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Asian
Human Rights Commission
Footnote:
This
article is the compilation of a number of appeals that the Asian Human Rights
Commission (AHRC) has made on the case of Tissa Kumara. See further: SRI LANKA:
Severely injured torture victim needs urgent medical treatment (UA-18-2004, 13
February 2004); SRI LANKA: Torture victim acquires tuberculosis by the direct
action of the police (UP-21-2004, 30 April 2004); SRI LANKA: A call for the
immediate release of the Sri Lankan citizen whose mouth the police got a TB
patient to spit into resulting in that citizen acquiring Tuberculosis
(AHRC-PL-36-2004, 3 May 2004); SRI LANKA: Tuberculosis patient kept in solitary
cell due to fabricated charges by police (UP-22-2004, 3 May 2004); SRI LANKA:
Police pressure torture victim to withdraw case by threatening his family
(UP-28-2004, 24 June 2004); Lack of fax machines in courts causes delay in
justice in Sri Lanka (AHRC-PL-48-2004, 28 June 2004). All documents are
available on the AHRC website (www.ahrchk.net). The case was also included among
those in the second special report on torture by the police in Sri Lanka,
‘Endemic torture and the collapse of policing in Sri Lanka’, published in
article 2 (vol. 3, no. 1, February 2004). The sheer brutality of the
torture has also brought domestic and international media attention.
The interview with P
Rajitha, wife of Tissa Kumara, extracts of which appear in this article, was
conducted and translated by Shyamalie Puvimanasinghe, an attorney-at-law and
independent researcher.
This is the second
article in the new ‘Urgent Appeals File’ series in article 2, which
raises in detail recent Urgent Appeal cases taken up by the Asian Human Rights
Commission. The
case of Mousumi Ari in West Bengal, India (UA-33-2004), the subject of the first
Urgent Appeals File (article 2, vol. 3, no. 2, April 2004), has recently
been published in a Bengali-language book by Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha.
Despite concerted efforts, however, the criminal government officials
responsible for covering up her murder are yet to be held to account for their
actions.
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Koralaliyanage Palitha Tissa Kumara, a prominent 31-year-old artisan and
father of two took leave from his work restoring two historic houses on 2
February 2004 and returned to his home at Halwala, Matugama, the same night.
About 8:30am the next day, February 3, a
police jeep and Pajero arrived at Tissa Kumara’s house. There were four officers
in the jeep and six officers in the Pajero. Sub Inspector (SI) Silva and the
driver got out of the Pajero. P Rajitha, his wife, describes what happened next.
One of them said to me, “Call Tissa
Kumara out, we want him to make a sign for us.” Therefore, I called for my
husband, whom I refer to as Palitha. When Palitha came out SI Silva assaulted
and kicked him right before my eyes. SI Silva also shouted at him in obscene
language. Then the police pushed my husband into the back of the police jeep and
threw his shirt onto him. When I queried why my husband was being arrested, I
was also scolded in obscene language. The police jeep left with Palitha inside.
The police then went to the house of
Galathara Don Shantha at Galathra junction. Mr Galathara was also brought out of
his house, and put in the jeep. Several other young people were picked up on the
way back to Welipenna police station.
After arriving at the police station,
the police took Tissa Kumara to SI Silva’s room, and he was told to sit on the
floor. The other persons were taken to the cells. A little later, Galathara was
brought in and made to sit opposite him. Then SI Silva took a cricket post and
started hitting Tissa Kumara repeatedly, between the shoulders. While hitting
him, he told Galathara, “Look—this is how the others will also be treated.” He
pulled up Tissa Kumara and kept hitting him hard all over his body. P Rajitha
recalls what her husband told her later had been done to
him:
There
were several others who had also been arrested along with my husband on
suspicion of robbing a boutique nearby. However the others had confessed to
their involvement, so they had not incurred the wrath of the police. Palitha
refused to confess, as he was not involved. One Sarath had been apprehended on
suspicion and had falsely implicated Palitha as revenge [thinking that Tissa
Kumara was somehow to blame for his arrest].
My
husband told me that SI Silva severely assaulted him, demanding information and
shouting, “Give me the bombs, give me the weapons and tell about the robbery.”
He had been beaten all over his body, especially over the chest and heart. While
hitting Palitha on the heart SI Silva had remarked, “I am going to kill you.”
After each beating, Palitha had also been dragged and soaked with cold water. He
also said that SI Silva made Sarath, who was a co-suspect in the case for which
Palitha was arrested, and who had been suffering from tuberculosis, spit into my
husband’s mouth, saying, “You too will be dead within two months from today due
to TB.”
After
the spitting incident, another policeman had given Palitha some water with which
to rinse his mouth. This same policeman had taken pity on him and given him a
mattress to sleep on. However SI Silva had subsequently arrived and had taken
the mattress away, thus forcing my husband to spend the night on the
floor.
The beating went on for possibly two
hours, and in that time Tissa Kumara recalls being hit about 80 times, on all
parts of his body, soaking his clothes with blood. The blows were often so
forceful and wild that the officer also hit and smashed an electric bulb on the
ceiling. Throughout this time, Galathara was watching in terror. Tissa Kumara
noticed that he had involuntarily urinated on seeing the manner in which he was
beaten up. After this, even other officers became concerned at the relentless
beating and savagery of the attack. Another came in and said to SI Silva, “Are
you trying to kill this man? Stop this hitting.” However, he did not stop. Then
the officer left and came back with about eight other officers, and one of them
literally had to pull the cricket post out of SI Silva’s hands. It was after
this that SI Silva brought Sarath and forced him to spit into Tissa Kumara’s
mouth, the victim all the while pleading for him not to do this, saying that he
would catch the disease and spread it to his wife and children, but to not
avail. P Rajitha relates how meanwhile she had been desperately trying to
intervene:
I,
together with my two children and my mother, rushed to the Welipenna police
station. We saw Palitha inside the station. He said that he had been assaulted
but that he did not know the reason for his arrest. Then a policeman handcuffed
him and took him inside the police station. Thereafter I left [with the youngest
infant] to meet Palitha’s employer in Aluthgama. I wanted to tell him of the
terrible plight that has befallen Palitha and ask him to help us.
My
mother stayed in the police station with my five-year-old son. When I returned
in the evening from Aluthgama, my mother told me that she had heard my husband
scream in agony from within the police station. After I returned from Aluthgama,
I stayed at the police station till evening. The police wanted me to bring my
husband a bread roll, some plantains, and a Ginger Beer. I obliged and handed
these items over to a policeman. I stayed there till 7pm and then having failed
to see my husband, returned home.
Tissa Kumara was first kept in the cell
for about three days. In that time he often vomited, and could not eat or drink.
He could not even urinate in the corner hole, despite attempts by Galathara, who
was locked in the same cell, to help him. Each time he tried to stand up, severe
pain in his right ear caused dizziness and disorientation. On the third day SI
Silva came and told him to get up, raise his arms and bend down. He found it
very difficult, and so the officer punched him in the chest about 13 times, and
once in the face. While punching him he said, pointing, “This is where your
heart is and I am hitting so that you will die in two months.” On another
occasion SI Silva came and handcuffed Tissa Kumara to a bar of the cell door,
and then pulled the door open and shut, injuring his wrist. During this time, P
Rajitha continuously sought out ways to meet with her
husband:
On the
two days following his arrest, I visited the Welipenna police station in the
morning but was chased away by the police. However the food I took for my
husband was accepted. My brother too took food for Palitha, which was also
accepted by the police. But none of us were allowed to see Palitha.
On
February 5, in desperation, I visited the office of the ASP [Assistant
Superintendent of Police] in Kalutara. The ASP who is in charge of the Welipenna
police was not present at the time but I told my problem to another ASP. This
gentleman gave me a ‘chit’ to be presented to the Welipenna OIC [Officer in
Charge]. Thereafter, I arrived at Welipenna police station and met with the
station OIC. The OIC pointed to the accused and told me, “there he is”, and I
saw my husband lying on the ground and shackled to a bar of a police cell. I
think that the OIC was not present at the police station at the time my husband
was arrested. In fact the OIC had only come on February 5, the day I met with
him.
On February 5, some officers took Tissa
Kumara to Itthapana District Hospital. The doctor who examined him refused to
admit him because his injuries were too serious. The police brought him back to
the station and then again took him to the hospital, to be examined by another
doctor, who also said he could not be admitted there. After that the police took
Tissa Kumara to the Wetthewa Government Hospital, where he was likewise refused
admission. But while there, a lawyer came and met him and talked to the police
officers, after which he followed them back to the station. The lawyer demanded
the police bring Tissa Kumara before a magistrate, and waited for some time at
the station. However, eventually he came to the cell and told Tissa Kumara that
it did not seem that the police would bring him before a magistrate and because
of other commitments he had to leave.
That night SI Silva came back to the
cell and took a grenade out of its packing. Then he pulled Tissa Kumara’s hand
through the bars and took his thumbprint with warm ceiling wax, which he in turn
he planted on the grenade. He took down Tissa Kumara’s personal details and came
back with a statement that he forced him to sign, without explaining anything of
the contents. He also fingerprinted him.
In the morning of February 6 Tissa
Kumara was again taken to Wetthawa Government Hospital, but he received no
treatment and was kept handcuffed while the police went to get a signature on
some documents from one person there. Then the officers brought him back to the
police station. At about 5:30pm he was taken to an office in the Magistrates
Court of Matugama, where he was produced with several others before an acting
magistrate. Tissa Kumara told the acting magistrate that he was severely
assaulted and that his thumbprint had been planted on a grenade, and asked for
medical treatment. A lawyer appearing on his behalf requested that he be
examined by a Judicial Medical Officer (JMO), which the acting magistrate duly
recorded. After the hearing, Tissa Kumara was taken to Kalutara Remand Prison
and admitted to the prison hospital. P Rajitha recalls how the police
manipulated the court proceedings as follows:
On
February 6, I together with my two children, my parents, my three brothers and
some friends went to the Magistrates Court of Matugama in the hope that Palitha
would be brought to court that day. Then I saw the police van going past the
court premises. I later found out that the police had been taking my husband to
Wetthawa hospital. I do not know what happened at the hospital, but thereafter,
my husband had been taken back to the police station. My husband also told me
that the police had taken him to two hospitals, but both these hospitals had
refused to admit him, as his injuries were so serious.
My
family had also retained the services of a lawyer to appear on behalf of my
husband and inform the court of the injuries caused to him at the hands of SI
Silva. This lawyer had made several calls to the police inquiring as to what
time Palitha would be brought to court, since he had to attend to some other
business in the evening. My family and I waited patiently. Finally Palitha was
brought to court only around 5pm, by which time the lawyer had left. The police
rushed my husband into court, covered by a cloth. They chased us away, and
prevented us from entering the court. Thereafter, Palitha was taken away by the
police. I was not aware of what happened in court. I only know that my husband
was further detained.
On February 10 Tissa Kumara was again
brought before a magistrate, and on February 12 he was taken to a JMO at the
General Hospital of Colombo. Several doctors examined and noted his injuries,
took X-rays and photographs. The JMO instructed that he be brought for further
examinations.
The police filed two fabricated cases
against Tissa Kumara, for possession of a grenade and for robbery. Although he
complained to the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRC) and National Police
Commission (NPC), he did not obtain any immediate relief; instead, he was
remanded at Kalutatra Remand Prison, where he received no treatment. Throughout
this time his wife visited him regularly, and describes his condition then as
follows:
He
was treated as some kind of a ‘special’ remand detainee, segregated from the
rest. During his period of remand, he had been taken to the Colombo National
Hospital for an X-ray and several medical tests. He had also been operated on
for a boil on his buttocks, at the prison hospital. This boil was a result of
his assault at the Welipenna police station. I continued to give him Panadol and
Siddhalepa [popular local ointment for aches and pains] for his ailments every
time I visited the remand prison. I also did this while he was at the police
station.
When I
visited him on about April 24 he complained of chest pain and of coughing up
blood. He also gave me a prescription for certain medicines. He had received the
prescription from the prison hospital. The prison hospital had also told Palitha
that he might be suffering from tuberculosis when he reported to them that he
had been coughing up blood.
I
purchased these medicines from a private clinic and sent them to my husband on
April 27. On April 29, I met Palitha after he had been taken to the Nagoda
hospital, where again he had been treated. He told me that two blood samples and
his phlegm had also been taken to be tested at the Nagoda hospital. I visited
him again on May 3 but his condition had not changed. I have not yet been able
to know the results of these tests.
My
husband also told me that he had been warded at the prison hospital ever since
he started coughing blood with his saliva and complained of chest pains. Since
then, he has been confined to a secluded room [formerly reserved for chickenpox
patients] and for all intents and purposes, kept in isolation. Even his food is
passed to him from under the door.
The test at Nagoda General Hospital
confirmed that Tissa Kumara has in fact contracted tuberculosis.
Immediately upon hearing of the
diagnosis, Basil Fernando, Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights
Commission, wrote two letters to Ranjith Abeysuriya PC, Chairman of the NPC,
urging him to take action without delay to secure the release of Tissa Kumara
from remand custody. The letters called on the Chairman to verify the facts
swiftly if needed, and see to the release of Tissa Kumara so he might get
immediate medical treatment in order to arrest the development of the disease.
The letters also pointed out that it was detention on fabricated charges that
had prevented the patient from getting the treatment he required, even when many
organisations and individuals were willing to offer assistance. Therefore, the
letters stated, the Chairman should secure from the Inspector General of Police
an explanation as to the incident itself. It was also necessary to explain how
the victim could be kept in custody for so long after this horrendous act of
torture had already been widely publicised, and the Chairman himself informed of
the case by the AHRC. In the first letter, of April 30, Basil Fernando wrote
that
The
AHRC wishes to record its utter dissatisfaction into the manner in which your
Commission has dealt with the numerous cases of torture that we have brought to
your notice. Had you taken a sufficiently serious approach to the issue of
torture incidents such as the one suffered by Koralaliyanage Palitha Tissa
Kumara could have been prevented. In this particular case we made our complaint
to your Commission on 13 February 2004. We further reported this case in a
special report entitled ‘Endemic torture and the collapse of policing in Sri
Lanka’ at page 57-60 in our publication article 2 which was published in
February and shared a copy with your Commission. Despite such complaints made by
us and others, this despicable police officer, one SI Silva who did this most
cruel act, is still on active duty as a police officer. Neither your Commission
nor anybody else seems to care or have the courage and leadership to rid the
police service of this sort of extreme cruelty and inhumanity. We are compelled
to state that your Commission has failed to meet the expectations of the human
rights community. Even at this late stage we urge you not to abdicate the
constitutional and the moral responsibilities that have been placed on your
Commission.
In the second letter, of May 3, he added
the concerns of the AHRC for the family of the victim:
The
cruelty perpetrated on K P Tissa Kumara has put his wife in a tremendously
vulnerable position. She has seen her husband, an artisan of repute, with no
criminal record of any sort, being brutally tortured, subjected to fabricated
charges and kept in a remand prison. Despite her knowledge that the police got a
TB patient to spit into her husband’s mouth she was not able to get medical care
for him as he was in remand custody. The burden of supporting the family is also
on her. Now she has learned that her husband has caught this deadly disease and
is in no position to be of any help to him. She has urged us to do all we can to
help her in this most difficult situation.
P Rajitha also comments on the intense
physical and psychological suffering the family has experienced as a result of
the torture inflicted on her husband:
I
have two little sons. At the time of the arrest, the eldest was five years and
the infant was nine months old. I am breastfeeding the little one. My husband
was a talented artisan. He worked for an employer in Aluthgama as well as in
several other places, including Galle and Matara. He usually worked away from
home every other week, while during the intervening weeks he spent time at
home. The income he earned from his
work was adequate to maintain our little family. I do not go to work and do not
have an income of my own. I looked after my two children at home. After my
husband’s arrest, I had to move in with my parents. My father sells betel leaves
for a living, and with this meagre income he now supports my children and
myself. Though I have three brothers and one sister, they are not in a position
to help me financially.
When
Palitha spoke with me on February 6, he showed our five-year-old son the
injuries he received from the police beatings. He told our son, “Look son, this
is what the police did to me.” After my eldest son saw his father’s injuries, he
cried incessantly and began to limp. Over the next few days, his limp worsened
and finally he was unable to walk. His crying too was uncontrollable. Thus I
took the child to a private doctor, who said that there was an illness going
around that affected children. Hence on February 8, I got scared and took my
child to Nagoda hospital. There the child was admitted and kept under
observation for two days. But when we told the hospital medical staff that the
child’s father had been arrested a few days earlier, they told me that the most
probable reason for the child’s symptoms was mental trauma. After two days they
discharged the child from hospital. Now he appears to be all right. He seems to
have got over the initial trauma and has come to terms with the absence of his
father. However, his school attendance is disrupted every time he has to
accompany me to visit his father.
My
problems do not end there. My infant son had developed a hernia prior to my
husband’s arrest. I had been asked to bring the child to hospital on February
16, most probably for a hernia operation. However, due to all these problems and
my present state of mind, I did not do so. Then in March the child’s condition
became worse and he started vomiting and crying. I then rushed him to hospital
in a three-wheeler. The child was admitted and surgery was performed to remove
the hernia on March 16. He was discharged from hospital after three days. The
infant now needs further surgery for another physiological problem. But I am
postponing attending to it and hope it can wait until all these problems are
over.
The preliminary hearing of the
fundamental rights petition in Tissa Kumara’s case was submitted to the Supreme
Court was heard on May 10. On May 24, the state counsel, appearing for the
Attorney General, said that he is satisfied that the allegation of torture is
true, and that the Special Investigation Unit is conducting an inquiry to
prosecute the perpetrator under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) Act, No. 22 of 1994. The case
was heard by Chief Justice Sarath N Silva and Justices J A N de Silva and Nihal
Jayasinghe, who gave leave to proceed. According to persons in the courtroom,
the judges looked visibly shocked to learn the details of the case.
The SIU is reported to have obtained
permission to record statements from all of the police officers attached to the
Welipenna police station. However, to date of writing the alleged perpetrator,
SI Silva, continues to work at the police station, despite the outrage of local
and international human rights organisations, and constant strong communications
to the concerned authorities.
At the time the third update to the
initial Urgent Appeal was issued by the AHRC on June 24, Tissa Kumara was still
in jail awaiting completion of formalities to be released on bail. When
contacted regarding the delays, an officer of the Matugama Magistrate’s Court
said that it could not carry out the bail order because the documents sent by
the Court of Appeal granting the release contained typographical errors. This
communication caused the AHRC to issue a press release on how unreasonable
delays in justice are caused in Sri Lanka by the fact that many courts and
government offices are without basic communication facilities, like fax
machines. Basil Fernando commented that:
Tissa
Kumara may still be remanded in prison for a few more days to wait for the
correction of the errors as the communication and transfer of the papers takes
some time. Had there been a fax machine in the magistrate’s court to receive the
relevant information quickly, he would have been released and obtained proper
medical treatment earlier.
Tissa Kumara has also been alternately
bribed and threatened to drop the formal complaints he has made against SI
Silva. On June 16, he had a visit from a ‘socially important person’ who carried
a message from the police that he would receive 500,000 rupees (around US00)
if he would withdraw the cases that have been filed based on his complaints.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident, he received a message through a third party
that his wife and child would be crushed to death by a vehicle if the complaints
were not withdrawn.
The Matugama Magistrate’s Court finally
released Tissa Kumara on bail on June 28, some five months after he was
originally taken into custody. The AHRC has undertaken to pay for the medical
expenses incurred for his treatment of tuberculosis. Meantime, Tissa Kumara has
not been required to report to the police station where he was tortured, as is
normally required in granting bail. He will be ordered to appear in the High
Court on the charges against him once notified. The petition in the Supreme
Court will proceed on September 6. In the meanwhile, steps are being taken by
local organisations to protect him and his family from physical danger.
Posted on 2004-07-05
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