Basil Fernando Arundhati Roy, prominent writer and social activist in India has written several important articles in the recent few days on the problem of the spread of Covid and the vast numbers of deaths that are taking place in India. In an article written just a few days back, Arundhati Roy directly addresses the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi and points to the fact that the Covid crisis in India is a problem of governance in India. System of governance have failed and it is now threatening the…

Sri Lanka: Criticism of Ongoing Use of Torture

January 20, 2021March 29, 2021 Editor

(May 13, 2016) In a statement following a nine-day trip to Sri Lanka, Juan E. Méndez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, claimed that criminal and terrorism investigators in Sri Lanka still use torture against detainees, even though the use has declined since the end of the country’s civil war seven years ago. While in the country, Méndez conducted a series of interviews with individuals who had been detained; their stories were confirmed with forensic tests. (Taylor Isaac, UN Rights Expert: Sri Lanka Investigators Still Using Torture, PAPER CHASE…

UN rights expert warns torture routinely used against Sri Lankan security suspects

January 20, 2021March 29, 2021 Editor

“The Tamil community has borne the brunt of the State’s well-oiled torture apparatus,” said Ben Emmerson, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, adding that the law is used disproportionately against the minority group. During his visit between 10 and 14 July to assess the progress Sri Lanka has achieved in its law, policies and practice in the fight against terrorism since the end of its internal armed conflict, Mr. Emmerson heard first-hand accounts of brutal torture. “These included beatings with sticks, stress positions, asphyxiation using plastic bags…

Torture in Sri Lanka – ‘Many times I would lose consciousness’

January 20, 2021March 29, 2021 Editor

Thevan (not his real name) has flashbacks of the impossible days he spent being tortured in a police cell in Sri Lanka’s capital, Colombo. These flashbacks force him to relive a story so harrowing that even he sometimes struggles to believe it happened to him. “I was blindfolded and with my hands tied behind my back. Sometimes our heads were banged against the wall or we would be kicked on our chests. Many times I was half conscious or would lose consciousness. When I would come back I would find…

Ethnic Tamil British citizen tortured in Sri Lanka files complaint with the UN

January 20, 2021March 29, 2021 Editor

Today, REDRESS has filed a complaint with the UN Human Rights Committee on behalf of Velauthapillai Renukaruban (‘Renu’), a UK citizen who was abducted, detained and tortured by Sri Lankan officials when he visited Sri Lanka in 2016. Renu, an ethnic Tamil, fled Sri Lanka in 2001, when he was 19, during the civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). In 2016, he returned to Sri Lanka to visit his elderly mother and to get married. Within 24 hours of arriving, he was abducted from his mother’s home and…