Door To Door
A procession down my street last week
Woke up to like 5 cops in my living room, rifling through my shit. Literally, there’s a guy with a T-56 looking through my DVDs. Re-tie my sarong and sleepily locate my ID. No warrant, no nothing. This is emergency. Thank God we’re not Tamil. It’s a Tamil neighborhood, which is otherwise lovely. Last week we saw this whale [sic] procession down the street, women with harvesty things on their head. Now I presume they’re getting their underwear looked through at 5 am. Asking where they’re from, what their business is here. There’s a army female at least. Kinda cute. But I digress. The cops here can come into your home, they can lock you up for months, etc. Understandable with the LTTE, but my only problem is that I definitely don’t trust the cops. They are complicit in abductions, bribery, murder, etc. Don’t take my word for it, that’s the word of the IGP. The cops are undertrained, underpaid and overpowered. They’re not especially qualified or trustworthy to be looking through peoples homes at 5 in the morning, but that’s how it is. This is emergency.
Background
I don’t really like the cops. They’re corrupt, they’re a hassle, and they’re everywhere. More than anything they just waste your time. Go into a cop-shed for a police report and they’re sit there sleeping over their ledgers for hours. There are like 500 cops around and none of them does anything. The only person who has any authority is the Officer In Charge, so the system runs on connections and grease. This system runs slow, annoying at best, but leading to outright torture and murder in the worst case. Take the Balloon Man case, for example. Someone called in a bomb threat to a school, the police arrested the man on the received calls list and ended up beating him to death. He was the balloon supplier for a party.
I’m sure there are a great many good cops. It is, by nature, a noble profession. Unfortunately, Mahinda destroying the peace process has made Sri Lankans less secure and safe. This means we need more cops. Mahinda throttling the economy through money-printing, corruption (bloated cabinet, high positions and graft from his family) and war has meant that these cops get paid fuck all and trained not so much. Mahinda’s alliance with the LTTE splinter Karuna and his tolerance of kidnapping in Colombo has corrupted the police force even deeper. I read in the Mirror that Karuna members are going to start joining the Police Force soon. So now people there can report the people abducting their children to… the people abducting the children. Sweet. Meanwhile, abductions and disappearances continue apace in the NE, as recorded by the Government Agent. There are probably more unreported.
HRW also inspected a report from the Government Agent (GA) of Jaffna, which had statistics from April to December 2006. During that time, the GA registered 354 missing persons. HRW visited Jaffna in February and interviewed the families of 37 persons who had “disappeared†over the previous year. Of these, in 21 cases the evidence strongly suggested the involvement of government security forces. In two cases the families strongly believed that the perpetrators were members of the EPDP (based on their accents, appearance and cars leaving in the direction of EPDP camps).
HRW asked the Sri Lankan government about the army’s authority to arrest or detain civilians in Jaffna, as well as the number of persons the army is detaining in its camps. The government replied that the army can arrest individuals under regulation 18 of the Emergency Regulations, and it is required to hand over to the police all arrested persons within 24 hours (Daily Mirror)
In the NE abductors have to pass through government checkpoints, as do people in Colombo. While the army involvement remains unadmitted up there, the IGP of police in Colombo has admitted that the forces are involved with the terror in our neighborhoods.
Inspector General of Police Victor Perera announced that the police had arrested over 400 persons since September 2006 on charges of abduction, including “ex-soldiers, serving soldiers, police officers and underworld gangs and other organized elements.†(HRW
Note that things have gotten so bad that you can say soldiers, police officers and underworld gangs in the same breath. Organized elements. They’re all tainted with criminality.
My Home
Anyways, I woke up this morning at 5:30 like wtf. Sleepy, right? I got work in the morning and I’m trying to be functional. And it’s cops and Army filling my living room. Not even our cops, this is some special project force from Borella. Looking at my ID, opening my work bag, checking out my bathroom. They want ID from everybody. Doing their ‘job’ I guess, but this feels like tyranny to me. I do not want the state in my living room at 5 in the morning. Feel like I’m quartering troops here. I understand that the war is on, but I wish this government would take some steps to ensure integrity in our armed forces before they ask us citizens to make these sacrifices. I’m quite willing to make them. Is our leadership ready to sacrifice with me?
I know it’s tempting to use a paramilitary, but Mahinda needs to disavow the Karuna faction. It is corrupting our armed forces with their LTTE bullshit. These guys were LTTE last year. They’re still terrorists. He needs to crack down on Ministers and their sons who violate our laws and literally beat up policemen with impunity. He needs to do something about the abductions in our city.
More fundamentally, Mahinda needs to either honor the Cease-Fire Agreement or let it go. He says we honor it, but we’re obviously at war here. Under the CFA we didn’t have these widespread searches. We didn’t have the LTTE holding our airspace hostage. We had 4,500 more lives than we did last year. Life was better and it sucks now. Just for reference.
I’m glad we got Thopigalla though, that’s pretty sweet. I can’t wait till that LTTE faction joins the police force and starts searching Sri Lankan homes at 5 am. Any children in the house?
Hey, they are searching for BOMBS man, If a huge bomb explodes in Colombo,You’ll still blame the government for not providing enough security….be practical, they have to search house by house in this situation,no other option.
They weren’t looking for BOMBS, unless they were on the dining room table. They were just taking an inventory of people in the house, not making a thorough search. If I had a bomb it would be on the roof or behind something and they never looked that closely. If we were Tamil they would have probably searched more.
Sorry for the rather irrelevent post but need to know the following …
link
How much of this article (originally in the Leader) can be taken seriously? Is this really true? Does the general public believe this? Just asking to see how much of this is taken seriously in Sri Lanka nowadays…
O Joy, another the civil-liberties-vs-security shouting match ambles onto the runaway…
Another Monday in the third Verld
I spoke to the editor of another newspaper. He said there was some kind of deal in which the government tried to pass on funds to Emil Kanthan.
The questions unanswered were;
1. Was money actually transferred (attempt was made , was the deal concluded?)
2. If so, did it get to the LTTE or did it go to Mahinda’s pocket it?
The editor did say that Premadasa and maybe even Chandrika (I can’t remmeber if it wa sshe or Ranil that he mentioned, may have been both) were also supposed to have passed some funds to the Tigers.
“I know it’s tempting to use a paramilitary, but Mahinda needs to disavow the Karuna faction. It is corrupting our armed forces with their LTTE bullshit.”
Oh c’mon! What the hell has bloody Karuna got to do with the cops going through your DVD collection? Why don’t you just write an article on the paramilitary issue instead of shoehorning this in? Do you think our armed forces have really changed since the GoSL shacked up with the TMVP? The only buggers in contact with them are the SF and Int. If at all, the armed forces have got a lot more switched on and professional in the last years, but that hasn’t anything to do with karuna either.
And sacrifice? What sacrifice are you making, machang, beyond a few hours of sleep? The guys in the jungle are losing a lot more than fucking sleep.
Blacker, your tone doesn’t really help your argument. I agree with you on many points, but you come off just as raving as Sitting Nut and Jey.
Of course the Karuna police force item is relevant. This is about the home searches that Sri Lankans have to go through. The searches in the East (and North) are far more invasive and those are Sri Lankans like me. As a Sri Lankan issue, merging Karuna with the Police Force is very revelant and will further deepen distrust in the institution. I distrust the cops in Colombo. I’m sure Tamils in Colombo distrust them even more, especially since they are complicit in abductions. I can only imagine how people in the North and East feel.
And don’t forget for a moment that home searches are invasive. This is not normal and it is not good. It may be necessary, but do spare me the condescension. I am sacrificing. Read the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
We are sacrificing our freedom to this war, as much as you scoff at it.
Well, tough about the tone, but your post comes across as really self-centred and brattish. you justify it by trying to connect yourself to people in the NE ‘cos you lost a couple of hours sleep??? Dude, you are NOTHING like the people in the NE and they are nothing like yoou, beyond the fact that they are Sri Lankans — aand if you stay tuned, you’ll soon have some idiot like Jey coming on to tell us that they aren’t even Sri Lankans.
Forgive me if I don’t see the connection between Karuna cadres being recruited into the NE police and some polite kossas searching your house. If you think that’s raving, rave on. But you need to be able to take the criticism if you’re gonna post stuff like that.
And yes, police searches are a part of life if we wanna go to war. If you don’t want that, stop the war.
“This is not normal and it is not good.”
Neither is war. I think that was established somewhere in 1983.
“As a Sri Lankan issue, merging Karuna with the Police Force is very revelant and will further deepen distrust in the institution.”
Possibly, and I’m surprised you’ve not put the time, effort (and research) into blogging about it instead of whining about losing a couple of hours sleep. If I sound condescending, I won’t aapologise for it, but I’ve got friends who’d give a couple of legs to just lose a couple of hours sleep. But wait. They don’t have those legs anymore.
If you had written about the NE and the Karuna issue and the great problems facing the population there, this might have been an interesting discussion, but instead you boiled it all down to your personal inconvenience, which is frankly insignificant. I hope you understand that instead of just brushing it off as a rant which would be the easy thing to do.
“We are sacrificing our freedom to this war”
WE? :) You’ve sacrificed a couple of hours sleep for this war. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
While you’re quoting of the constitution is technically correct (even though you’ve ignored the fact that certain parts have been rightly or wrongly — but legally — been suspended by the state of emergency), you’ve not mentioned the ranks of the cops or whether you asked them for a warrant (or whatever it is they must have in writing). If you want to take a stand on your personal freedoms, why not challenge them (sort of the way you did with the Rowing Club)?
I agree with everything you have said here. Except this business of Mahinda destroying the peace process. Enough already. I voted for Ranil too, but he lost. Get over it.
David Blacker, well said, THERE ARE PEOPLE IN OUR COUNTRY WHO CAN”T EVEN SACRIFICE 2 HOURS OF SLEEP FOR THE NATIONAL SECURITY, WHAT A COUNTRY
It may be a pain in the arse Indi but it’s something we have to live with. Best thing is to be as courteous, help them get through with it as soon as possible and answer their questions to the best of your ’5 am’ abilities – I think you’ll find the experience a bit less annoying. It is a thankless task after all.
Having spoken to some on one such raid at my place it was clear that they didn’t actually like to disturb people and are aware that such raids piss people off no end. They also know that it isn’t the most effective method – however for lack of a better option (on the existing budget) they’re just going with what they have (this may be a bunch of malarky but I doubt that they enjoy randomly entering peoples houses at obscene hours of the day). They also claim to have some successes (again this is anecdotal so may not conform to S’nut’s rigid requirement of evidentiary infallibility) that have contributed in some part to better intel and this in my opinion makes up for the other ‘misses’.
Oh and there’s no need to shout Poojitha :)
Why make a big fuss man? These are activities essential for national security. Any fool who read history knows that even Hitler sent his troops at night to search for the bombs Jews kept at their homes. Did the Jews ever complain? If Hitler can do it Jews why cannot Percy uncle do it to Tamils?
Well said Poojitha malli!!! We need more and more patriots like you in our country. Had there been more patriotic people like you we would have by this time sent all Tamils to gas chambers.
Don’t be silly, Aravinda. The next time a bomb blows a bit of your arse off, be happy we’re not like the Brits in Northern Ireland. At least we don’t use gung ho frontline units for house searches in urban areas. If you had a door-to-door by the Paras or even a unit like the Sinhas, you’d be lucky to have any furniture in one piece. I’ve seen search ops done by combat units in the NE and they just tear through everything — mattresses, coffee jars, everything. This is fucking nothing. Oh and all the moaning and whining everytime we have VCPs — during the Irish troubles, suburbanites going into work in Belfast would have to leave at 5am for a half-hour drive cos the RUC and the Brits would search EVERY SINGLE vehicle with a fine-tooth comb. Our servicemen our boyscouts when it comes to being nice to people in Colombo.
And to compare the GoSL to the Nazis is an insult to the Jews and what they underwent. Don’t be a cunt.
Well said David Blacker. Kill all Tamils. Don’t leave any of them. Send this to gas chambers. Send white vans for them. This is the only way to end the war and pathetically only way Percy uncle knows.
Wow, Aravinda, I thought Snut, Jey and that other idiot in Australia who haas multiple personalities were the only nutjobs on this site. but join the club, you’ll fit in well. Did I (or anyone here) say anything about killing Tamils? It’s you who seem intent on a bit of hysteria in the morning. I’m sure you must be winning many arguments with your articulate grace. Chill, man, take a pill. The doc will be back soon.
I’m not as sanguine as Poojitha is about these home invasions. But reasonable arguments can be made in their favour, and the people who make them are not necessarily genocidal maniacs. How readily we reach for the handy hyberbole and spurious slippery sloppery.
It’s not a pleasant experience, but its hardly something implemented by the evil rajapakse regime…it used to happen all throughout the nineties (and trust me its much more scary when you’re a kid)…its sort of like the people who complain that Sri Lanka is such a highly militarized country…well we are in the middle of a war.
Also Rajapakse destroyed the peace process? I must have been in the wrong country at the time, I could have sworn it was the LTTE carrying out hit and run attacks on the Navy, etc while the Government didn’t retaliate, until of course they tried to assassinate Sarath Fonseka.
To all who shrug this off, it was a warrantless search. In a democracy with a Constitution that is a big deal. The problem with Sri Lanka is that we’ve gotten so used to not having civil liberties that we don’t even complain any more.
I never really complained about ‘losing sleep’. I lost as much sleep to the Hindu procession the week before. I will complain about warrantless searches because that is a pretty basic civil liberty. Giving that up is a pretty big sacrifice, and I think it’s something that we’ve gotten far to used to.
Indi, there are far worse things that are legal due to the emergency regulations than warrantless searches, so if your prob is with the said emergency regs or the Karuna buggers joining the police, then please blog about it, and we can discuss it. But if you’re gonna blog about cops browsing through your DVD collection, and then try to make a whole civil rights case out of that, you’re gonna get the responses such a post… er… warrants. seriously, it’s your whiny tone that set the stage, and in fact makes the true inconveniences, harraassments, and actual life-threatening dangers thaat many of the Tamil population face seem as petty as your complaints. Also, when you try to make out thaat you’re making some great sacrifice due to a small inconvenience, you also trivialise the true sacrifices being made by servicemen and their families (who btw neither chose this war nor wrote GoSL policy or voted for the state of emergency anymore than you did). So I hope you see that my comments are not a defense of the emergency regs or the GoSL, but a protest against your self-centred attitude. Get over it, there are far bigger and more worthy issues we could be discussing.
It was warrantless, but then isn’t that permissible under the Emergency Regulations? Yes the Emergency Regulations suck but again…it’s a war. At the end of the day don’t expect people to take you seriously if you spout statements like “Mahinda destroying the peace process” and “Mahinda needs to either honor the Cease-Fire Agreement or let it go”…the last statement is pretty dumb…have you forgotten how this round of the Eelam War (as most rounds before) started?
The LTTE is not the moral standard for Sri Lanka. Our word (ie, the CFA) should mean something.
This war started after Mahinda got elected. Whatever provocation from the LTTE, he is pursuing a military solution and negotiations after. Read any interview or anything in the daily papers. Mahinda is for war, and this war is bad.
Rubbish, Indi. You’re letting your personal dislike of Mahinda and your (past) affiliation with the UNP ruin your objectivity. As Rajiv said a few weeks ago, the war train hit the tracks long before Mahinda came to power — and his administration showed amazing restraint in the face of LTTE provocation. I found myself chafing at the bit at the time and wondering how long the Army would take that shit. Remember that the decision to cut karuna out of the pack was done on Ranil’s watch (and probably with his consent)
Yes, our promise should mean something, but it takes two hands to sign a CFA. The LTTE went balls-to-the-wall to provoke this war as soon as Mahinda’s arse was on the throne, and he’s given it to ‘em with interest.
And yes, he’s now pursuing a military solution, but you can’t go to war and then be half-arsed about it. What he should be doing is not slacking on the war but also pursuing a simultaneous peace process.
Saying Mahinda is for war is an over simplification, and this war has always been bad, even when the UNP was in power (it was probably worse in fact ‘cos we were losing). It didn’t suddenly become bad once Mahinda came to power.
Uncle Percy started the war? I did not know. I thought uncle Percy is so incompetent he could not even clap his hands let alone starting a war.
That’s rich coming from someone who can’t get past Google.
We went to the Commando training school in Kuda oya for an outbound training, and we were told that in the first two days of training, the prospective Commandos would only get 2 hours of sleep. For the next forty days they would train without sleep.
But as Indi said, sleep is not the main issue here. It’s the way that the search is carried out. If civil rights are broken, citizens should at least be aware of the fact that their rights are violated. Preferably if the law is bended in the name of security, then it should be recorded somewhere and someone should be held accountable.
I do understand the state of national security, but I also fear the dark side of our history. And recent incidents have not been comforting either.
Thats true, if government started applying for search warrants for all the houses they search, they may need another new department for that…….be practical……emergency law is made for countries in war..we have a war……..we need it….please don’t start on peace process ,it was clearly broken by LTTE…..during the UNP times…..( killing our secret service personals, weapons shipments)……….ok who ever broke the peace process we are at war……we need emergency law now…….accept it……stop using it for political gains
May I know the names of the security personal killed during UNP times?
Try Google.
Tried. Its not there. Can you please provide?
The most perfunctory of google searches will turn up hundreds of pages on the subject, so I guess you aren’t interested in really looking. This is what I got after five minutes — a speech on the peace process by Professor Asoka Bandarage in May 2004, just after the defeat of the UNP govt. He gives the number of operatives killed during the UNP’s tenure, post-CFA signing. I’m sure if you really want to you can find the names, though why you want ‘em escapes me:
“The LTTE is said to have killed 44 intelligence operatives of the Sri Lankan government during this period.” (http://www.sacw.net/peace/bandarage13062004.html)
This Bandarage guy (whoever he is) says “The LTTE is said to have killed 44 intelligence operatives of the Sri Lankan government during this period.”
No source. What is his source? From where he got these figures? LTTE e-mailed him?
Can you please provide me a *reliable source* how many security personnel killed during the UNP regime?
If you cannot admit you don’t know. Don’t spread falsehoods.
Aravinda you might have mistaken this site for a search engine. It isn’t. You asked for a link because you claimed to be too inept to find one yourself. One was provided for you. If you feel you know more than Prof Bandarage (and who are you anyway?) I suggest you find him and ask him for his sources.
I did not claim those numbers. You asked for a source. If you have an agenda to push regarding the LTTE killings, come out and say it without attempting deception. It makes you look either inarticulate or an arsehole. Which one are you?
In fact, you didn’t even ask for a source (reliable or otherwise) . What you did say is “May I know the names of the security personal killed during UNP times?” Would you have been satisfied with a list of names? So you’re a liar as well.
Asoka Bandarage is a woman and quite pretty at that.
Pretty fancy credentials too.
University of Sri Lanka, Bryn Mawr (B.A.) and Yale University (Ph.D.).
mtholyoke.edu
She was the first to state in 1990 that
In the name of protecting the Tamils, the LTTE has killed more Tamils than Sinhalese.
In the name of protecting the Sinhalese the SL govts have killed more Sinhalese than Tamils
[...] Indi.ca on cops visiting at early morning hours and privacy. Share This [...]
[...] Indi.ca on cops visiting at early morning hours and privacy. Share This [...]
erm… “r” to me seems the only one sort of focussed here imo…..
now, what do the emrgency laws say? can they legally enter your proprty without warrant? if so it’s horrendous. they should never have passed them in the first place, if not it’s just a gross violation of human rights against which ur lawyers can/should take action (to whatever avail considering where we are….).
did u record, get a piece of paper from the cops who searched the house? (i.e. name and number of the individuals)? u should have. was ur lawyer present during the search?u should have. pls give more details indi. btw cmb is not a war zone, maybe different “laws” (should) apply?
Erm… GB, you ARE still in Galle, right, not on Mars? The Emergency Regs have been in place on and off for about 25+ years, and during all that time it allowed search & sieze operations by cops and the military without warrants. Lawyer, huh? I challenge you to find ONE lawyer willing to get out of bed at 5am to come over to your house to protect your rights (by which time the cops would’ve left anyway). Since the State of Emergency comes up for a vote each year in parliament, why not join the protests (or didn’t you guys notice that the decision is usually protested each year?). “Cos complaining about a clause of the regs is unlikely to get you anyway.
Bit of a digression here onto a little anecdote on lawyers. About 10 years ago I was locked up for a day in the Cinnammon Gardens police station and was sharing a cell with a guy who’d been arrested for stealing jewellery from a series of fiances. So each of these women would turn up to ID him, and his lawyer was supposed to be present each time. Bugger never showed, and there were about three women during the course of that day. After each positive ID (they were all positive, and obviously they’d got the right man) the cops would take him upstairs, hang him from the ceiling and beat the living crap out of him with rubber hoses and those leather pig dicks for about an hour until he confessed. I was in the cell below and could hear him screaming and sobbing. He said it had been going on all weekend and the lawyer would never turn up. So dream on about haaving a laawyer on hand to get you out of a jam.
the fact that these emergency laws have been in place for such a length of time does not make them just, do they? so what? slavery, colonialism was in place for centuries, does that make it just?
without giving names, MY lawyer would. i dont know about yours, if not i would suggest you change him/her for not providing the correct service. why else would you pay a lawyer if not to get you out of a jam? that is their function, you savvy?
i still would have the identities of who searched MY house even if they had left by then, and some paper of some sort signed by the cops to give to my lawyer for perusal/inspection. if done illegally (even with respect to the emergency laws), i’d sue. even to maybe no result/useless etc…thats me.
thay have to do things PROPERLY, until that time you cant call FREEDOM what you have. sorry. it’s like the tamil evictions, isnt it? doesn’t anybody realise (like in the US and europe nowadays) that the fundamental rights are being eroded in the name of combating terrorists (btw thus allowing a victory to the terrorists)?just coz they wear a uniform they shouldnt be allowed to do ANYTHING they want. next step will be what we’ve seen over and over again all over the world…..
Yes, if there are ppl who protest against them, they are right.
p.s. we don’t have these searches in galle, we only have lagers in boossa…..
I didn’t say the emergency regs were just; most war measures are in fact intrinsically unjust to many people, and we should endeavour to make them as short-lived as possible (if at all). But the fact is that they are in place and therefore must be obeyed. It is the law. If you wish to sue a policeman everytime he searches your house or for that matter everytime you get a parking ticket because the ‘no parking’ sign was missing (which is unjust), you may do so, but I doubt you’ll get anywhere. So I guess your action will be merely symbolic, and I feel therre aare more worthy causes to be symbolic about than house-to-house searches. And this isn’t about what you would do in the circumstance or even about what Indi should’ve done, this is about taking a relatively insignificant incident and trying to shoehorn it into a major civil rights issue, when over in the NE people are starving, homeless, terrorised on a daily basis (and no, I’m not just pointing the finger at the Tigers here). Frankly I couldn’t care less about a few unfair house searches because it paales to a mere annoyance in comparison. What’s next, blog about your civil rights ‘cos you have to sit in traffic while the Rajapakses go past? Yes, it’s unfair, yes, it’s unjust, yes, it’s fucking annoying. Get over it; people are dying out there.
I’ve found that most people who have a lawyer probably need one. I don’t have a lawyer and so I don’t pay him anything. Probably you pay your lawyer well enough to get his butt out of bed, but I doubt the common man could afford that. Yes, it is the lawyer’s function to protect the accused, but when did things in SL function as they should. You savvy?
“thay have to do things PROPERLY, until that time you cant call FREEDOM what you have. sorry”
I didn’t say freedom is what we have. Freedom is what we’re fighting for. And yes, I too want everything too function properly — the traffic lights, the public service, the schools and unis, the GoSL — everything. But this blog isn’t about whether the cops are functioning properly, but whether the policy of the emergency regs is an unfair suspension of our civil rights.
And no, this isn’t like the Tamil evictions. That was wrong, the GoSL apologised, the SC stopped it, and everyone tried to move on. And where do you get the ridiculous notion that people in uniform can do ANYTHING they like? I bloody wish I could’ve back when I was in uniform. Yes, there is an erosion of rights in war (not just in combating terrorists), that’s part of the problem in war, apart from the fact thaat lots of people die or get fucked up. Yes, and please tell us what it is we’ve seen over and over all over the world.
Whether the people who protest the emergency regs are right is debatable but they are exercising their rights, aand that’s what we’re fighting for. You can’t have ANY rights under the LTTE.
Well, Boossa isn’t in Galle, so find another problem — garbage perhaps, depriving you of your fundamental right to sweet smelling air?
i had said: “if done illegally (even with respect to the emergency laws), i’d sue.”
“if”, ok? read carefully. luckily i have NEVER needed a lawyer for ANY legal jams, thank you.
you say”And this isn’t about what you would do in the circumstance or even about what Indi should’ve done, this is about taking a relatively insignificant incident and trying to shoehorn it into a major civil rights issue, when over in the NE people are starving, homeless, terrorised on a daily basis (and no, I’m not just pointing the finger at the Tigers here”
i personally think freedom is to be defended in “small” things too.
“Yes, it is the lawyer’s function to protect the accused, but when did things in SL function as they should. You savvy?”
yes i savvy also that if ppl don’t stand for their rights, they will NEVER get them (even for small things)
“But this blog isn’t about whether the cops are functioning properly, but whether the policy of the emergency regs is an unfair suspension of our civil rights.”
searching private properties without warrants is a suspension of civil rights imo and it’s up to indica to decide what his blog is about.
“And where do you get the ridiculous notion that people in uniform can do ANYTHING they like?”
oh well, this little bird came to my garden and told me about some stories….
p.s the missing sign doesn’t get u out of a fine (at least where i come from it doesn’t)….it is legally irrelvant if it’s there or not, even if it sounds strange and yes, sweet smelling air is a right too.
i think you are too used NOT having your rights for so long,that MAYBE you’ve forgotten what they are……
““ifâ€, ok? read carefully.”
Since there is no ‘if’ here (the emergency regs were passed by parliament and are therefore legal), what exactly is your point?
“i personally think freedom is to be defended in “small†things too.”
Absolutely. But defence must be effective. So an effective defence of your “small things” would be to fight or protest the emergency regs. Grumbling about them once they are law is both ineffective and immature.
“yes i savvy also that if ppl don’t stand for their rights, they will NEVER get them (even for small things)”
Again, yes, but my response was to your suggestion that a lawyer be called in, not on whether rights should be defended.
“searching private properties without warrants is a suspension of civil rights imo and it’s up to indica to decide what his blog is about.”
It is the emergency regs that are a suspension of CERTAIN civil rights. Searching private properties without a warrant is perfectly legal. Therefore it is the emergency regs that should be the issue. As for what the blog post is about, we’re all free to use are own interpretation (as we’ve both done), interact with each other’s opinion and so on, and if there is a misunderstanding of the originaal post, Indi can just say so.
“oh well, this little bird came to my garden and told me about some stories….”
I guess birdwaatching’s a much misunderstood hobby.
“p.s the missing sign doesn’t get u out of a fine (at least where i come from it doesn’t)….it is legally irrelvant if it’s there or not,”
Exactly my point, GB. The law often seems unfair, but it is the law. If you want to change the law there are avenues for that. Moaning on about it isn’t one of them, even though it sometimes feels good.
“i think you are too used NOT having your rights for so long,that MAYBE you’ve forgotten what they are……”
Not at all. I’m old enough to remember life before the war, I’ve experienced the war to sufficient a degree to understand just what we’re fighting for as well as what we’re up against. I fully subscribe to the notion that he who will sacrifice freedom for security deserves neither; but I’m a practical man, and I understand that you can’t have both all the time. So I think it’s sensible to decide WHICH freedoms we’re willing to put on hold to avoid losing them all.
The problem with the emergency regs in Sri Lanka is a)they allow for much greater derogations of fundamental rights than emergency laws the world over b) completely undermines the role of the Courts and gives all sorts of unchecked powers to the military/executive and c) can be extremely dangerous in the hands of an incompetent/malevolent/racist police or security forces . The disappearances of tens of thousands of Tamils and Sinhalese, on a scale matched only in Latin America’s dark years attests to this fact. David, at this point in time, are you, or you not for an amendment or repeal of the ER’s? That is the fundamental question. If you are against the current ER’s, why not say so? If you support all of the derogations, again, why not say so?
Certainly, emergency/war laws allow for much violation of civil and human rights, and that’s not just here in SL. It IS possible to fight wars with minimal amendments to the existing laws (as the Brits did in Northern Ireland), but it makes it harder and gives the enemy an advantage. This advantage can be balanced somewhat by technology and a streamlining of certains aspects of policing. I don’t see that happening much in the 3rd World though. it’s a parallel with landmines. War caan be fought without them, but it’s harder and more expensive.
Aadhavan, when you mention the disaappeaarances of tens of thousands, do you mean in the past year or two? ‘Cos if so, I’d say that the period of ’87-’90 was far worse.
I am in general for the amendment or even repeal of the ER’s. I cannot say that I’m totally against all the clauses, nor can I say that it’s all necessary or good. Why didn’t I say so? It never came up. My comments were directed to Indi and GB and their seeming preoccupation with insignificant inconveniences thaat fly in the face of the massive hardships faced by people in the NE (civil & military).
Well, the Indonesian experience might be worth having a look at. Stronger policing and an effective use of the Court system. Emergency laws that are used to suppress target populations often have negative security consequences. People humiliated and oppressed by the state often become the most committed of opponents of the state, willing to take up arms to fight the state.
I was referring to tens of thousands of Sinhalese and Tamils disappeared under ER’s, both in the NE and the South. The violations under the JVP time were under almost identically worded emergency regulations.
I don’t think you can cherry pick clauses that are good and those that are bad. They work together and the overall effect is a complete breakdown of civil liberties in areas where the police and security forces wish there to be a complete breakdown of civil liberties. The sheer numbers of those disappeared are a damning indictment.
I think you certainly can select what the ERs entail, don’t you? If you want to give it aa hint of randomness by using phrases like “cherry picking”, you are being misleading. The ERs didn’t appear written on stone like the Ten Commandments. If these don’t work, try different ones, or fewer ones, or none — whatever works.
The security forces aren’t interested in a breakdown of civil liberties. They are merely interested in winning the war. It’s upto the GoSL to decide how and where military law meets civil law The ERs are part of that bridge. Remembr that the ERs are not martial law, but civil legislation by the state.
What do you mean by ‘military law’? Where do you find it?
In the military, where else?
I didn’t know there was a law book called ‘the military’. You mind lending me a copy?
Therre isn’t a law book called ‘the military’. Where did you get that idea. There is however something called ‘Militart Law’ (different to martial law). Try any of the defence academies or speak to a military lawyer.
Do you have a point, Aadhavan, or is it just a slow day at the office?
… as far as I know, military law regulates the procedures for military discipline etc… I’m completely foxed as to how military law could ever be inconsistent with civil liberties in a manner that would require Emergency Regulations to bridge the gap. I have copies of the Army Act etc and none of them have anything to do with the abridging of civil liberties. So just wondering what this ‘military law’ you’re talking is all about and how I happen to know nothing about these mysterious set of laws!!
Ok, glad to hear that you’ve actually heard about military regulations and law, and weren’t simply having a brain fart.
In the military, many of the regulations civilians would consider their civil rights or personal freedoms are restricted. For instance, soldiers cannot have their hair long, their shoes dirty, etc. Behaviour is also regimented, as is speech and many such things. There is rationing. There is no such thing as privacy and search of a soldier’s property can be done at anytime. Military regulations and laws also dictate how the military behaves at times of war. For instance, in Europe, you will see funny yellow signs on the roads with speed limits and flow instructions totally different to the road rules. These are for military convoys on combat ops. For exaample, if a NATO convoy was moving down the autobahn during wartime, they could use both sides of the autobahn, leaving only a single lane for oncoming traffic (out of a total of four). There are many such other laws thaat often clash with civil laws.
So when the military is on combat ops alongside the civil populace, certain measures are needed to bridge this gap. Are you with me so far? That was probably the basis for emergency/war regulations.
Now as an example relevant to our situ you can take curfews. A curfew is an imposition on our civil liberty; but for the military a curfew is a security measure and helps differentiate the baddies from the goodies. So how does one apply a curfew to the civil populace? You can’t leave it only to the military to decide what the law will be in regard to the civilians. So the parliament has to enact new laws (emergency ones) to coerce the population.
Since you obviously know enough about law to have heard of and understood the reasoning behind this system, Aadhavan, I do wish you would just come out and air your objections (if you have any) rather than feigning ignorance and asking loaded questions in an attempt to somehow trap me into saaying something you can object to. I didn’t think up these laws after all — lawyers and politicians did.
no need to get all worked up Blacker. Your explanation is very good- of how er’s are a balance of military expediency and civil liberties.But that was not your claim. er’s are not a balance between military law and civilian law because military law as contained in the military statutes don’t really say anything about arrests without warrants, burden of proof in relation to confessions etc… If you meant ‘military expediency, all’s cool. It’s not a point worthy of fussing over so if you still think the Army Act v FR’s are balanced off by er’s, that’s also cool.
I am against the er’s. I said so in my first comment. I think they need to be changed, so do you. Everything’s cool.. relax man.
Not worked up, just a bit tired of fencing with people who have no real argument but just find words to fight over.
See, the military doesn’t usually have to deal with warrants and burden of proof, normally. The police does. But when the situation is deemed a military situ the military has to cope with civilians, and it can’t strictly be done under military law.
Security is transparent..When its there you won’t know it.. You won’t see it(sometimes).. As soon as there is a little leak in security.. the terrorists kicks in and make it headlines..Up to that point we have had good security.. But for that little while where some tired cop goes to get a drink a big thing can happen.. Soon as something happen we blame it on..But we didn’t thought that we were protected so far! There aint a 100% secure place or a thing in this world!.. all u can do is minimize the risk! In order to do that spot checks and door to door checks can be understandable.
“This war started after Mahinda got elected. Whatever provocation from the LTTE, he is pursuing a military solution and negotiations after. Read any interview or anything in the daily papers. Mahinda is for war, and this war is bad.”
Spare us the juvenile sanctimony, Indi. It is the provocations (to put it ridiculously mildly) by the LTTE that destroyed the peace process, not Mahinda. What would you have had him do? Sit around complaining to the Norwegians while the tigers decapitated and gutted the armed forces? Of course war is bad, for god’s sake, but if that’s your alternative then excuse me for going with Mahinda on this one.
Now we can argue about the excesses, the corruption and the oppression inherent in his prosecution of the war, and I might even agree with you. But not when your Mahinda-bashing gets gratuitous, hysterical and worryingly pathological.
Mahinda went on a war platform and was elected by hook or by crook (take your Pick) Can he destroy the LTTE? Either way he has mortgaged the future of this country for the next few years. SL is still a nice place to live if you have the money (if you are single around $1000 a month, married with kids over $2000+ per month). Even then for many migration may be an option.
Currently, the political leadership situation looks pretty bleak with jokers and rogues at all levels – the Prez, the Parliament, the Provincial Councils, the Pradeshiya Sabhas. Democracy does not seem to work for Sri Lanka.
Ranil is a really weak leader. IMHO he is cursed, he cannot win an election and cannot choose people properly (Duminda Silva the thug has been made Organizer for Colombo North)
Prabha is 52+, I hope both he and Mahinda die soon, so that SL can move on.
yes indeed. I was hoping that given Prabha’s type A personlaity and a good Jaffna diet he was due for his first heart attack in the mid 1990′s. I’ve been waiting since 1995 but no luck yet, and the trouble is once you make it to 50 , the first heart attack is never really fatal.
Oh gods. Aadhavan has appeared. This thread is fucked now.
Objection:
A thread cannot be properly fucked unless sittingnut appears.
I too am very worried about the armed forces entering homes and searching without warrants. My aunt’s house has been searched four times already, in the middle of the night. It may be in the interests of national security, but it’s very frightening nonetheless.
I used to think that we were innocent until proven guilty. Now under wartime, we are potentially guilty until a (warrantless) search deems us innocent.
The sad thing is I’m increasingly getting an idea of what it must be like to be a Tamil Sri Lankan. I now live in (a mild) fear of checkpoints, of searches of my home, of the sight of machine-gun-toting soldiers wherever I go. I’m Sinhalese, and these things scare me. Now when I extrapolate my fear to a Tamil person who has been experiencing these hassles for 20-odd years, I begin to see why they are fighting for another country. Sure, I disagree with their methods of terrorism, but living as a minority under a majority that is suspicious of you can’t be all that great.
When I studied in the US, I was the victim of (verbal) racism and I must say that it makes you feel very small and scared, and angry too. For a moment you want to kill all the white racist bastards in the world because they made you feel so weak and helpless, so vulnerable. I guess the Tamils feel a similar thing sometimes, although I can’t speak for them.
FYI, Galleblogger, as I understand, your lawyer can’t help you in this situation, because warrantless searches are legal under the PTA and the Emergency Regulations. It’s actually pretty scary what they can do under the PTA:
They can detain you without charge for up to 18 months if they want to. They can enter and search any premises or vehicle without a warrant. They can keep you in remand until your appeal, with no option for bail. And the police officers/soldiers who carry out any investigations under the PTA are immune from prosecution. (I guess they could beat you and then claim immunity under the PTA?)
Your lawyer can come and watch, but won’t be able to do anything…
You can read more at:
http://www.tamilnation.org/srilankalaws/79pta.htm
http://www.sangam.org/FB_SL_LAWS/PTA.htm
(I couldn’t find a Govt site with the full text of the PTA – does anyone know of one? Can I suggest that someone starts some Wiki pages about the PTA and the Emergency Regulations?)
I fully agree with Sulo on this. Empathy seems to be in such short supply in Sri Lanka.
I think that as a state and a society, we are far too tolerant (and sometimes even enthusiastic) about collective punishment. The same people who get livid when foreign embassies ask for fingerprints are perfectly content for a section of our own citizenry to be subject to far worse humiliation on a daily basis.
Yes, I understand that it’s a difficult situation and that unsavoury compromises have to be made for the sake of security. But there is a real danger in forgetting larger objectives and principles, and going too far. The PTA is obviously pretty broad, and allows for all manner of abuses. We must be vigilant about how it is used. Quite apart from the threat to our DVD collections, it provides some of the moral oxygen that the LTTE so badly needs.
I just saw your article at http://www.independentsl.com under Bloody Colombo or something. Congrats
The other day I was chatting to a friend who told me that he was arrested during a 5am house search because his mother was a Tamil. In fact when he was shoved onto the bus at the top of the road, there were around 20 Tamils and the cops as an explanation said “Amma Demala” when he got into the bus. At the police station (Kollupitiya) the OIC after abusing him, let him go without any explanation. He did not want to take any action as his mother lives alone and he was frightened of retaliation.
I have another friend who is Sinhalese who tells me that as long as Mahinda is winning the war in the North and East, he doesnt care what they are doing there, he doesnt care about the price of bread, or milk packets or petrol or anything as long as the war defeats the terrorits.
During a 5am search of my house, my husband who is Sinhalese tells the cops that No! they can’t wake up my parents because they are sick (They are not Sinhalese), No! They cant take our staff to the police station for questioning and the cops politely listen and take down the ID numbers and go away. On listening to this exchange, I told my recently married husband that all these years I would have been too petrified to talk like that to cops and that he was able to do so only because he was Sinhalese.
On another conversation my mother in law tells me that “These Tamils hate us!” Yeah! I think damn right they do, if they are treated as second class citizens, discriminated against, arrested and their human rights violated because they are Tamil, then I think it is legitimate. Her response is that “We have been so good to them!” And then I think, this country has no hope. We are full citizens of this country, all minorities, we shouldnt have to have the majority be good to us, for us to live in this country. We belong here. Get that into your head and you will not have an ethnic problem.
Terrorism or no terrorism, the basic elements of any true democracy is the prevalence of the rule of law at all times. Once you remove that then the state and all its machinery itself are guilty of terrorism.
Terrorism is not just a bunch of crackpots blowing themselve sup on a crowded street like what happened in Karachi yesterday when Benazir Bhutto came home. It’s a disease that thrives in the hearts and minds of renegades and governments.